
RETHINKING MID-20TH CENTURY BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE
5 LIVE SESSIONS (90 MINUTES EACH)
LIVE WITH
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The popular memory of the 20th century Black freedom struggle in the United States, as trotted out every winter between Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend and the end of Black History Month contains kernels of important truths, but is deeply flawed, perpetuating a narrative of a limited struggle for legal change in the American South, carried out by courageous but faceless masses lined up behind a handful of (largely male) charismatic leaders and broadly supported by the political mainstream. As Julian Bond, a former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader who served as the head of the NAACP in his later years, summed up this gross mischaracterization of the movement: “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, and the white kids came down and saved the day.” This course will offer participants a window into the 20+ years of vibrant historical scholarship that has fundamentally changed historians’ understandings of the chronology, demographics, geography, goals, and scope of the mid-20th century civil rights movement. We will explore the movement from the bottom up, examining grassroots struggles for equality on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line; highlighting less well known stories of women, young people, and local leaders; providing new angles of approach to understanding Black Power; and probing the connections between domestic civil rights campaigns and international events such as World War II, the Cold War, and the collapse of colonialism. We will also wrestle with questions of periodization and the concept of the “long civil rights movement.”
SYLLABUS
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SESSION 1
Thursday,
March 9, 2023
A Richer,
Truer and
More
Challenging History
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SESSION 2
Thursday,
March 16, 2023
Myth and
History:
The Montgomery
Bus Boycott
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SESSION 3
Thursday,
March 23, 2023
Books, Buses,
and Bombs:
School Desegregation
Battles Nationwide
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SESSION 4
Thursday,
March 30, 2023
“I Question
America:”
The Mississippi
Summer Project
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SESSION 5
Thursday,
April 6, 2023
Panthers and Power:
The Lowndes County
Freedom Party & the Black Panther Party
WHAT'S INCLUDED
5 Live Online Sessions
Five 90-minute sessions held live on Zoom with the professor and your fellow learners
Course Page
You'll have access to a dedicated course page where all of the content of your course is organized
Access to Recordings
All sessions are recorded and you'll have access to the recordings for on-demand viewing
Premier Customer Service
You'll have a direct customer service contact for the duration of the course
Reading Recommendations
Curated reading lists from the professor to further enhance your understanding of the topic
Small Group Learning
This class is limited to only thirty participants to mimic a small college class with direct access to the professor