AFR 381 - From Civil Rights to Black Power

Institution:

Williams College

Subject:

Africana Studies

Description:

The Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ended an era of black activism that used the courts to overturn exclusionary practices of American education, opening a new civil rights era that introduced new strategies and tactics of protest. This course introduces students to the themes and issues of the black freedom movement as it transpired after 1954 and continued into the 1980s in the United States. Focusing on African Americans' demands for the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and placing their perspectives at the center, the course follows a chronological format that covers the architecture of racial segregation and the culture of Jim Crow; examines the persistence of activism and resistance in the form of direct action, articulations of black power, and attempts at coalition building; explores the intersection of ideology and activism; assesses local, regional, and national perspectives; and uses the black freedom movement as a window onto other social movements, including nationalist and feminist movements. In considering the modern civil rights movement, this course necessarily examines the ways that racial power and privilege in the United States operated to disadvantage specific peoples. Asking how African Americans have differently defined rights, the course also examines diversity among black activists. This course meets the EDI designation in that it examines how "cultures, peoples, and societies have interacted and responded to one another in the past" specifically: by investigating differences and similarities--gender, class, region--among non-white and white Americans; and by using African American experiences to examine the links between access, opportunity, and inequality.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Open to first-year students with instructor's permission

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.williams.edu

Phone Number:

(413) 597-3131

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Four-one-four plan

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