History 332 The Black Freedom Struggle, 1940-1980

Spring 2014, MW 3:30-4:45 Classroom: Bryan 121Deborah Russell, Instructor Office Hours: MW 2-3 MHRA 2102 ddrussel@uncg.edu

Course Goals To develop a deeper understanding of the major events, people, and themes relevant

to the Black Freedom Struggle in the United States To improve analysis of primary and secondary sources and demonstrate critical

historical thinking skills To conduct original research by identifying, analyzing, and interpreting relevant

primary and secondary sources To develop coherent oral and written arguments based on evidence from the past

We will consider central questions each week, addressing major historical debates.

Required reading Obtain the following editions in order to do the assigned reading. Please use print editions of these sources rather than e-books. Bring books with you to class on appropriate days. Readings from these four required texts will be interspersed throughout the semester.

Taylor Branch, The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2013)

Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (any edition) (memoir) originally published 1968

Steven Lawson and Charles Payne, Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968. (Second Edition. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006)

Dan T. Carter, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 1963-1994. (Louisiana State University Press, 1996)

Other readings—including articles, chapters, and primary sources will be posted to Blackboard under Course Documents. Follow the syllabus for each week's assignments.

CommunicationI want to be as accessible to you as I can. Our main means of communication will be through UNCG e-mail and Blackboard. You should check your university e-mail daily.

Contact me with your comments, questions, and concerns and I will do my best to reply to you promptly. I also encourage you to come to discuss your progress in the course during my office hours. I would like to meet with each of you individually at some point in the semester, preferably early on as you develop ideas for your writing and research projects.

Class PoliciesAttendance and participation: Your participation will be a crucial factor in your learning experience. You cannot participate if you are not present; therefore, attendance is expected and recorded each day. This semester includes 28 class meetings. You are “allowed” two excused absences, but these should be taken for personal or family illness, emergencies, or unavoidable scheduling conflicts only. More than two absences will be considered excessive and will adversely affect your grade in this class. Your participation grade will be lowered by 5 points for each additional absence. (I will work with you through documented extended health or personal emergencies.) Participation in discussion is also expected. Attendance alone is not sufficient for full participation credit. Students should be prepared to discuss the readings on the day that they are assigned.

Electronic devices: Turn off all electronic devices —phones, laptops, tablets—and put themaway during class. You will not need them during class time and their use generally causes distraction. Take notes with a pen and paper and transfer those to your computer later if desired. If research sessions call for the use of laptops, I will let you know ahead of time.

UNCG's Academic Integrity Policy: http://studentconduct.uncg.edu/policy/academicintegrity/violation/plagiarism/It is your responsibility to review the policies at the link above. Violations will be handled according to UNCG procedures. I will report plagiarism through university channels. See the UNCG library's site for help with quoting, citing, and paraphrasing: http://uncg.libguides.com/content.php?pid=100907&sid=1040906

Assignments and Grading

Weekly responses---30% Attendance and participation, including in-class writing, quizzes, activities, and

discussion---20% Papers and Research Projects—Total of 50%

Project 1- Evaluation of a primary source--Research in university special collections (3 pages) 10%

Project 2- Paper and class presentation to class based on outside reading---memoir of participant in movement (5-6 pages) 15%

Project 3- Research project and class presentation on media coverage and

memory of an event of civil rights movement (5-6 pages) 15%

Project 4- Final reflections paper 10%

Grading scaleA+ = 98-100 A = 93-97 A- = 90-92B+ = 87-89 B = 83-86 B- = 80-82 C+ = 77-79 C = 73-76 C- = 70-72D= = 67-69 D = 63-66 D- = 60-62F = 59 and lower No credit = 0 (failure to complete assigned papers, plagiarism)

Participation/How to do well: Be prepared. Make sure you have spent time with all the assigned readings. Use your “historical imagination" to connect more deeply with the assignments. Think about the broad themes of your readings; be able to answer questions posed by the instructor. In addition, you may also be asked to respond to videos or other resources presented in class. Pose good questions, engaging with classmates as well as with the instructor. Listen, think, and talk. Don't be afraid to respond or to ask for a clarification; we are all in the process of learning. Challenge ideas that you are skeptical about, but respect others' views and participate in a civil manner.

