AN33004BA12 and AN3016MA07
The African-American Civil Rights Movement(s)
(BA 3 and MA 2, Fall 2016)
Time: MON 14:00-15:40
Place: Studio 111
Tutor: Tibor Glant
Office Hours: MON 9-10, TUE 12-13, and by appointment (120/2, ext.: 22507, )
Course Description
This advanced level course offers an in-depth look at black history in general and the African-American Civil Rights Movement(s) of the 1960s in particular. WE will start with discussions of race and American racial hierarchy, placing the three key racial minorities (Asian-Americans, Native Americans, and African-Americans) on the social ladder. Then we will review black history in two interactive lectures, before turning our attention to the mid-to-late 1950s. Besides the classic issues in mainstream Civil Rights history (Brown, Little Rock, the Freedom Rides, Birmingham, the March on Washington, Selma) we will also address radical history, including Malcolm X, Ali, the Panthers, and the Attica prison riots. We will round out the course with another interactive lecture on post-1970s developments. The course relies heavily on film, original documents, and the internet.
Course Requirements
Class participation (25%): students must attend all class sessions. Missing more than three for ANY reason will result in an incomplete grade. Students will submit a Daily Card with the “Three Threes” for each class session by 8 pm the Sunday night before class. Failing to submit the Daily Cards automatically results in zero grade points for participation in the given class session. Details will be provided in the first class.
Presentation (15%): Each student will present for up to 15 minutes on a topic assigned during the orientation in week 1. Suggested topics include, among others, African-American Soldiers in Vietnam, Black and White Conflicts in Civil Rights Organizations, and the Communist Bloc and the Panthers.
Film Journals (3x10 = 30%): Students will write three 5-page film journals during the course on their choice of films offered for viewing. Of the many brilliant movies dealing with the CRMs, we will all watch Mississippi Burning (1988), sections from Winter Soldier (1972), and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Others are listed below.
In-class exam (30%): on December 12, may NOT be missed or rescheduled.
MA students will write a full research paper of 2,500 words on top of the above requirements and may be asked to host the discussion in a session or two.
Grading policy
Class participation: 25%; In-class presentation: 15%; film journals: 30%; final exam 30%. 100-91%: 5; 90-81: 4; 80-71: 3; 70-61: 2; 60 or below: fail.
Readings
Weekly readings are listed under each class. The main textbook we use is:
Harvard Sitkoff,The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954-1992 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993).It is available from the Institute library.
We will also use a classic Sixties documentary collection:
Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines, eds., Takin’ It to the Streets. A Sixties Reader. 4th ed. (New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015).
Background readings
Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 (New York: Simon & Schuster: 1988); Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 (Simon & Schuster: 1998); and At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968 (Simon & Schuster: 2006)
Various memoirs by key Civil Right leaders: Malcolm X, Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Huey P. Newton, and so on.
Allen Cohen, ed., The Oracle: The Psychedelic Newspaper of the Haight Ashbury (Oakland: Regent Press, 2005, CD-Rom).
Films
4 Little Girls (1998)
42: The Jackie Robinson Story (2013)
Butler, The (2014)
Eyes on the Prize, two series (1987 and 1990) D
Help, The (2011)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Jim Crow Museum (2004) D
Long Walk Home, The (1990)
Malcolm X (1992)
Mississippi Burning (1988)
Murder of Emmett Till, The (2003) D
Selma (2013)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Winter Soldier (1972) D
Additional Rules of the Game
Academic dishonesty or plagiarism (failure to acknowledge and note the use of another writer’s words and ideas) is both unethical and illegal and will result in a failure of the course.
Tardiness and early departures are not allowable. They are offensive to your fellow students and to the instructor because they disrupt class work. If you have a compelling reason for arriving late or leaving early, speak with your instructor about the problem. If you regularly cut the beginning and/or the end of class sessions, it can add up to unexcused full-class-time absences.
Please remember that not knowing the rules is no excuse to break them.
Week-by-Week Description of Course
Week 1 (SEP 19): Orientation + Race
Discussion of course goals and tasks, followed by discussion of concepts of race
No reading, no tasks, no Daily Card (DC)
Week 2 (SEP 26): From Slavery to Reconstruction
An interactive lecture in class, no reading, no tasks, no DC
Week 3 (OCT 03): From Segregation to Montgomery
An interactive lecture in class, no reading, no tasks, no DC
Week 4 (OCT 10): Little Rock and Birmingham
A look at the Little Rock and Birmingham crises using the Eyes on the Prize video. Reading: King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963), Sitkoff, 28-35, 120-131
DC due by Sunday, October 9, 8 pm
Week 5 (OCT 17): Emmett Till, the 4 Little Girls, and the Freedom Rides
We will continue to look at white violence against and black and white CR activists
Reading: Sitkoff,44, 88-104; selections from Bloom and Breines, chapter 1 (PDF)
DC due by Sunday, October 16, 8 pm
Film Journal 1 due
Week 6 (OCT 24): King in Chicago, Riot in Detroit
We will look at the Movement in the North, East, and West, the eruption of black violence at and after Watts; case study: the 1967 Detroit riot and its memory (Episode 10 of the 2010-11 TV-series, Detroit 1-8-7)
Reading: Sitkoff, 184-194
Video: “Episode 10: Shelter” from Detroit 1-8-7 (2011)
DC due by Sunday, October 23, 8 pm
Week 7 (OCT 31): fall break, no class scheduled
Week 8 (NOV 07): The music of Civil Rights and Resistance + Malcolm X and Ali
A casual class with no readings, tasks, or DC
Film Journal 2 due
Week 9 (NOV 14): The Panthers
We will look at the original Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, its leaders, rhetoric, and termination by the FBI, using the Eyes on the Prize video
Readings: Sitkoff, 194-209; selections from Bloom and Breines, chapter 3 (PDF); any original Panther material online
DC due by Sunday, November 13, 8 pm
Week 10 (NOV 21): Vietnam + Attica
In this class we will address the black experience in Vietnam and explore the connections between the CRMs and the Anti-Vietnam War movement; we will also look at the 1972 Attica prison riots, the swansong of the Movements; video in class: Winter Soldier (1972) and Eyes on the Prize Series 2, episode 6
Readings: selections from Bloom and Breines, chapter 4 (PDF)
DC due by Sunday, November 20, 8 pm
Week 11 (NOV 28): The Story since 1972
An interactive lecture on race related issues since 1972, no readings, tasks, or DC
Week 12 (DEC 05): Revision
Rounding out discussion, tying up loose ends, evaluating the 2016 elections, NO tasks, readings, or DC
Film Journal 3 due
Week 13 (DEC 12): In-class exam
Week 14 (DEC 19): Award-winning ceremony/Evaluations
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