- Students are welcome and encouraged to
- visit
- during office hours:
| Soc345 |
Robert G. Newby, Ph.D. |
| Civil Rights Movement |
Off.: 312D Anspach |
| Sec# 14438 |
Off. hrs: 8:00-8:50 daily |
| Summer I 2001 |
Phone: Off. 774-3418 |
| M-F 9:00-11:50a |
Dept.774-3160 |
| Listserv: soc345-L@cmich.edu |
E-Mail: Robert.Newby@cmich.edu |
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Midterm I Midterm II Final Exam
Class Meetings
| May 14 | May 15 | May16 | May 17 | May 18 |
| May 21 | May22 | May 23 | May 24 | May 25 |
| May 28 | May 29 | May30 | May 31 | June 1 |
This course satisfies the requirement for University Program Group IV-C which reads:
Studies in Racism and Cultural Diversity in the United States. Courses in this category focus primarily on one or more of the major groups which experience both racism and invidious discrimination in the United States, but may also include issues of gender, within it, and sexual orientation. Such courses will at least:
emphasize the contribution of the group(s) to the U.S. society;
consider the roots, behavioral and institutional manifestation and consequences of racism, discrimination and stereotyping; and
where appropriate, indicate the variation within the focus group.
The center piece of the course is the television series. As such, segments of the series will be the feature at each class meeting. There are 14 segments of approximately one hour in length. The lectures and discussion will based upon the various programs. Reading assignments from the companion volumes will be required. Additional readings for more in-depth investigations of various topics will be placed on reserve. Online resources and syllabus updates will be found on on my home page: http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/robert_newby/. See: Soc 345
Grades will be based on three (3) exams: two midterms (20 points) and a final (40 points); the midterms will be taken in the testing center. You may take the exam after 2:00 p.m. Thursday, anytime Friday, or Sunday afternoon. The other 20% will be class participation, including panel presentations (10 points).
| Texts* Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement, by Jack M. Bloom. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton. New York: Vintage Books, 1967. The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader, edited by Clayborne Carson, David Garrow, Vincent Harding and Darlene Clark Hine. New York; Penguin Books, 1991. (referred to as "Eyes" below) Civil Rights: The 1960s Freedom Struggle by Rhoda Lois Blumberg. Boston: G. K. Hall Co. 1984. Additional readings placed on reserve |
Online resource: Eyes on the Prize Viewers Guide
Students will be able to:
Discuss the extent to which the South was committed to white supremacy and the economic basis of that commitment.
Explain the importance of the Emmett Till case and the impact it had on race relations in America.
Discuss the roles of women and their importance to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and why the roles of women are generally crucial in the struggle.
- a. Emmett Till
- b. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Readings:
- Eyes: Chap.1
- Bloom: Introduction, Chaps. I & pp. 137-154
- Blumberg: Chronology, Appendix, Chaps. 1-3
Students will be able to:
Explain the importance of Brown vs. Board of Education in changing the socio-political status of African Americans.
Discuss the depths of contempt on the part of whites for blacks as exemplified by the resistance to African Americans exercising their civil rights.
Discuss the "risks" involved for those who challenged the racist social order.
Discuss how the cold war impacted the struggle for civil rights.
- a. School Desegregation
- b. James Meredith Enters Ole Miss
- Readings:
- Bloom: Chap. IV, pp. 120-137
- Eyes: Chap. 2
- Bloom: Chaps. II-IV, pp. 120-137
- Blumberg: Chap. 4
Students will be able to:
Explain the importance of the sit-in as tactic within the philosophy of non-violence in challenge the status quo.
Discuss the importance of being involved in the Movement for changing self conceptions of its adherents.
Discuss various reasons as to why of the Federal government was more or less important in protecting the rights of American citizens in the Freedom Rides.
Compare and contrast the various roles of the various civil rights organizations (i.e., SNCC, CORE, SCLC, NAACP) in challenging the Jim Crow.
- a. Student Sit-ins Nashville
- b. SNCC,CORE, and Freedom Rides
- Readings:
Eyes: Chap. 3- Bloom: Chap. VI
- Blumberg: Chap 5.
- Online resources: CORE founding
- Greensboro Sit-ins
The Sit-ins
SNCC Founding statement
Freedom Rides
Freedom Rides: Civil Rights Museum
Freedom Rides by Kendra et al.- James Lawson
Students will be able to:
Discuss why and how the Albany Movement is often considered to King’s major failure.
Explain the role of economics and "Bull" Connor in making the Birmingham campaign a success.
Explain the importance of the march on Washington and overall impact on the movement and the nation.
- a. Albany, Georgia
- b. Birmingham, Alabama
- c. March on Washington
- Readings:
Eyes: Chap.4- Bloom: review pp. 173-179
- Blumberg: Chap. 7
Students will be able to:
Discuss the role of white students in the Mississippi COFO campaign, including the importance of, and ways in which, their involvement advanced the cause of civil rights.
Discuss the role of Fannie Lou Hamer in the Movement and what made her involvement so important.
Explain the challenge of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to the regular Mississippi Democratic Party and the problems this challenge made for to the Democratic Party at its 1964 national convention.
- a. Organizing in Mississippi
- b. Freedom Summer/Democratic National Convention
- Readings:
Eyes: Chap. 5- Bloom: review pp. 179-185
- Blumberg: Chap. 6
Carmichael & Hamilton: Chap. IV.
Students will be able to:
Discuss the importance of martyrdom (e.g., Jimmie Lee Jackson) to the struggle for social change.
