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The Southern Civil Rights Movement Course Number: AMH 3930 (Junior Colloquium) Teaching Times: Wednesday 7-9 (1.55-4.55pm) Teaching Room: Keene-Flint 121 Course Instructor: Brian Ward (wardb@ufl.edu) 025C, Keene-Flint Hall Office Hours: T 2.00 - 3.30pm, or by appointment W 10.00 - 11.30am, or by appointment Course Objectives This course will explore the origins and development of the southern civil rights movement between roughly 1954 and 1968. In particular, we will address three major issues in civil rights history: first, we will reconsider the place of Martin Luther King, Jr. within the broader struggle for racial equality in the South; second, we will examine the role of the mass media in shaping both the course of the Movement and the way in which it has been remembered in America; third, we will think about how the participants in the Movement have remembered their own role in the freedom struggle, offering historians valuable, but often ambiguous and unreliable, insights into the past. Among the many other themes we will examine are: the nature of the segregated South; the various African American traditions of resistance to racial oppression prior to the mid-1950s; the significance of "grassroots" activism and courtroom battles; the response of federal government to the Movement; the special role of students and women; tensions within the Movement over tactics and goals; the impact of Black Power and Vietnam; the importance of black voting rights; and the role of nonviolent direct action and armed self-defense tactics. We will also examine in detail some of the great set-pieces of the southern struggle, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Little Rock School Crisis, the sit-ins and freedom rides, the Albany, Birmingham, St. Augustine and Selma campaigns, the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Poor People's Campaign. As befits the Junior Colloquium, students will have an opportunity to do primary research and to write substantial and original pieces of historical analysis. Common Texts Students will need to purchase - and read! -- the following core texts: John Dittmer, Local People Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America Cynthia Griggs-Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry Martin Luther King, Jr (Ed. James Washington), I Have a Dream John Lewis, Walking With the Wind Course Structure The course will be taught in a series of weekly seminars, each lasting 3 hours. The format will change slightly from week to week, but we will usually devote about an hour of each session to a general discussion of the week's common readings. To help focus your reading, see the Schedule of Meetings and Common Readings below, which lists the major topics for discussion each week. Most weeks we will also spend about 50 minutes either watching a documentary film related to the history of the southern civil rights movement, or listening to and discussing student presentations (see Syndicates) on particular themes and events. The third component of our meetings will be a discussion of the historical (and historiographical) significance of a piece or pieces of primary source material. Often this material will be drawn from the collection of Martin Luther King's writings and speeches, I Have A Dream, but sometimes you will be presented with "unseen" material from elsewhere. On other occasions, this document analysis may be replaced by a debate. NB: Except in the weeks when they are making a formal syndicate presentation, all students are required to bring to class a single page of comments, thoughts and/or questions relating to their readings for the week. These "weekly reading logs" can be in the form of simple bullet-point notes or more sustained prose, but they must be word-processed (double-spaced, please). I will collect them at the end of each meeting and use them to help determine your class participation grade for the course (see, Course Assessment & Grading, below). Course Assessment and Grading There are a variety of ways in which you can demonstrate your knowledge and earn good grades in this class. However, as this is a Junior Colloquium, the emphasis will be on sustained written work involving the use of primary source materials, as well as the works of other historians. 1. Book Review: 10% of course grade. It is important that all students should understand the basic contours of the postwar African American Freedom Struggle before we get down to some more specialized work on King and the southern civil rights movement. To this end, everyone should write a 500-word book review of Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America (just chapters 1-5, please) and hand it in on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. Top Tip #1: Read some reviews of civil rights studies in scholarly journals -- you may even find one or two reviews of Fairclough's own book (but don't copy them!). This will give you an idea of how to structure a meaningful critique. Top Tip #2: Your review should consider both the strengths and weaknesses of Fairclough's account of King, the SCLC, and their relationship to the