History 136: Civil Rights in
Office Phone:
Email: john.riedl@montgomerycollege.edu
Office Hours: MW 11-11:50, TR 5:30-6:20, or by appointment.
Course Objectives:
This course begins from the
premise that history is made not only by the powerful, but by ordinary people
in their everyday lives. In this course
we will study the struggle for civil rights in American history by using
primary and secondary readings, films, lectures, discussions and internet
resources to study the people who made the contradictions of our past and
present.
By the end of the course, the student will be able to:
· Identify
the key leaders and events, and the main strategies and tactics, in black
Americans' struggle for civil rights
· Explain
American women's efforts to obtain equal rights, identifying the key leaders,
issues and tactics
· Describe
the issues, tactics, and outcomes in other groups' struggle for civil rights,
including Native Americans, immigrant groups from Europe,
• Explicate the
various rationales for the denial of civil rights and the tactics deployed to
deny those rights
*Eleanor Clift, Founding
Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment
(2003)
*Roger Daniels, Prisoners Without
Trial: Japanese Americans in WWII (2004)
*Ida B. Wells, Mob Rule in
*Robert Williams, Negroes With Guns
(1998)
*Bruce Dierenfield, The Civil Rights Movement (2004)
*David Howard-Pitney, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the
Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s (2004)
*Dan La Botz, César Chávez and la Causa (2006)
*Susan Oliver, Betty Friedan: The
Personal is Political (2007)
*Paul Smith and Robert Warrior, Like a
Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to
Assignments and Evaluation:
Your course grade will be
determined by the following criteria, on a 100 point scale (900=A, 800=B,
etc.).
--Assignments:
If you want to read a little
less, you can choose to watch up to three civil rights-related movies (a list
will be provided in class) and turn in a 2-3 page paper analyzing the film. Details will be distributed in class. Each movie assignment is worth as much as 40
points. There will also be other ways to
accumulate points, announced throughout the semester. You can earn extra credit in this section,
but your total assignments grade cannot exceed 430.
--Class Participation (11%--110 Points): This grade will be determined by in-class participation—which
includes punctuality and engagement as well as answering and asking questions.
--Map Quizzes (Total 7%--70 Points): These will cover the basic geography important for
understanding the history of civil rights in the U. S.
--Two Tests (Total 33%—330 Points): Tests will be
short answer and essay and will cover the lecture material.
--Final Paper (11%--110 Points): The final
paper will be your opportunity to sum up what you have learned in the
course. It will be due during exam week.
An Invitation:
I encourage all of you to
contact me by phone, email or in my office with any questions or comments in
the course of the semester. My office
hours especially are there for you, so please come by. We can even talk about things other than history!
Ways to Succeed in the Course:
1) Come to class regularly
and punctually. You have five (5)
absences to use at your own discretion.
Each absence over five will lower your grade by 50 points, or half a
letter grade. TWO TARDIES EQUALS
2) Turn assignments in on
time. (A deadline was a line drawn
around prisoner of war camps and those crossing it were shot.) This means you should start the assignments
early. In most cases late assignments
will not be accepted and when they are the grade will be severely and arbitrarily penalized.
3) Take regular and thorough
notes during lectures. You will need
them to do well on the tests.
4) Review your notes from the
previous lecture just before class—this will increase participation and
comprehension. If no one can remember
the previous lecture, there will be pop quizzes.
5) Plan on spending at
least two hours of preparation for every hour spent in class.
6) All cell phones and other
electronic devices should be turned off and
put away during class. Your cell
phone ringing equals an absence. Also, don’t
disrupt class if coming in late.
7) If you decide to drop a
course, be sure to complete the withdrawal paperwork, or you will fail.
8) Academic dishonesty of
any kind will not be tolerated, so don’t do it. If you turn in work that is not your own, you
will FAIL THE COURSE. See the
Student Code of Conduct handout (42001CP, VIII A-E).
9) If you have problems, make
sure you talk to me right away—don’t wait until the end of the semester. Communication
is the key to success.
Course Schedule:
Week # 1 (1/26-1/30): What Kind of Freedom?
Week # 2 (2/2-2/6):
Reconstruction
W 2/4: Assignments Grade Plan Due
Week # 3 (2/9-2/13):
Women’s Hour
F 2/13: First Five Questions Due
Week # 4 (2/16-2/20): The West
F 2/20: Map Quiz #1
Week # 5 (2/23-2/27): A New Racial
Order
Week # 6 (3/2-3/6):
Civil Rights in World War
Week # 7 (3/9-3/13):
Immigrants and Nativism
W 3/11: Assignments Deadline # 1
Week # 8 (3/23-3/27):
Good Times and Bad
M 3/23: Midterm, Part I
W 3/27: Midterm, Part II
Week # 9 (3/30-4/3):
Good Times and Bad
Week # 10 (4/6-4/10):
Opportunities and Oppressions
Week # 11 (4/13-4/17):
Making a Mass Movement
Week # 12 (4/20-4/24):
The Promised Land?
Week # 13 (4/27-5/1):
Problems Solved and Unsolved
M 4/27: Map Quiz #2
F 5/1: Assignments Deadline # 2
Week # 14 (5/4-5/8): Struggles for
Power
Final Exam (Test Two) M 5/11, 10:15-12:15
Final Paper due by