Identify the strategical, tactical, and ideological differences that led to increasing tensions between SCLC and SNCC.
Explain how the segregationists’ resistance aided the civil rights movements.
Explain how the struggle for democratic rights for African Americans is a struggle for democratic rights for all Americans.
Students will be able to:
Compare and contrast the differing (political economic) experiences and needs/goals of southern rural black Americans and urban northern black Americans in the late 1950 and early 1960s.
Explain the rise and appeal of Malcolm X in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a reaction to racism and white supremacy.
Compare the meaning of Black Power and its attendant goals with movement slogans and goals of earlier years.
Discuss the impact of Black Power on identity in the black community and other "identities" among oppressed groups in America.
- a. Nation of Islam/Malcolm X
- b. SNCC/Lowndes County Freedom Organization
- Readings:
- Eyes: Chap. 7
- Blumberg: Chap 8.
Carmichael & Hamilton: Chap. V, VI- On reserve:
- "Power and Racism" Stokely Carmichael
Students will be able to:
Identify and discuss the root causes of black urban discontent, or rebellions, in the mid-to-late 1960s.
Explain why the concept of non-violence was less viable in the urban north as opposed to the rural south.
Discuss the political economic bases for a shift in civil rights activities from a southern based movement to one that is urban and northern.
- a. Chicago Freedom Movement
- b. Detroit
- Readings:
- Eyes: Chap. 8
Bloom: Chap. VII- Blumberg: Chap. 9
Carmichael & Hamilton: Chap. I.- On reserve:
- "The Black Psyche" John Oliver Killens
- "Grapes of Wrath" Albert B. Cleage
Online resource: Kerner Report Conclusions
Students will be able to:
Discuss the political process and the importance of electing Carl Stokes (and Richard Hatcher) as mayor of a motor city.
Identify the various ideological and political origins of the philosophy and teachings of the Black Panther Party.
Discuss the primary forces that were central to the opposition and defeat of empowerment in the black and Latino communities.
Students will be able to:
Discuss the various reasons why the traditional civil rights organizations were critical of SCLC and King for their opposition of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Discuss how King’s views had shifted from integration to increased economic opportunities and more equitable social order for low-income and impoverished Americans.
Compare and contrast the respective demands of and responses to the 1963 March on Washington and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.
Discussion the possible relevance of the fact that with the Poor People’s Campaign and the Garbage Worker’s strike, King may have been more of a threat to society.
Students will be able to:
Discuss the impact of Black Power on identity in the black community and the political empowerment black America.
Compare and contrast black student activism in the early 1960s with that of the late struggle.
- a. Muhammad Ali
- b. Howard University
- c. National Black Political Convention
- Readings:
- Eyes: Chap.11
- On reserve:
- "The Ballot of the The Bullet" Malcolm X
- "Cassius Clay Must Be Beaten" Floyd Patterson
- "Life in a Hot Corner" Angelo Dundee with Tex Maule
- "Ali Take a Crown and a Cause" Angelo Dundee with Tex Maule
- "He could Go to Jail and Still Be Champ" Angelo Dundee with Tex Maule
Students will be able to:
Discuss the role played by the government in the murder of Fred Hampton and its attempt to de-legitimize the Black Panther party.
Discuss ways in which COINTELPRO undermined democratic reforms.
Discuss and provide examples of such terms as political prisoner, agent provocateur, repression, law and order.
Compare and contrast the murder of Fred Hampton with that of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.
- a. Black Panthers in Chicago; Murder of Fred Hampton
- b. Attica and Prisoners’ Rights
- Readings:
- Eyes: Chap. 12
- On reserve:
- "Racism and the Administration of Justice" Knowles and Prewitt
- "Introduction" From Cointelpro Nelson Blackstock
- "An Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis" James Baldwin
- "Poltical Prisoners, Prisons and Black Liberation" Angela Davis
- "Lessons: From Attica to Soledad" Angela Y . Davis
- Online resource: A History of the Black Panther Party
- The Panthers by Todd Burroughs
- Pratt Gets New Trial
- Attica Settlement
Students will be able to:
Compare and contrast the struggle for desegregated schools in Little Rock with that of racial balance in Boston.
Discuss the validity of white businessmen labeling to Maynard Jackson as a racist.
Explain the rationale for affirmative action and discuss the policy in context of societal benefit (Toni Johnson) vs. Individual rights (Alan Bakke).
- a. Boston School Desegregation
- b. Atlanta; Economic Equity
- c. Bakke Case
- Readings:
- Eyes: Chap. 13
- On reserve:
- "Racism and Busing in Boston" Jim Green and Allen Hunter
- Online Resource: Moving Up and Reverse Discrimination
Students will be able to:
Understand the history of economic, social and political and political life of African Americans in Miami from around World War II to the 1980s.
Discuss why the killing of Arthur McDuffie and the Exoneration of the police could be basis for an urban rebellion.
Compare and contrast the election of Harold Washington with that of Carl Stokes 20 years earlier.
- a. Miami
- b. Chicago: Election of Harold Washington
- c. Retrospective
- Readings:
- Eyes: Chap. 13
- On reserve
- "Black Power in Chicago: Race and Electoral Politics in Urban America"
- "The Making of a Class Conscious 'Race Man': Reflections on the 1960s"
- Robert Newby
- Online Resource: Moving to the Right
- Washington Post on Civil Rights Today
- Reparations -- The Movement
- Rodney King
- Transcript of police on King
- Officers acquitted of Rodney King
Class meets at regular time 9:00a. Exam begins at:
Study Guide