Teaching the American Civil Rights Movement: Freedom's Bittersweet Song

by Julie Buckner Armstrong (Editor), Susan Hult Edwards (Editor), Houston Bryan Roberson (Editor), Rhonda Y. Williams (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136060823
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/12/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

"At last a collection that broadens and deepens conventional understandings of the Civil Rights Movement, that goes far beyond Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat, Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream'speech, and the repeated scenes of dramatic interracial face-offs before the camera crews. It will be an essential text not just for scholars and teachers, but also for anyone seeking a less reverential, more multifaceted approach to the Civil Rights Movement." — Deborah McDowell, University of Virginia
"This valuable collection complicates and enriches the teaching of the civil rights movement. Employing the most recent scholarship, these essays challenge traditional approaches and provide excellent examples of innovative and compelling ways to teach this movement, and African American history more generally." — Barbara Dianne Savage, UPenn
"This book belongs in the library of every teaching historian...It will appeal not merely to those who focus on the history of the American civil rights movement but to all who seek new approaches to history pedagogy." — History of Education Quarterly

From the Publisher