The Civil Rights Movement
History 318 Section A02
Clearihue C110, Thursday 6:30-9:20
University of Victoria, Spring 2010
Instructor: Dr. Alisa Harrison
E-mail: ayh@uvic.ca Telephone: (250) 709-9640
Office hours: Thursdays 5-6 or by appointment Office location: Clearihue B125
Website: http://web.uvic.ca/~ayh
In the 1950s and 1960s, after centuries of struggle, African Americans launched a mass movement for
social and political change. This course will examine the evolution and character of this movement,
which was based in the American South but tied to activism all over the country. It will focus on the
complex dynamics of organizing for social change; the individuals, groups and organizations that made
the movement; and negotiations between local and national concerns, as well as grassroots organizers
and formal political leaders. It will also consider the ways that we remember the movement and situate
it within historical narratives of 20th-century American politics and African American struggle.
The principle learning objectives for this course are:
 To become acquainted with major historiographical interventions in this field of study and to
investigate how these interventions have changed over time.
 To gain experience reading and contextualizing primary sources.
 To explore the complexities of producing narratives about the civil rights movement.
 To encounter some of the individuals who played key roles in the movement while examining this
movement as a collective endeavor.
 To examine the interplay of local, national and international politics.
 To interrogate the meaning of activism.
 To consider the relationship between liberalism and radicalism in post-WWII United States history.
Course Requirements:
 Response papers: Three 3-4 pp. papers responding to assigned secondary source readings. See
instructions. January 28, March 11, April 8. 10% each, for a total of 30%
 Take-home midterm: Analytical essay, 6-8 pp. To be distributed February 4, due February 11.
30%
 Final exam: Exam covering the entire course. April—date TBA. 30%
 Active participation in class discussions: Attendance at lectures, video screenings and discussions is
mandatory. You will only receive credit for participation if you attend class and make regular,
quality contributions to class discussions. 10%
Course Structure and Readings:
The readings include scholarly analyses and a selection of primary sources. Meetings consist of
lectures, discussions and video screenings. All videos will be shown in class; if you miss a video, it is
your responsibility to view it on your own time. Please note that the instructor reserves the right to
change the syllabus, including reading assignments and schedule, at any time.
Books are available for purchase at the University of Victoria bookstore. All readings that are noted
with a single asterisk (*) are available on our website (http://web.uvic.ca/~ayh). A double asterisk (**)
History 318, Civil Rights Movement
University of Victoria, Spring 2010
means the reading is located on reserve in the library. URLs are provided to link to many of the
readings on the Web. Students must bring copies of all assigned readings to class for discussions.
Reading tips: Leave yourself ample time to complete your reading. The reading for this course is
frequently both gripping and moving. It is vital that you complete it in full before each class, and that
you read closely, in a way that allows you time to think about the material before coming to our
discussion. When you are reading, among other questions, always ask yourself: What is the author’s
main point? What sources does he/she use to make this point? Is it convincing? Why or why not?
What does this reading teach you? How? When and why did the author write this? You won’t be able
to find conclusive answers to all of these questions, but attempting to answer them will help you
develop a better understanding of the work.
Required books available for purchase:
Charles Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi
Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi (New York: The Dial Press, 1968).
Reading and Class Schedule:
(instructor reserves the right to change the syllabus at any time)
I. What is the Civil Rights Movement? What is the Freedom Struggle?
January 7:
Lecture: Introduction and Origins of the Freedom Struggle
II. Organizing: 1954-1964
January 14:
Organizations and Catalytic Events
Watch The Untold Story of Emmett Till
Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: Introduction and Chapters 1-2.
Lawrence Goodwyn, Introduction, The Populist Moment.
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/PMSHAGAintro.html
Thurgood Marshall, “The Legal Attack to Secure Civil Rights.”
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/programs/pauleyg/voices/marshal2.htm
January 21:
Goals and Tactics: Desegregation
Payne: Chapters 3-4.
