Citizenship 2024

First-Year Seminar    Spring 2024
History 190-4   (Class Number 3684) Satisfies Freshman Seminar and Race & Ethnicity Requirements
Professor Allen Tullos   
Seminar meeting: Mon/Wed 4:00-5:15  in Candler Library 123
Office hours: Thursdays 2:30-3:30 p.m. in 327 Bowden Hall and by appointment. allen [dot] tullos [at] emory [dot] edu

This seminar examines citizenship’s changing meanings in US history from a social justice perspective.  How have constitutional ideals, political advocacies, and social promises contrasted with realities?  How have oppressed, marginalized, and disfranchised social groups organized and mobilized for more expansive and inclusive citizenship?  What are the implications of concentrated political power and extreme economic inequality for the possibilities and prospects of social justice?  For voters’ choices and rights? Topics will also include immigration, nationalism,  environmentalism, and international human rights. This discussion-based seminar draws upon a variety of source materials including primary documents, critical essays, social science studies, media documentaries, and artistic expressions.  An ongoing feature of the seminar is discussion about recent political news and developments in the context of citizenship— especially important in election year 2024.

The use of phones, laptops, or other electronic devices is distracting and not permitted in class. 


Wednesday, January 17:  Introductions and Orientation

The online syllabus for the Citizenship seminar   https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/citizenship/

Today’s sources:
“Foreword” and “Conclusion” to Heather Cox Richardson’s book Democracy Awakening (2023) You can find it as a pdf on the Course Reserves page for our seminar.
(Go to https://libraries.emory.edu/using-library/borrowing-materials/course-reserves      and use “Access Online Reserves” to search for HIST 190-4, Tullos, etc.)

Jimmy Carter, “The US an Oligarchy” Rolling Stone (2015)
“Wealth inequality in the United States” Wikipedia
“Unions help reduce disparities and strengthen our democracy,”  Economic Policy Institute (2021)
“Census release shows America is more diverse and more multiracial than ever” CNN (2021)
Interactive map of 2020 US diversity. CNN (2021)
Charles M. Blow, “It Was a Terrifying Census for White Nationalists” NY Times (2021).  

For complimentary access to NYTimes.com provided by Emory, visit:  New York Times access (although it’s free, it requires login with Emory ID and Password).  Other useful, free, sites for this seminar :  Pew Research Center, Borowitz Report, GovTrackPoliticoTalkingPoints Memo538,  Roll CallBallotpedia,  Pro Publica, Academic Search Complete

Citizenship in the News.  A regular feature of the seminar.  In-class discussion of recent news reporting and commentary about citizenship and this year’s elections. Two useful sites about student voter registration and electoral participation: Emory Votes Initiative, and  Vote.org
“So God Made Trump” 2024 campaign video ad.
“So God Made a Dictator” 2024 parody ad produced by the Lincoln Project.
“So God Made a Farmer” radio personality Paul Harvey’s Dodge Ram truck ad based on his original 1978 speech to the Future Farmers of America convention speech.


Monday, January 22:    Conceiving Citizenship 
Continuing discussion from January 17 seminar on major themes of the course.
Today: The emergence of Western concepts of citizenship.

Read: Paul Cartledge, “Ancient Greek Democracy” BBC (2011)
Browse: “History of Citizenship” and “Magna Carta” articles in Wikipedia.
Subjects and Citizens:   Monty Python, “The Annoying Peasant” (1974) (4 min)

Direct democracy: the New England town meeting
A town meeting in Vermont (2009)

Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”  (1935). 
Richard Blanco, “Como Tú / Like You / Like Me” (2019)

Citizenship in the News:

Robert Gebeloff, Denise Lu, and Miriam Jordan, “Inside the Diverse and Growing Asian Population in the U.S.” NY Times (2021)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/21/us/asians-census-us.html

Philip Bump, “Haley’s race arguments try to reconcile U.S. history with GOP politics,” Washington Post (2024) Access a pdf of this article by logging in at Emory Course Reserves and using “Access Online Reserves” to search by course number, instructor, etc.