Weekly response writings: Carefully read everything assigned for the week ahead, but do not attempt to memorize every detail. Consult Blackboard for the assignment/ reading questions for the week. Reflect on the key issues. Compare and contrast. At the end of your weekly response, include at least one question or short passage you would like to discuss in that week's classes. This could be a significant line you identify and pull from a selection. Print out your written responses and bring them with you to the first class of the week. We will start discussion there. E-mail to the instructor (ddrussel@uncg.edu) your weekly assignment (usually about 2 pages) by 3 p.m. on Monday if you are unable to attend.

Paper format: There are four projects you will complete during the semester, but no midterm or final exam as such. Your papers will be relatively short--5-6 pages each-- and should be typed (12 point) and double-spaced with one-inch margins. The papers and research assignments are designed to require you to think critically and write persuasively about primary sources. Some allow you to identify topics of particular relevance and personal interest to you and require that you do some research of your own. You will receive more detailed instructions and a grading rubric for each of these assignments later in the semester.

Schedule of topics and readings

WEEK 1 Racism and the Roots of the MovementReading: Roy Wilkins, “The Negro Wants Full Equality,” in What the Negro Wants, 113-132.(1944) Harvard Sitkoff, Chapter 8, “Changing Ideas: Race and Racism,” in A New Deal for Blacks, 190-215.

Day 1 (M January 13) Introduction to CourseDay 2 (W January 15)

Opportunity: Ursula Dudley Oglesby- 5:30/ MHRA 1214

WEEK 2 Race, Segregation, and African American Activism in the 30s and 40sReading: Harvard Sitkoff, Chapter 9, “The Law of the Land,” in A New Deal for Blacks, 216-243; Skrentny, Chapter 2, “This Is War and This Is a War Measure: Racial Equality Becomes

National Security,” in The Minority Rights Revolution, 21-29; Martha Biondi, “How New YorkChanges the Story of the Civil Rights Movement,” in Afro Americans in New York Life and History, 15-31; Lawson and Payne, 49-58 (Excerpts from To Secure These Rights, 1947)

Monday, January 20 (No class) Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Honor Dr. King's Legacy

Day 3 (W January 22)

WEEK 3 Racial Hierarchy in the Jim Crow SouthReading: Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi--Chapters 1-17 “Childhood” and “High School”; William Bradford Huie,“The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi,” LookMagazine (January 1956); Timothy B. Tyson, “Robert F. Williams, ‘Black Power,’ and the Roots of the African American Freedom Struggle,” The Journal of American History, 85, no. 2 (Sept. 1998), 540-552 (first half of article)

Day 4 (M January 27)Day 5 ( W January 29)

WEEK 4 Public Access, Transportation, and TravelReading: Plessy v. Ferguson, Justice Harlan's dissent; Green Book-examples on Blackboard; Taylor Branch, The King Years, Chapter 1 “The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Martin Luther King's First Public Address, 1955,” 5-12; Chapter 3 “Freedom Rides I,” 23-32; Chapter 4 “Freedom Rides II,” 33-40

Day 6 (M February 3) Day 7 (W February 5)

WEEK 5 EducationReading: Charles C. Bolton, “Introduction,” vii-xvi and “The Last Holdout: Mississippi and the Brown Decision,” 123-138 in With All Deliberate Speed; excerpts from Brown v. Board; Lawson and Payne, 59-64 (“Southern Manifesto”) and 65-69 (Eisenhower Address on Little Rock)

Day 8 (M February 10) Day 9 (W February 12) Panel Presentation- Children of Brown

WEEK 6 Grassroots ActionReading: Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi—“College” and “The Movement” Chapters 18-30 ; Branch, Chapter 2 “Sit-Ins” 13-22; Branch, Chapter 5 “Bob Moses, SNCC” 41- 46; Lawson and Payne, 159-188 (Primary sources related to grassroots activism)

Day 10 (M February 17) Library Session: Investigating University Special CollectionsDay 11 (W February 19) Project 1 due-- Analysis of a primary source

WEEK 7 Montgomery to Memphis: The Classical Civil Rights Movement, Media, and MemoryReading: Martin Luther King, Jr., Chapter 3, “Bull Connor's Birmingham,” in Why We Can't Wait, 45-60. King, Chapter 4, “New Day in Birmingham,” in Why We Can't Wait, 61-84. King,Chapter 6, “Black and White Together,” in Why We Can't Wait, 113-132; Branch, Chapter 6,“A National Firestorm from Birmingham, 1963,” 47- 57; Branch, Chapter 7, “The March on Washington, 1963,” 59-67; Branch, “Birmingham Church Bombing, 1963,” 69-77

