Social Justice Movements

Catalog description

Throughout human history, powerless groups of people have organized social movements to try to improve their lives and the society in which they lived. Powerful groups and institutions have generally resisted these efforts in order to maintain their own privilege, although there are always people from privileged backgrounds who join forces with the oppressed. This course will focus on American protest movements in the 20th and 21st centuries. A focus will be on all aspects of protest movements, such as leadership, mobilization, organization, strategy, and consciousness. Using these concepts, the rest of the course will examine the major protest movements of this century. These include the Populist (farmers) revolt, the labor movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, the peace movement, the student movement, the environmental movement, the gay rights movement, and the consumer/neighborhood movement. Prerequisites: HIS201 US History.