wider freedom struggle. You might pay special attention to factors including how he treats (or neglects): the periodization of the struggle; the role of federal government; the role of nonviolence and violence; white resistance and white liberalism; the significance of the media and popular culture in shaping Movement tactics and King's image; religion; gender and class issues. Remember, an effective review will constructively critique a book, not just summarize its contents. This assignment is due on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 2. Research Projects: 20% of course grade. Every student will complete one Research Project and hand it in by WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12. There are two kinds of Research Project from which to choose. a) Autobiography, Memory, and the Southern Civil Rights Movement During this course we will all be reading John Lewis's autobiography Walking With the Wind and I want us all to think about the ways in which participants in the Movement have remembered and characterized their own involvement in the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s - often in ways that are at odds with how historians and the popular media have depicted the Movement. If you choose to do this Research Project, you will be required to write a 6-page paper on Movement autobiographies. This paper can include your thoughts on John Lewis's Walking With the Wind, but it must also refer to at least two other autobiographies, or collections of oral history interviews, by participants in the southern civil rights movement. Please let me know which texts you intend to use by Wednesday, September 18, so that I can check they are suitable - if they are not I can usually offer alternative suggestions. Top Tip #3: Do not merely summarize these autobiographies or oral testimonies, but try to think about how people remember and write about past events in which they participated. How do their reminiscences help historians to reconstruct the past? Are there dangers in relying too heavily on personal memories? How do these personal memories stack up against what historians have to say about the same events based on other kinds of evidence? This assignment is due on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12. b) Newspapers, Magazines, and the Southern Civil Rights Movement The role of the media in depicting and shaping the civil rights movement is a major sub-theme in this course. If you choose to do this Research Project, you will be required to write a 6-page paper in which you pick one major event in civil rights history (you should consult with me about a suitable topic) and explore how it was reported in at least three contemporary newspapers or periodicals (eg: Time, Newsweek, Harpers, etc). Some papers are now available on-line, and you can consult many more on microfilm or in hard-copy through the UF library. Ideally, you will look at the reporting of the same incidents or events in three very different kinds of newspapers (northern, southern, black-oriented, white-oriented, urban, small-town, liberal, conservative, etc) to get a sense of the variations in coverage and analysis. Top Tip #4: Do not merely summarize the reporting: try to find out something about each of the papers you consult and its editorial stance on the Movement in general. Think about how the contemporary press coverage fits in with what you know about the same events from reading historians. How much are historians still dependent on press coverage and what risks are involved in relying on the contemporary media to get an accurate picture of the past? This assignment is due on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12. 3. Research Paper: 40% of course grade. All students will be required to write one substantial, 12-14-page (excluding notes and a list of sources) research paper on a topic chosen in consultation with me. Click here for a list of possible research questions, but you should feel free to make suggestions of your own. As this is a research paper, involving a significant amount of primary research as well as secondary reading, you must confirm your topic with me by WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19. On WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26 you should submit to me a brief (2-side maximum) abstract of your Research Paper, describing its scope, noting your preliminary findings, and including both a bibliography and list of the primary sources you have used (or intend to use). In class on WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, you will produce two copies of a preliminary draft of your Research Paper. One copy is for me, the other will be given to one of your classmates to critique (see Paper Critique, below). You will be able to collect the draft and your classmates' critique in the history department office on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22. The final Research Paper will be due in class on WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7. NB: Scholarly Apparatus Notes: Your Research Papers should include footnotes (or endnotes) in which you must cite the source of any ideas, statistical