2007 Spring DOCST 190S-07
Bulletin Course Description Selected topics in methodology, theory, or area in seminar format. Instructor: Staff
(Instructor named in bulletin description above may not be current. For current instructor, see listing below.)
Title DURHAM BLACK WALL STREET Department DOCST Course Number 2007 Spring 190S Section Number 07 Primary Instructor Lau,Barbara A Prerequisites
Prerequisites
By Permission Only. To receive a permission number, please submit a short statement expressing your interest in the class and skills you feel you bring to the class. Send to Barbara Lau, balau@duke.edu.
Synopsis of course content
This course offers students a chance to get off campus, create documentary projects and make a difference through your academic and community work. This course will enroll students from both Duke University and North Carolina Central University. Students will work together on a community development effort in Durham, fostering collaboration between the Center for Documentary Studies, North Carolina Central University, and the Durham community through documentary work. Working with the professors and the Parrish Street Advocacy Group, students in this course will complete documentary projects that highlight and explore Durham’s unique historical and cultural legacy through photographs, oral history, film/video, web sites, and writing projects. Readings will relate to the history of Durham, community documentary fieldwork, ethics, and the special challenges of community development work and heritage tourism. The class also offers students the opportunity to make important contributions, through their class projects, to this ongoing civic effort.
Textbooks
• Weare, Walter B., 1973. Black Business in the New South: A Social History of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, University of Illinois Press.
• Hayden, Dolores, 1995. The Power of Place:Urban Landscapes as Public History. MIT Press
Assignments
Student projects, class readings, short writing assignments, quizzes, impressions essays.
Documentary projects related to Parrish Street Redevelopment efforts based on fieldwork that could include photography, oral history, video and archival research. Students will be required to write short reflection papers based on field trips, readings, and fieldwork. Participation will also contribute to grade.
Exams
Short midterm and final exams. Students will also be asked to present their final projects to the Parrish Street Advisory Group.
Term Papers
In lieu of a term paper, students will create documentary projects for public presentation.
Grade to be based on
Student project constitutes 30%, class participation equals 30%, in-class writing and quizzes equals 15%, Midterm exam equals 10%, Final exam equals 15% of semester grade.
Additional Information
Parrish Street, four blocks in the heart of Durham’s central business district, has been nicknamed “Black Wall Street” for the African American-owned financial institutions once headquartered there, most notably N.C. Mutual Insurance Co. and Mechanics and Farmers Bank. After decades of prosperity and growth, the businesses on Parrish Street began to feel the impact of a declining downtown Durham and change in the social fabric resulting from racial integration and the Civil Rights Movement. Durham is working to understand and commemorate this history. Parrish Street’s people, traditions, spirit, and organizations have informed cultural encounters in Durham for decades. Understanding the evolution of Parrish Street provides an avenue for exploring these cultural encounters in the larger frameworks of economic, racial, and social relations of the region and the nation.
