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“The Problem of the 20th Century is the Problem of the Color Line”: Exploring the Civil Rights MovementFall 2006The Flow of History book group focus on African-American history and culture wraps up this fall with an exploration of the modern Civil Rights era. We will examine the major events and overall trajectory of the Civil Rights Movement, but also pay attention to lesser-known but critical grassroots work in communities throughout the country; study the writings and strategies of key figures and groups; and consider issues of perspective in primary sources that connect to local stories. Organizing question: Why did African Americans’ long struggle for full participation and equality in American society achieve breakthroughs and success at a specific historical moment during the 1950s and 1960s? Purpose:a. To generate discussion about our understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, including key events, prominent figures and organizations, competing strategies, lesser-known participants and episodes, and historical interpretations. b. To include readings that can prompt a discussion about how to teach the era. c. To balance a content-heavy field like history with discussion of unresolved themes in this country’s society today—for example, relationships between race, ethnicity, class, gender and democracy; the continuing existence of segregation. d. To use reading strategies such as Asking Questions and Making Inferences from Reading to Learn: A Classroom Guide to Reading Strategy Instruction (Vermont Strategic Reading Initiative, 2004). Download a copy We encourage you to read The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward—especially if you did not participate in the spring 2006 session—in advance of the first meeting. It brilliantly recaps the era in which racial segregation became formalized and establishes the context for the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s (and it’s not that long!) If you can't register online, call the Southeast Vermont Community Learning Collaborative toll-free at: (866) 889-0042. Session 1—October 11The Grand Narrative of the Civil Rights Movement Juan Williams, et al., Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965. Primary sources with local connections (in this folder). Session 2—November 1Which Side Are You On? Han Nolan, A Summer of Kings (2006, young adult historical fiction). Excerpts from the writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, in The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle. Session 3—November 15From Nonviolence to the Black Panthers: Conflicting Approaches to Leadership, Strategy, and Goals Selections from The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader. Session 4—November 29An Alternative View Emilye Crosby, A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi (2005). |
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