Modern Presidency & Race

Catalog description

This course will examine the role of race in shaping presidential actions and public policy from Dwight Eisenhower to the current era. A few of the major topics that the course will address are Eisenhower and school integration, Kennedy/Johnson and civil rights' voices, Nixon and the Chicano movement, Reagan and immigration, and Obama and descriptive representation in the executive. This course will offer a broad understanding of race by examining how various presidents have addressed concerns in the African-American, Asian-American, and Latino communities. Readings are drawn from the Federal Register and volumes of the Public Papers of the President series as well as from books and articles written by contemporary political scientists.