Wednesday, January 24: Meanings of Citizenship in the US

Reading for class discussion:  Linda Kerber, “The Meanings of Citizenship,” (1997)
Access a pdf of this article by logging in at Emory Course Reserves and using “Access Online Reserves” to search by course number, instructor, etc.
Email Prof. Tullos if you have any difficulty finding the article.
allen [dot] tullos [at] emory [dot] edu

Historical Chart of US Voter Turnout     Source: Fair Vote

Citizenship in the News:
“US Congressional Apportionment” Wikipedia 
What is gerrymandering?
Louis Menand, “American Democracy Was Never Designed to Be Democratic” New Yorker (2022) (available on course reserves)
2020 Presidential Election mapPolitico
“An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2020 Election” NY Times (2021)
David Sirota and Joel Warner, “Billions in ‘dark money’ is influencing US politics” Guardian (2022)


Monday, January 29: Creating the Constitution

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.  —Preamble to the US Constitution (1789)
“Join, or Die”    a political cartoon (1754) attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

Read: Jill Lepore, “The Constitution of a Nation.” (2018).   Chapter available on e-reserves.
You can access this chapter by logging in at Emory Course Reserves and using “Access Online Reserves” to search by course number, instructor, etc.
Email Prof. Tullos if you have any difficulty finding the Lepore chapter.
allen [dot] tullos [at] emory [dot] edu

Citizenship in the News: In-class discussion of recent news reporting and commentary about citizenship.
Denise Lu, Charlie Smart and Lazaro Gamio, “Where the Racial Makeup of the U.S. Shifted in the Last Decade,” NY Times (2021)
“How the racial makeup of where you live has changed since 1990”  Washington Post (2021)


Wednesday, January 31:  Sovereignty, Citizenship, and Native Americans

Reading: Howard Zinn, “As Long as the Grass Grows Green” (2005)
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnasl7.html
Assignment: Write 250-300 word commentary (not a summary) presenting your thoughts about the Zinn chapter. 

For reference:  American Indian Wars.   Wikipedia
“Ghost Dance” documentary (1996) about Native peoples in the American West, leading up to Wounded Knee.
https://video-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.library.emory.edu/watch/ghost-dance
Excerpt from These Truths on Native American background before British colonization (pages 16 and following)
Map of Native American removal from the Southeast US.

Citizenship in the News:
Sarah Longwell, “What 17 of Trump’s ‘Best People’ Said About Him,” NY Times (2024)


 Monday, February 5: Sovereignty, Citizenship, and Native Americans
As someone else once said, if studying history mainly makes you feel happy and proud, you probably aren’t really studying history. — Fara Dabhoiwala

View illustrated lecture by Claudio Saunt, “The War the Slaveholders Won: Indian Removal and the State of Georgia”
https://southernspaces.org/2016/war-slaveholders-won-indian-removal-and-state-georgia

Also: visit interactive map developed by Saunt, Invasion of America

Print and bring to class: 250-300 words summarizing the main points of the Saunt lecture.  (Include word count)

Recommended (not required) for further reading: Sarah H. Hill, “All Roads Led from Rome: Facing the History of Cherokee Expulsion” (2017).
https://southernspaces.org/2017/all-roads-led-rome-facing-history-cherokee-expulsion

Citizenship in the News:
Susan B. Glasser, “The Man Who Put Andrew Jackson in Trump’s Oval Office”  Politico (2018).


Wednesday, February 7: Justice, Citizenship, and Social Equality

A goal of social justice . . . is social equality.  Equality refers not primarily to the distribution of social goods . . . it refers primarily to the full participation and inclusion of everyone in a society’s major institutions, and the socially supportive substantive opportunity for all to develop and exercise their capacities and realize their choices. —Iris Marion Young

You can’t really be in favour of both democracy and billionaires, because democracy requires equal opportunity in order to participate, and extreme wealth gives its holders unfathomable advantages with little accountability. — Rebecca Solnit, “In the Shadow of Silicon Valley”

Read: Iris Marion Young, “Five Faces of Oppression” (1990) (Course Reserves).  You can access this chapter by logging in at http://web.library.emory.edu/using-the-library/course-reserves/index.html
and using “Access Online Reserves” to search by course number, instructor, etc.
This chapter is also available at https://web.archive.org/web/20151010030413/http://www.consumerstar.org/resources/pdf/young.pdf

Citizenship in the News: 
Charlie Savage, “Forceful Opinion Repudiates Claim That Trump Can’t Be Charged in Election Case,” NY Times (2024). The ruling annotated.
Richard North Patterson, “America’s Suffocating Class System” (2018)


Monday, February 12: The Long Campaign for African American Citizenship

Reading:
Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” (1852)
Also available as pdf in course reserves.

