Blog Post #2: Day One

Day One

“One ever feels his twoness, -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two 

unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it 

from being torn asunder.” - WEB DuBois

Yesterday was the very first day of my Hawken Project and I decided to start

reviewing more curriculum content for the African-American Studies Program. Prior to the 

start of the Hawken Project, I created an outline/ draft of the program that features the 

goals of the my work during this time and the overall goals of this program, a list of 

potential content that will be used in the courses featured in the program, and potential 

topics to be covered in the courses. Starting off on the section that features potential 

content, I started the work day by reading a couple of essays featured in The Souls of Black 

Folk by WEB DuBois. 

    An important author, intellect, scholar, and civil rights activist of the 

late 19th-early 20th century, DuBois compiled a series of essays of multiple topics, including 

religion, music in Black culture, the color line, education and progress for African-Americans, 

and the importance of the African-American vote, to reflect on the hardships and struggles 

of African-American people living in the aftermath of slavery and Reconstruction and now, 

at the time, living under the rule of segregation and the Jim Crow Era. He also introduces 

the concepts of "the veil" (the barrier of race separating African-Americans from White 

people), "the color line" (the metaphor for racial segregation in America), and "double 

consciousness" to describe the mindset that many African-American 

people must have when having an understanding about themselves as an African-American 

person versus the way that some White people around them view and treat them in 

American society. In addition to this, he challenges America to reevaluate its racism and 

racist policies and actions that it continues to subject African-American people to while 

also calling for action to the progression of African-American people to be seen as 

Americans, but also as human beings and people. Nevertheless, I believe that this program 

can really analyze the essays and the strong and compelling narrative that DuBois 

provides, especially as he represents one of the more progressive voices of African-

Americans during that period.

Then, after reading and annotating parts of The Souls of Black Folks, I met with my mentor 

to discuss our meeting with the outsider reader for my Hawken Project, Dr. Meredith Gadsby

of Oberlin College. Dr. Gadsby is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and 

Comparative American Studies at Oberlin and has a teaching interest in several topics such 

as international Black literatures, literatures of the African diaspora, Black women's writing, 

migration and identity, and much more. She has also been featured in a segment from the 

BBC Arts to discuss how Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison inspired a slavery memorial 

based on the tragic true story of a four year old enslaved child who was brought up North 

to Oberlin, OH, but succumbed to and died from an illness that he contracted during the 

journey. With her very strong scholarship in African-American, Africana, and Caribbean 

Studies, Dr. Gadsby can provide a wealth of knowledge about topics that both my mentor 

and I are unable to answer or aren't well versed in (ie: What is the period prior to slavery 

in America actually called or is their even a name for it?) and can also provide crucial 

feedback and advice for how to structure the courses in the African-American Studies

Program and how to narrow down my current list of materials for the courses. So, for 

homework for Day Two, my mentor and I decided to do background research on more of

Dr. Gadbsy's work to get a better grasp of the topics that she has taught and also to 

prepare questions for her when we do have our first meeting. I'm very excited for our 

meeting and can't wait to share this project with her!