The UTSA  History department, in conjunction with American Studies, is committed to expanding our students' knowledge of Black History in the United States.

Our faculty bring Black History to life in a variety of courses, shining a light on the historical struggles and triumphs, as well as current issues facing Black Americans.

Fall 2020 Course Experts

Dr. LaGuana Gray

Dr. Gray earned her PhD in U.S. History from the University of Houston. Her book, We Just Keep Running the Line: Black Southern Women and the Poultry Processing Industry, was published by LSU Press in 2014.

Courses taught:

African American History since the Civil War

Women in the U.S.: Since 1890

Black Life in San Antonio

History of the Civil Rights Movement

American Society in the 1960s

Dr. Crystal Webster

Dr. Webster earned her PhD from the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of African American Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her current book project is titled, Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: Northern African AmericanChildren’s Politicaland Cultural Resistance.

Courses taught:

African American History to the Civil War

History of the U.S. South

Race and Medicine

Race, Gender, and Childhood

Race and Incarceration

Current Classes being offered:

HIS 3563 | AMS 3343- African American History to the Civil War

A survey of the social, economic, political, and cultural history of African Americans from the time of contact with European slave traders until the Civil War. The course will examine the process by which millions of Africans were taken from their homelands, enslaved, and transported to America, where they were gradually, and often violently, transformed into Americans. While the course will focus on the United States, it will also consider how the experiences of Blacks in America relate to the history of the peoples of the African diaspora.

HIS 3573 | AMS 3343- African American History since the Civil War

This course surveys the African American experience from emancipation to the present, focusing on political, economic, cultural, and social developments. The course will utilize both traditional historical methodology, with its emphasis on chronology and the examination of documents and alternative interdisciplinary methodologies, which analyze nontraditional sources such as film, music, and oral interviews.

HIS 6973- Race and Incarceration