Be prepared to discuss the Douglass reading in class.  (no writing assignment)
Read about this speech. (Wikipedia)

Recommended:
David Blight, “The Civil War Lies on Us Like a Sleeping Dragon” (2017)
David Waldstreicher,  “How the Constitution Was Indeed Pro-Slavery,” (2015)

Citizenship in the News:
Nick Corasaniti and Maya King, “Black Churches in Georgia Unite to Mobilize Voters in a Key Battleground,” NY Times (2024).
Jocelyn Kiley, “Majority of Americans Continue To Support Moving Away from Electoral College,” Pew Research Center (2023)
Kyle Kondiik, “Electoral College Ratings,” Center for Politics (2023)
“National Popular Vote Movement,” Common Cause (2023)


Wednesday, February 14.  African Americans, Citizenship, and Reconstruction

Read: C. Vann Woodward  —   “Seeds of Failure in Radical Race Policy,” (1966)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/985998

Recommended for background, and referred to in class: 
“Emancipation Proclamation”
“Reconstruction Amendments” 
“Fourteenth Amendment”
Daniel A. Pollock, “Spectacles of American Nationalism: The Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama Painting and The Birth of a Nation Southern Spaces (2021)
“The Birth of a Nation”

Citizenship in the News:
Jens Manuel Krogstad and Luis Noe-Bustamante, “Key Facts About U.S. Latinos” Pew Research Center (2021)


Monday, February 19: Citizens, Persons, People

When I pass the gate of the celestials and good Peter asks me where I wish to sit, I will say, ‘Anywhere so that I am neither a negro or a woman.’ –Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Lepore, 314)

Read:  Jill Lepore, “Of Citizens, Persons, and People.” (2018).  Available on e-reserves.
You can access this chapter by logging in at http://web.library.emory.edu/using-the-library/course-reserves/index.html and using “Access Online Reserves” to search by course number, instructor, etc.
Email Prof. Tullos if you have any difficulty finding the Lepore chapter.

Citizenship in the News:
Nate Silver, “The Senate’s Rural Skew Makes It Very Hard For Democrats To Win The Supreme Court” (2020)
Caitlin Dickerson, “Overlooked:Ida B. Wells” NY Times (2018)
Paul Krugman, “America Needs To Empower Workers Again” NY Times (2021)


Ancestry.com (Library Edition –on campus use only) https://guides.libraries.emory.edu/az.php?q=ancestry.com

US History Research Guide - https://guides.libraries.emory.edu/main/united-states-history 
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) - http://pid.emory.edu/chkbj 
Library Catalog-https://search.libraries.emory.edu
Databases - https://guides.libraries.emory.edu/az.php 

You can schedule an appointment with Dr. Bruchko at this webpage:  https://emorylibraries.libcal.com/appointments?u=71155.  

Citizenship in the News:


Monday, February 26: Scenes from the Civil Rights and Anti-Vietnam War Movements

View prior to class:  Eyes on the Prize, Part 4, “No Easy Walk” (Begin video at 21:00 minutes and watch until conclusion). You will need to enter your Emory ID and Password.
https://video-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.library.emory.edu/watch/no-easy-walk-1961-1963

Read: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963)
http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html
Recommended Wikipedia article about this letter: “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

No writing assignment or quiz for today, but be prepared to discuss Dr. King’s “Letter”  and his 1967 speech against US participation in the Vietnam War: “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” 
Audio of this speech.

Recommended: Wikipedia article about “Beyond Vietnam”
David J. Garrow, “When Martin Luther King Came Out Against Vietnam” NY Times (2017)

Segment on the Pentagon Papers in “A Disrespectful Loyalty (May 1970-March 1973)” (Public Broadcasting Service, 2017) (Requires Emory ID and password) Begin at 41:30.

Citizenship in the News:
Robert Reich, “The US ultra-rich justify their low tax rates with three myths” Guardian (2022)


Wednesday, February 28: Participatory Democracy and the Civil Rights Movement

Equal Justice Initiative Museum and Memorial, Montgomery Alabama

Ella Baker  (1903-86) and participatory democracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Baker

Ella Baker and SNCC

Judy Richardson, former SNCC member and researcher and series associate producer for the series Eyes on the Prize  talks about Ella Baker. https://video.choices.edu/media/who-was-ella-baker   (2012) (2 min)

Ella Baker speaks to Puerto Rico solidarity rally in 1974.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t96fnyLMihA     
(2:20)

