History of the Civil Rights Movement

Catalog description

This course will examine the key events, figures, philosophies, tactics, and consequences of the modern civil rights movement in the United States. The period from 1955-1965 receives special attention, but the roots of the freedom struggle in an earlier era and the effect of the movement on recent American history also warrant investigation. This course will examine primary source documents, film, interpretive literature, and music in order to fully study the most powerful mass protest movement in modern US history. In addition, this course will concentrate on the powerful role played by whites, both in the North and the South, who fiercely resisted the black freedom struggle.