Teaching the American Civil Rights Movement Freedom's Bittersweet Song

The past fifteen years have seen renewed interest in the civil rights movement. Television documentaries, films and books have brought the struggles into our homes and classrooms once again. New evidence in older criminal cases demands that the judicial system reconsider the accuracy of investigations and legal decisions. Racial profiling, affirmative action, voting districting, and school voucher programs keep civil rights on the front burner in the political arena. In light of this, there are very few resources for teaching the civil rights at the university level. This timely and invaluable book fills this gap. This book offers perspectives on presenting the movement in different classroom contexts; strategies to make the movement come alive for students; and issues highlighting topics that students will find appealing. Including sample syllabi and detailed descriptions from courses that prove effective, this work will be useful for all instructors, both college and upper level high school, for courses in history, education, race, sociology, literature and political science.

Introduction, Waldo E. Martin, Jr. and Patricia A. Sullivan

I. Courses

1. Teaching Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement in High School History Courses: Rethinking Content and Pedagogy, Derrick P. Alridge

2. Infusing the African-American Freedom Struggle into a Historical Survey Course, Susan Hult Edwards

Sample Course Schedule: U.S. History Since 1877

3. Birth Too Long Delayed is Perspective Too Long Denied: The Importance of "Before and After" the Traditional American Civil Rights Movement, Houston Bryan Roberson

Sample Syllabus: The American Civil Rights Movement

4. Women and the "Freedom Struggle" in the 20th Century, Barbara Machtinger

Sample Syllabus: Women and the "Freedom Struggle" in the 20th Century

5. Wading in Troubled Water: "Legacies of the Civil Rights Movement" as Freshman Composition, Julie Buckner Armstrong

Sample Syllabus: Legacies of the Civil Rights Movement

II. Strategies:

1. "Raising the Curtain": Performance, History, and Pedagogy, Rhonda Y. Williams

Sample Performance Project Assignment

2. Eyewitness to the Movement: Conducting Oral History Interviews in the Classroom, Jack M. Bloom

Sample Syllabus: Eyewitness to the Movement

3. Coming of Age in the Movement: Teaching With Personal Narratives, Sarah E. Gardner

4. Your Blues Ain't Like Mine and the Civil Rights Movement, Charles E. Wilson, Jr.

5. Music and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968: A Classroom Approach, Gregory Freeland

Sample Syllabus: Music and the Civil Rights Movement

III. Issues

1. All Power to the People! : Teaching Black Nationalism in the Post Civil Rights Era, Peniel E. Joseph

Sample Syllabus: Black Political Thought in the Age of Civil Rights and Black Power

2. "This nonviolent stuff ain't no good. It'll get ya killed ': Teaching About Self-Defense in the African-American Freedom Struggle, Emilye J. Crosby

Sample Assignments: Self-Defense and the African-American Freedom Struggle

3. Dismantling the Master's Narrative: Teaching Gender, Race and Class in the Civil Rights Movement, M. Bahati Kuumba

Sample Syllabus: Women and Social Resistance Movements

4. The Defiant Ones: The Civil Rights Movement and College Student Protest, 1954-1975, Wanda M. Davis

Sample Syllabus: The Civil Rights Movement and College Student Protest

5. Deep in Our Hearts, Constance Curry and Sue Thrasher

IV. Chronology

V. Resources

Contributors

Julie Buckner Armstrong is Assistant Professor of English at Valdosta State in Georgia. Houston B. Roberston is Assistant Professor of U.S. History at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Rhonda Y. Williams is Assistant Professor of History at Case Western.