Citizenship in the News:
Angela Thomson-DeVeaux, “The Supreme Court Is On The Verge Of Killing The Voting Rights Act”  538 (2022)


Monday, March 4: Music and 1960s Protest Movements

When the music changes, the walls of the city shake. — Plato
Read:
“Protest Music. 1960s: The Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and Peace and Revolution”

“A Change Is Gonna Come,” written and sung by Sam Cooke. 1968.  Read about the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFRzO_KZkkQhttps://www.youtube.com
Lyrics.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/a-change-is-gonna-come-lyrics-sam-cooke.html

John Coltrane    “Alabama”   (1963)  Written in response to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963, an attack by the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four African-American girls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saN1BwlxJxA
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’ “Eulogy” for the four girls killed in the 16th Street bombing. 1963.

Another song in reaction to the Birmingham church bombing: Nina Simone performs “Mississippi Goddamn.”    (1964)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM

Bob Dylan,      “Blowin’ in the Wind”  (1963)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWwgrjjIMXA&list=RD8qDkC4yJxdc&index=25

Bob Dylan, “Masters of War” (1963)

Phil Ochs,    “I Ain’t A-Marchin’ Any More.”   (1965)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qDkC4yJxdc&list=RD8qDkC4yJxdc&index=1

Sgt. Barry Sadler, “Ballad of the Green Berets”    (1966)   
Read about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad_of_the_Green_Berets

Creedence Clearwater Revival,     “Fortunate Son.” (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7qkQewyubs

Read about “Fortunate Son.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortunate_Son

Neil Young,    “Ohio.”   (1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkg-bzTHeAk
Read about “Ohio”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_(Crosby,_Stills,_Nash_%26_Young_song)

John Prine,    “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Any More”  (1971)

For reference:
“LBJ’s 1965 Decision to Escalate the Vietnam War” PBS (2010)
“A Disrespectful Loyalty, (May 1970-March 1973)” Episode 9 of documentary The Vietnam War (2017) PBS
https://video-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.library.emory.edu/watch/a-disrespectful-loyalty-may-1970-march-1973?utm_campaign=Video&utm_medium=MARC&utm_source=aspresolver


Wednesday, March 6: Semester Paper Discussion

Citizenship in the News:
“The Game Could Well Be Over,” Thomas B. Edsall, NY Times (2024)


March 11-15 Spring Break

Monday, March 18: James Baldwin, “I Am Not Your Negro”

Adherence to legend at the expense of facts will ruin America – the work is well under way. And lovers of the movies should consider how far film has helped the undermining. —Andrew O’Hagan 

Prior to class: view documentary about James Baldwin,   I Am Not Your Negro (93 min) (2016).  Directed by Raoul Peck.
You may be asked for your Emory ID and Password for access to the documentary.
https://emory.kanopy.com/video/i-am-not-your-negro
For reference:
Medgar Evers
Lorraine Hansbery

Citizenship in the News:
“Trump’s Conquest of the Republican Party Matters to Every American,” NY Times editorial board (2024)


Wednesday, March 20: Two Scenes from the Women’s Rights Movement in the US

When I pass the gate of the celestials and good Peter asks me where I wish to sit, I will say, ‘Anywhere so that I am neither a negro or a woman.  Confer on me, great angel, the glory of White manhood, so that henceforth I may feel unlimited freedom.Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Susan B. Anthony (1859).  (Quoted in Jill Lepore, These Truths, 314)

Timeline of Women’s Rights in the US
https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/resource/womens-rights/

Readings:

“Women’s rights and the Seneca Falls convention”
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-us-history/period-4/apush-culture-and-reform/a/womens-rights-and-the-seneca-falls-convention

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Sentiments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Falls_Convention

Recommended: Equal Rights Amendment

Of interest:
Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1843-1845) 
Judith Thurman, “The Desires of Margaret Fuller” (2013)

Citizenship in the News: 
Monica Hesse, “Amy Coney Barrett is a strong woman. That doesn’t make her a feminist icon.” (W Post 2020) Available on e-reserves 
Jane Mayer, “State Legislatures Are Torching Democracy,” New Yorker (2022) Available on e-reserves 


Monday, March 25:  An Episode from US Immigration History — Chinese Labor and Exclusion

Recommended: Nadja Sayej, “‘Forgotten by society’: how Chinese migrants built the transcontinental railroad”. (2019)
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
David Yang, “Chae Chan Ping, Chop Suey, and Chinatown: Spatiality and Chinese American Migration.” Available on Emory Course Reserves. (This is a student paper from the 2021 Citizenship seminar.)