information, or direct quotations which you have incorporated in your work and which are not your own (see Course Protocols, Plagiarism, below). Bibliography/List of Sources: You must also include a bibliography of all the sources you have consulted (books, articles, microfilm collections, newspapers, lecture notes, websites, best friends...) to prepare the paper. Internet Sources: Internet sources should be treated with great care and fully cited whenever you use them. As a rule of thumb, you should read at least three articles or books for every internet source you use. Top Tip #5: learn to use the www.jstor.org website -- this will give you access to a searchable and downloadable treasure trove of scholarly articles relevant to this course. There are many other good databases (eg: America: History and History; History Resource Center, LexisNexis Primary Sources in US History) that you can access through the UF Library website. 4. Paper Critique: 10% of course grade. All students will write a 500-word critique of the Research Paper draft they receive from one of their colleagues. You will get the draft on WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16 and should return it, along with two copies of your formal critique, to the History Department Office by 4.00pm on MONDAY,NOVEMBER 20. You should take this exercise seriously, offering advice on how the paper might be improved in terms of organization, style, and content. 5. Class Participation and Syndicate Presentations: 20% of course grade. At our first formal meeting on WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24 you will each be assigned to a Syndicate of 2 students. During the course of the semester, each Syndicate will be responsible for making a presentation of about 25 minutes on a particular topic (see, Schedule of Meetings and Common Readings, below and the Syndicate Presentation Reading List). You will receive plenty of guidance on how to organize your presentations effectively, on how you might divide up the work load within your Syndicates -- and on the ways in which I will ensure that those who do the bulk of the work get the bulk of the credit for it!). This is a good opportunity for you to be creative and entertaining while you exhibit your understanding of the southern freedom struggle. Top Tip #6: be sure to stick to the assigned topic and not try to cover too much material superficially. It is often a good idea to frame your presentations by posing a series of questions that you then proceed to answer. Remember, the object of the exercise is to educate your colleagues about a particular topic or event and in order to do that effectively you need to balance some basic narrative detail (the nitty gritty of what happened when to whom) and analysis (why it happened and what it means). Even when not formally presenting, students will be expected to contribute to the class discussions and debates. To do this effectively, it is essential that you keep up with the required reading - and remember I will be collecting a "weekly reading log" in each class. Your final class participation grade will be determined by evaluating your attendance record, your contribution to open class discussions, your weekly reading log, and your formal syndicate presentation. SUMMARY OF COURSE ASSESSMENT: Book Review = 10% Research Project = 20% Research Paper= 40% Paper Critique = 10% Class Participation = 20% Course Protocols Attendance This is a seminar-based course and your attendance each week is mandatory. You will lose one grade from your course participation grade for each unexcused absence. Deadlines You must submit your work on time. Any unexcused late work will be penalized by a grade a day. Plagiarism There will be a policy of "zero tolerance" towards plagiarism on this course. Anyone discovered cheating in this -- or any other -- way will be awarded a failing course grade. Students are expected to be familiar with standard legitimate academic practices. If you have any doubts about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult the University and Departmental guidelines, or ask me for clarification. NB: Your attention is drawn to the University's rules on Academic Honesty and the statement on Academic Honesty in the Undergraduate Catalog. The Department of History's own statement on Academic Honesty, contained in the Department's Manual on Policies and Procedures, covers plagiarism, attribution, citation, multiple submission of papers, bogus data, good old-fashioned copying, and sundry other shameful shenanigans and misdemeanors. Students with Disabilities Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation. Schedule of Meetings and Common Readings August WEEK 1 W 24 INTRODUCTION OF COURSE AND REQUIREMENTS WEEK 2 W 31 RACIAL OPPRESSION IN THE JIM CROW SOUTH Discussion Topic #1: The Nature of the Jim Crow South, 1890-1954 Discussion Topic #2: Traditions of Black Resistance, 1890-1954 Common Reading for the Week: Dittmer, Local People, Chs. 1-2; Griggs-Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry, Ch.2; Lewis, Walking With the Wind, Chs.1-2 September WEEK 3 W 7 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BROWN AND THE RISE OF