This course explores the Civil Rights Movement in the United States during the 20th century. The U.S. Civil Rights Movement was a fight for human rights that directly challenged the nation to extend its protected democratic principles and citizenship rights to African Americans. We will analyze the daily local and national organizing efforts that created and maintained this struggle for full enfranchisement. 

Through a diverse array of materials, we will examine the movement’s origins, along with the key issues, strategies, organizations, and activists of the time. Students will study both secondary and primary sources, including historical monographs, biographies, speeches, and documents from Civil Rights Movement organizations. As a class, we will also examine legal and extralegal violence against Blacks and the various ways in which they responded.

To supplement the readings, we will view documentary films that offer visual insight into the period and an alternative interpretive perspective on understanding the movement.