**Excerpt, William Chafe, Civilities and Civil Rights, chapter 3.
Dwight Eisenhower, “Federal Court Orders Must Be Upheld.”
http://comm.tamu.edu/pres/speeches/ikefederal.html
January 28:
Goals and Tactics: Nonviolent Direct Action
Watch Eyes on the Prize, “Ain’t Scared of Your Jails.”
**Excerpt, Stokely Carmichael, Ready for Revolution, pp. 165-77.
**Excerpt, Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker, chapter 8.
 Last day to submit Response #1.
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History 318, Civil Rights Movement
University of Victoria, Spring 2010
February 4:
Resistance to the Movement
Payne: Chapters 5-6.
**Excerpt, Dan Carter, The Politics of Rage, chapters 5 and 6.
Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=40
 Take-home midterm distributed, 9:20 pm.
February 11: Reprisals
Watch Four Little Girls
*Danielle McGuire, “’It Was Like All of Us Had Been Raped’: Sexual Violence,
Community Mobilization and the African American Freedom Struggle,” Journal of
American History (December 2004), pp. 906-31.
Payne: Chapters 7-8.
 Take-home midterm due, 6:30 pm.
February 18: No class—Reading Break, February 15-19
III. The Movement Transforming
February 25: Freedom Summer
Watch Eyes on the Prize, “Mississippi: Is this America?”
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi.
March 4:
Women, Gender and Organizing
Payne: Chapter 9.
*Cheryl Lynn Greenberg, ed., A Circle of Trust: Remembering SNCC, “SNCC Women
and the Stirrings of Feminism,” pp.127-151.
*Appendix, Sara Evans, Personal Politics, Cynthia Washington, “We Started from
Different Ends of the Spectrum.”
“SNCC Position Paper (Women in the Movement),” Name withheld by request, Nov.
1964.
http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/SNC
C_women.html
“Sex and Caste: A kind of memo from Casey Hayden and Mary King to a number of
other women in the peace and freedom movements,” Nov. 1965.
http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/modern/Sex-and-Caste.html
March 11:
The Growth of Radicalism
Payne: Chapters 10-11.
*Hasan Kwame Jeffries, “SNCC, Black Power, and Independent Political Party
Organizing in Alabama, 1964-66,” Journal of African American History (v. 91,
2006).
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet.”
http://www.historicaldocuments.com/BallotortheBulletMalcolmX.htm
Stokely Carmichael, “Black Power.”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/stokelycarmichaelblackpower.html
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History 318, Civil Rights Movement
University of Victoria, Spring 2010
John Lewis, speech at March on Washington.
http://www.crmvet.org/info/mowjl.htm
 Last day to submit Response #2
March 18:
Backlash and Resegregation
Watch Intolerable Burden
Payne: Chapter 12.
*Constance Curry, Silver Rights, Chapters 7, 8 and 10.
Charles McKinney, “Contending with King.”
http://www.jamestownproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157
&Itemid=81
Bayard Rustin, “From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement.”
http://www.socialdemocrats.org/protopol.html
Lyndon B. Johnson, “The Voting Rights Act Should Be Passed.”
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/johnson.htm
IV. Liberation?
March 25:
Nationalism and Self Defense
Payne: Chapter 13.
**Simon Wendt, “The Roots of Black Power? Armed Resistance and the Radicalization
Of the Civil Rights Movement,” in The Black Power Movement: Rethinking the Civil
Rights-Black Power Era, ed. Peniel E. Joseph.
**Edward P. Morgan, “Media Culture and the Public Memory of the Black Panther
Party,” in In Search of the Black Panther Party, eds. Jama Lazero and Yohuru Williams.
Black Panther Party, “Ten Point Plan.”
http://www.blackpanther.org/TenPoint.htm
Rules of the Black Panther Party.
http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/unknown-date/partyrules.htm
April 1:
Sisters in Struggle
*Deborah King, “Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,”
Signs (Autumn 1988), pp. 42-72.
Mary Ann Weathers, “An Argument for Black Women’s Liberation as a Revolutionary
Force.”