MASSIVE RESISTANCE Discussion Topic #1: The Backlash Theory Syndicate #1 Presentation: The Rise of Massive Resistance, 1954-1963 Syndicate #2 Presentation: Little Rock, 1957 Common Reading for the Week: Dittmer, Local People, Chs.3-4; Michael Klarman, "How Brown Changed Race Relations: The Backlash Thesis," Journal of American History, 81, 1 (June 1994), 81-118 (available on jstor). WEEK 4 T 14 BECOMING MARTIN LUTHER KING: THE ROAD TO MONTGOMERY Discussion Topic: Martin Luther King's Early Life and Influences Syndicate #3 Presentation: MLK and the Issue of Plagiarism Film: Eyes on the Prize ("Awakenings, 1954-1956") Review of Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America (Chs.1-5) due. Common Reading for the Week: Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, Chs.1-2; MLK, I Have a Dream, Ch.7 WEEK 5 W 21 MONTGOMERY Discussion Topic #1: Nonviolent Direct Action Tactics in Montgomery Discussion Topic #2: The Role of MLK in the Montgomery Bus Boycott Syndicate #4 Presentation: Women and the Bus Boycott Common Reading for the Week: Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, Ch.2; MLK, I Have a Dream, Chs. 1,2,3, and 6. WEEK 6 W 28 A MASS MOVEMENT EMERGES Discussion Topic #1: The Sit-ins Discussion Topic #2: Students in the Movement Syndicate #5 Presentation: The Founding of SNCC, 1960 Common Reading for the Week: Griggs-Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry, Chs.3-4; Lewis, Walking With the Wind, Chs. 4-9; MLK, I Have a Dream, Chs. 8-9. October WEEK 7 W 5 FREEDOM RIDES AND THE ALBANY MOVEMENT Discussion Topic #1: SCLC vs SNCC in Albany Discussion Topic #2: MLK, Laurie Pritchett and the Law Syndicate #6 Presentation: CORE, SNCC, and the Freedom Rides Common Reading for the Week: Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, Ch.4; Lewis, Walking With the Wind, Ch.10. WEEK 8 W 12 1963: ZENITH OF THE SOUTHERN MOVEMENT? Discussion Topic #1: MLK and the Birmingham Campaign Discussion Topic #2: The March on Washington Syndicate #7 Presentation: JFK, RFK and MLK, 1960-1963 Hand in Research Projects Common Reading for the Week: Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, Ch.5; MLK, I Have a Dream, Chs.10-11; Lewis, Walking With the Wind, Ch.11. WEEK 9 W 19 WOMEN IN THE SOUTHERN MOVEMENT Discussion Topic #1: White Women in the Movement Discussion Topic #2: African American Women in the Movement Film: Eyes on the Prize ("Mississippi: 'Is This America?'") Confirm Research Paper Topics Common Reading for the Week: Griggs-Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry; also either Charles Payne, "Men Led, Women Organized," in Vicki Crawford (ed), Women in the Civil Rights Movement, 1-12, or Belinda Robnett, "Women in SNCC," in Peter Ling and Sharon Monteith (eds), Gender in the Civil Rights Movement WEEK 10 W 26 MISSISSIPPI, 1963-1964 Discussion Topic #1: The MFDP, Freedom Vote and Freedom Summer Discussion Topic #2: MLK, LBJ, and the Atlantic City "Sell-out" Hand in 2-Page Research Paper Abstract Common Reading for the Week: Dittmer, Local People, Chs.6-9; Griggs-Fleming, Soon We Will Not Cry, Ch. 5; Lewis, Walking With the Wind, Ch.13. November WEEK 11 W 2 NO CLASS - WORK ON RESEARCH PAPERS WEEK 12 W 9 ST. AUGUSTINE, SELMA, AND THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 Discussion Topic #1: The St. Augustine Campaign Discussion Topic #2: The Selma Campaign Syndicate #8 Presentation: Media and the Southern Civil Rights Movement Common Reading for the Week: Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, Chs.7, 9-10; Lewis, Walking With the Wind, Chs.15-16. WEEK 13 W 16 ALTERNATIVES TO NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION Discussion Topic #1: Armed Self Defense in the South Discussion Topic #2: Legalistic Approaches to Civil Rights Reform Syndicate #9 Presentation: The Deacons For Defense Exchange Drafts of Research Papers. NB: YOU MUST SUBMIT 2 COPIES OF YOUR CRITIQUE OF YOUR COLLEAGUE'S DRAFT TO THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT OFFICE BY 4.00PM ON MONDAY NOVEMBER 21. Common Reading for the Week: Timothy Tyson, Robert F. Williams, 'Black Power' and the Roots of the African American Freedom Struggle," Journal of American History, 85, 2, (September 1998), 540-570 (available on jstor). WEEK 14 W 23 NO CLASS - THANKSGIVING LOOMING! YOU CAN COLLECT THE CRITIQUE OF YOUR RESEARCH PAPER FROM THE HISTORY DEPARTMENT OFFICE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22 WEEK 15 W 30 THE BLACK POWER CHALLENGE Discussion Topic #1: The Radicalization of SNCC, 1966-1968 Discussion Topic #2: Vietnam and the Movement Syndicate #10 Presentation: MLK and the FBI Return Research Papers and Critiques Common Reading for the Week: Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, Chs.11-13; Lewis, Walking With the Wind, Ch.17; MLK, I Have a Dream, Chs.16-17. December WEEK 16 W 7 THE POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN AND MEMPHIS Discussion Topic #1: The Poor People's Campaign Discussion Topic #2: Legacies and Lessons of the Movement Film: At the River I Stand RESEARCH PAPER DUE Common Reading for the Week: Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, Ch.14; MLK, I Have a Dream, Chs.18-20.