Day 12 (M February 24) Day 13 (W February 26)

WEEK 8 Grassroots Action continuedReading: Branch, Chapter 9, “Freedom Summer, 1964,” 79-87; Branch, Chapter 10, “Party Realignment,” 89-101; Charles Payne, “The View from the Trenches,” pages 115-155 (essay), 189-209 (primary sources) in Debating the Civil Rights Movement; David Howard-Pitney, Chapter 3, “Means of Struggle: Nonviolent Resistance versus 'By Any Means Necessary,” in Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, 73-101.

Day 16 (M March 3) Day 17 (W March 5)

SPRING BREAK

WEEK 9 Participating in the Movement Reading: Outside memoir or biography (No weekly response required)

Half of class will present on Monday, the rest on WednesdayDay 14 (M March 17) Project 2 Due / PresentationsDay 15 (W March 19) Project 2 Due/ Presentations

WEEK 10 National LeadershipReading: John D. Skrentny, Chapter 2, “This Is War and This Is a War Measure: Racial Equality Becomes National Security,” in The Minority Rights Revolution, 32-37; Branch, Chapter 11, “King, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Nobel Peace Prize, 1964,” 103-111; Branch, Chapter 12, “Crossroads in Selma,” 113-122; Steven F. Lawson, “The View from the Nation,” in Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 3-46, 70-100

Day 18 (M March 24) Day 19 (W March 26)

WEEK 11 Black Power, Media, and the War on PovertyReading: Branch, Chapter 15, “Black Power, 1966,” 141-150; Branch, Chapter 17, “Poverty: The Last Crusade,” 161-172' Thomas F. Jackson, Chapter 12, “Power to Poor People,” in From Civil Rights to Human Rights, 329-358; Timothy B. Tyson, “Robert F. Williams, ‘Black Power,’ and the Roots of the African American Freedom Struggle,” The Journal of American History, 85, no. 2 (Sept. 1998), 552-70 (second half of article); Lawson and Payne, 101-113 (primary sources); Black Panther Party Platform

Day 20 (M March 31)Day 21 (W April 2)

WEEK 12 The Movement Outside the SouthReading: Branch, Chapter 13, “Crossroads in Vietnam,” 123-130; Branch, Chapter 14, “Nonviolence Goes North,” 131-140; Dan T. Carter, “The Politics of Anger,” in From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich, 1- 23; Jeanne Theoharis, “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Civil RightsMovement Outside the South,” in The Myth of Southern Exceptionalism, 25-48; Thomas J.

Sugrue, Northern Lights: The Black Freedom Struggle Outside the South,” in OAH Magazine of History, January 2012, 9-15.

Day 22 (M April 7) Project 3-Turn in Annotated Bibliography in progress for evaluationDay 23 (W April 9)

WEEK 13 The Black Freedom Struggle and the Conservative CounterrevolutionReading: Dan T. Carter, “The Politics of Accommodation,” 24- 54 and “The Politics of Symbols,” 55-86 in From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich; Donna Murch, “The Many Meanings of Watts: Black Power, Wattstax, and the Carceral State,” OAH Magazine of History

Day 24 (M April 14) Day 25 (W April 16) Project 3 due

WEEKS 14 and 15 Topic The Recent Past/ Looking Back and Moving ForwardReading: Thomas F. Jackson, “Bread of Freedom: Martin Luther King and Human Rights,” OAH Magazine of History, April 2008, 14-16; Branch, Chapter 18, “Requiem in Memphis, 1968,” 173-184; Branch, Epilogue, 185-190; Julian Bond, “The Media and the Movement: Looking Back from the Southern Front,”Media, Culture and the Modern African American Freedom Struggle. Ed. Brian Ward (University Press of Florida: Gainesville, 2001), 16-40; Dan T. Carter, “The Politics of Righteousness,” in From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich, 87-123

Day 26 (M April 21) Day 27 (W April 23) Tour of International Civil Rights Museum, 134 South Elm Street,

Greensboro

Day 28 (M April 28) Last Day of Class

Project 4 Final Reflections Paper- Due by 5 p.m. -- Friday, May 2. Printed copies should be brought to the instructor's office-- MHRA 2102.