John Walter

Professor, American Ethnic Studies; Adjunct Professor, History
Ph.D., University of Maine, 1972

Education

Selected Bibliography

Transforming the Curriculum: Ethnic Studies and Women's Studies. Co-edited and co-authored with Johnnella E. Butler. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991.

*The Harlem Fox: J. Raymond Jones and Tammany, 1920-1970. Albany: SUNY Press, 1989.

*Winner of a 1990 American Book Award

Professor Walter is the author of 26 articles and more than 100 reviews in such journals as The Journal of American History, The Georgia Historical Quarterly, The Western Historical Quarterly, The Journal of African Americans in New York Life and History, Revista Inter-Americana, American Studies Today (U.K.), and the Seattle Times. He has been the recipient of a number of Mellon Research Grants for research on the African American woman, a Taft Research Fellowship for his work on "White Patronage of Black Artists in the Harlem Renaissance Era," among other awards. He received a Ford Foundation Grant for the oral history project "African American Athletes and the Color Line."

Walter has lectured abroad at the John F. Kennedy American Studies Institute for the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and most recently (1999) at Liverpool John Moores University, England, and at the United States Embassy, London, U.K.

In 1996, Professor Walter wrote the lead essay on African Americans & Sports for the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History and is writing a similar essay for the projected (2000) Encyclopedia of Americans of American Studies.

Teaching and Research Interests

African American history from the colonial period to the present. Special competence in 1) African Americans and US laws; 2) Civil Rights; 3) the South; 4) Sports, 1880-present; 5) Carribean immigrants.

African American Artists and White Patronage in the Harlem Renaissance Era

The Black Athlete: Breaking the Color Line: 1930-1980

Courses

Available Scheduled Course Offerings

HSTAA/AFRAM 270: The Jazz Age (2004 Winter; 2004 Fall)
HSTAA/AFRAM 334: The Sixties in America (2003 Autumn; 2004 Summer; 2005 Winter)
HSTAA/AFRAM 150: Survey of African American History (2004 Winter; 2005 Winter

Non-Crosslisted Scheduled Courses

AFRAM 437: History of African Americans and American Law (2004 Spring; 2005 Spring)

Available Unscheduled Courses

AFRAM 272 The South Since the Civil War

AFRAM 337 Music and Social Change in the Sixties Era
Introduction of popular music and social change in the late 1950s to 1972. How this interaction of popular music effected significant change during this era. Consider political activism for civil rights and against the Vietnam War as it intersects with the development of Rhythm and Blues, Rock n' Roll, political folk music and post-bebop jazz.

AFRAM 335 Sports and Social Change in the Twentieth Century
Development of Sports in the United States and its importance for United States culture and society. Covers the increased centrality of athletic competition as part of the new "leisure time" in the late 19th century. Revival of the Olympic Movement, racial segregation and integration, today's American notions of "celebrity" and social style.

Graduate Courses

HSTAA 550 African American History to Reconstruction
This course is the first part of a two (2) quarter sequence graduate field course in African American history. It is designed to prepare graduate students for their qualifying examinations in African American history, and for American history students desiring an in-depth survey of African American history. A comprehensive in-depth introduction to the major topics and writings in African American history from the colonial era to 1900, including: the inception of slavery, free Blacks, slave revolts, black abolition, Blacks in the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the Black female role in the struggle for freedom.

HSTAA 551 African American History Since Reconstruction
This is the second part of a two-quarter sequence graduate field course in African American history. It is designed to prepare graduate students for their qualifying examinations in African American history, and for American history students desiring an in-depth survey of African American history. A comprehensive introduction to the major topics and writings in African American history in the 20th century, including: the Jim Crow era, the Black Women's Movement, Harlem Renaissance, the legal origins of the Civil Rights Revolution, the Second Reconstruction, and the Politics of cultural pluralism.

HSTAA 552/553 Graduate Seminar in African American History
This is a two-quarter course designed to offer research experiences and opportunities in African American history. It provides students with skills and methodology to pursue advanced research in the field. The following are the class objectives: 1) to provide the student with the skills and methodology to pursue advanced research; 2) to encourage all students to delve deeper into a specific area of interest in African American history; 3) to assist graduate students who have chosen African American history as their primary field to identify topics that might evolve into dissertations, seminar papers, or theses; 4) it is expected that student papers will be of publishing caliber at the conclusion of the seminar.