Citizenship in the News: 
Kristen Hartke, “Chinatowns are struggling to survive,” Washington Post (2022) Available on Emory Course Reserves.


Wednesday, March 27: Recent History of Latin American Immigration

Citizenship in the News: 
Trump campaign announcement, June 16, 2015
Nicholas Kulish and Mike McIntire, “Why an Heiress Spent Her Fortune Trying to Keep Immigrants Out,” (2019) NY Times
Michael H. Keller and David D. Kirkpatrick, “Their America Is Vanishing. Like Trump, They Insist They Were Cheated,” NY Times (2022)


Monday, April 1: The Stonewall Uprising and the Beginning of the Gay Rights Movement

View prior to class for discussion: The Stonewall Uprising. (2011). (1:20). 
http://discovere.emory.edu/discovere:default_scope:01EMORY_ALMA51327275310002486 

Citizenship in the News:Andrew Gumbel, “Peter Thiel’s midterm bet: the billionaire seeking to disrupt America’s democracy” Guardian (2022)
Dan Mangan, “Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says gay rights, contraception rulings should be reconsidered after Roe is overturned,” CNBC (2022)

Recommended:  “Citizens United Explained” (Brennan Center)


Wednesday, April 3: Campaigns, Inc.  vs  National Health Care

Read: “Lepore_Health Care” — an excerpt from Jill Lapore’s These Truths tracing  the history of  efforts to provide national health care in the US and the persistent opposition by private medical associations and insurance companies through their use of public relations and advertising firms.  Available on Course Reserves as pdf.  (37pages. Note: the pages are not consecutively numbered but draw from several chapters of Lepore’s book.) 


Monday, April 8:  Disability, Accessibility Rights, and Citizenship

View: Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht, “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution,” (108 minutes) (2020). Read about this documentary.
Recommended: Judith Heumann,    “Our fight for disability rights and why we’re not done yet.”  (21 min) Heumann bio (Wikipedia)

Background:  “Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990″
and “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” (Wikipedia)
“Social Model of Disability” (Wikipedia).  On the difference between impairment and disability. 

Citizenship in the News:



Citizenship in the News:
Assessing the election results, outcomes, implications.


Monday, April 15:  Finance Capitalism Run Amok — Bank Deregulation, Great Recession, Aftermath and Reaction

View prior to class:  Academy Award winning documentary Inside Job (2010).  1 hour and 48 minutes.
Available through Emory’s online resources.  You may be asked for your Emory ID and Password.  Please let Prof. Tullos know if you have any difficulty accessing the film.
https://video-alexanderstreet-com.proxy.library.emory.edu/watch/inside-job
Read about Inside Job

Recommended reading: Drew Weston, “What Happened to Obama,” (2011)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/opinion/sunday/what-happened-to-obamas-passion.html
Robert Kuttner, “The Crash That Failed” (2018) New York Review
Matt Taibbi, “Ten Years After the Crash, We’ve Learned Nothing” (2018) Rolling Stone


Wednesday, April 17: Structural Economic Inequality and Its Costs to Citizenship 

Read: Joseph E. Stiglitz, “The American Economy Is Rigged and What We Can Do About It” Scientific American (Nov. 2018).  

For reference:
Katherine Schaeffer, “6 facts about economic inequality in the U.S.” Pew Research Center (2020)
David Leonhardt, “Our Broken Economy in One Simple Chart” (2017).
Wealth Inequality in the United States (Wikipedia)
Jimmy Carter, “The US an Oligarchy” Rolling Stone (2015)

Citizenship in the News: Paul Krugman, NY Times: “Bernie Sanders and the Myth of the 1 Percent” (2019), “On Elon Musk and the Dangerous Power of Insecure Billionaires,” (2021).
“Unions help reduce disparities and strengthen our democracy,”  Economic Policy Institute (2021)


  Monday, April 22: Green Democratic Revolution

Read for discussion: Chantal Mouffe, “A Green Democratic Revolution” (2022).  Available on Course Reserves.

Recommended:  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Wikipedia)

Citizenship in the News: 
“Why Does the U.S. Have So Many Mass Shootings? Research Is Clear: Guns,” NY Times (2017)
“This Week, Billionaires Made a Strong Case for Abolishing Themselves,” NY Times (2022)

Wednesday, April 24: Student Presentations

Monday, April 29: Student Presentations