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/fun-games2/argument.html
Patricia Robinson, “Poor Black Women” including “Birth Control Pills and Black
Children.”
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/poor/
Maxine Williams and Pamela Newman, “Black Women’s Liberation.”
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/blacklib/
Third World Women’s Alliance, “Black Women’s Manifesto.”
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/blkmanif/
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History 318, Civil Rights Movement
University of Victoria, Spring 2010
April 8:
Assessment—An Unfinished Revolution?
Watch Eyes on the Prize, “Back to the Movement”
Payne: Chapter 14.
Roger Wilkins, “Racism Has Its Privileges.”
http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/docs/Nation-3-27-95.htm
Tim Wise, “This is Your Nation on White Privilege.”
http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/nationonwhitepriv.html
*Tim Wise, “Red-Baiting and Racism: Socialism as a New Black Bogeyman.”
 Last day to submit Response #3
Final exam date TBA. Note: Instructors do not control the exam schedule. The University calendar
states: “Students should wait until the final examination timetable is posted before making travel or
work plans.”
Course Policies
Submitting Written Work
Unless otherwise specified, written work should be typed in 12-point font, double-spaced on one side
of each page, and placed on a page with 1” margins on all four sides. All pages after the first must be
numbered, and your paper should have a separate title page. All papers must be stapled in the top left
hand corner. Please do not submit work in any kind of folder or cover, or held together by clips of any
sort. Citations must conform to the Chicago Style Manual (a.k.a. Turabian).
I encourage you to save trees and submit work by e-mail to ayh@uvic.ca. Copy yourself (“cc”) on all
submission messages: in the unlikely event that your paper gets eaten by cyberspace, you will have
proof that you submitted it.
If you need assistance with your written assignments, you are welcome to consult with me. You may
also want to take advantage of the free resources offered at UVic’s Writing Centre:
http://www.ltc.uvic.ca/servicesprograms/twc/students.php. To book an appointment online go to:
http://www.rich36.com/uvic/.
Late Papers Policy
All papers must be handed in on time. Extensions will only be granted in the case of serious illness or
other emergencies. You are required to provide relevant professional documentation (i.e. doctor’s or
counselor’s note) in order to qualify for an extended deadline. Unexcused late papers will lose five
points per day late (including weekends), no exceptions.
Plagiarism
You will be penalized harshly if you submit plagiarized work. The University’s official policy on
plagiarism is attached to this syllabus. If you are still in any doubt about what constitutes plagiarism,
please see me or consult the following useful document:
 From the University of British Columbia: http://www.arts.ubc.ca/FOA/doa/plagiarism.htm.
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History 318, Civil Rights Movement
University of Victoria, Spring 2010
Classroom Conduct
It is absolutely crucial that every student feels able to express him or herself freely in this class. It’s a
cliché, but to my mind there truly are no stupid questions; chances are, if you are wondering about
something, others are (or have been), too. I encourage you to challenge me, each other and yourselves
as we explore topics that are provocative and often difficult. All of us will work toward a better
understanding of what critical thought is and how to engage in critical debates with other people. Note
that there is a major difference between disagreeing with another person’s opinion or perspective and
denigrating that person or his or her input: we all need to be vigilant about understanding and
respecting this difference. There is no place for any demeaning, disrespectful or hateful speech in this
class. If you ever believe that you have been mistreated by another student or by me, I encourage you
to report this to me privately so that we can confront and learn from such experiences.
Office Hours
In addition to scheduled office hours each week, students are welcome to make additional
appointments or to consult with me via e-mail or telephone. I encourage you not to wait until the day
before a due date or an exam to rush in for a last-minute meeting; the earlier you seek assistance, the
more helpful I can be, the more you will learn, and the more successful you will be in this course. I’ll
also remind you that you need not be having trouble with the material to schedule a meeting. I am
happy to see any students who wish to discuss the course content, whether this is due to problems
understanding it or to a particular interest the student wishes to explore in more depth than regular class
time allows.
Enjoy the semester! 
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