AMH 4575-2637
The Civil Rights Movement
Fall 2010
Prof. Jack E. Davis
Tuesday,
Ofc Hours: T
Ofc phone: 273-3398
This course is a substantive and interpretive historical inquiry into the Civil Rights Movement from approximately 1945 to the present. We will explore the significance of the Movement to those people directly involved and to the rest of American society. Our inquiry will begin by placing the struggle in the broader context of post-Civil War American race relations.
Along with active class participation, course requirements include a writing mechanics exercise, two short research papers (archive exercise and Internet exercise), and two take-home essays.
Course Objectives:
C Expanding one’s knowledge of civil rights history and its place in the larger American experience.
C Introducing the student to scholarship in civil rights history.
C Promoting critical thinking about the dynamics of race, gender, and class in American society.
C Advancing the student’s experience in the reading, researching, and writing tasks of the historian.
C Improving the student’s cognitive and communication skills.
Course Requirements:
C Class participation 10%
C Take-home essays (2 X 20%) 40%
C Archive research and paper 25%
$ Internet research and paper 25%
$ Writing Mechanics exercise (factored into writing assignments)
(Please see last section of syllabus for a description of course requirements.)
Course Grading Scale (see UF grading scale at end of syllabus):
A+ =97-100
A =94-96
A- =90-93
B+ =87-89
B =84-86
B- =80-83
C+ =77-79
C =74-76
C- =70-73
D =65-69
Assignments not completed earn a 0
Plagiarized assignment (see plagiarism section below) earn a 0
Assignments not turned in before or by stated due date will not be accepted. All assignments must be made available in hard copy. Emailed assignments cannot be accepted.
Required Books:
Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of
Sally Belfrage, Freedom Summer
Glenn T. Eskew, But for
John L. Lewis, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
Course Schedule:
Week 1: Aug 24 & 26
Course introduction
Defining the Civil Rights Movement
Film: Black Like Me
Week 2: August 31 & Sept 2
The Education Front
Writing Mechanics Exercise, due Thursday
Reading: Bates (begin reading)
Film: “Simple Justice”
Week 3: Sept 7 & 9
The Education Front cont.
Film: Eyes on the Prize (episode 2)
Week 4: Sept 14 & 16
Origins of Open Protest
Film: Eyes on the Prize (episode 1)
Week 5: Sept 21 & 23
Bus Rides to Freedom
Week 6: Sept 28 & 30
(No class on the 28th)
From Bus Seat to Lunch-counter Stool: Sit-ins and the Student Movement
Eyes on the Prize (episode 3)
Week 7: Oct 5 & 7
The Road to Bombingham
First Take-Home essay due Tuesday
Film: Eyes on the Prize (episode 4)
Week 8: Oct 12 & 14
In Bombingham
Week 9: Oct 19 &21
From
Archive Assignment due Tuesday
Week 10: Oct 26 & 28
Searching for Freedom Where Freedom Never Was
Film: Eyes on the Prize (episode 5)
Week 11: Nov 2 & 4
Week 12: Nov 9 & 11 (Veterans’ Day; no class on Thursday)
Film: Eyes on the Prize (episode 6)
Week 13: Nov 16 & 18
Looking North and West into the Urban Ghettos and Social Discontent
Internet Exercise due Tuesday
Film: Eyes on the Prize: Crossroads (episode 1)
Week 14: Nov 23 & 25 (Thanksgiving; no class)
Going Radical
Week 15: Nov 30 & Dec 2
From Civil Rights to Poor Rights
Week 16: Dec 7
The Last Hurrah: Wrapping Things Up
Second Take-Home essay due
You can pick up your paper
during our final-exam time (we do not have an in-class final exam), December
17,
Course Requirements Descriptions:
All written work for the course must be typed or computer generated and in 12-point double-spaced print with default or one-inch margins. Your work must also be presented in third-person language.
Class participation means that students must come to class prepared to participate in discussions. Classes will be conducted in both a lecture and seminar format. Attendance is required. Beyond two absences, each additional absence occurring without a written excuse will result in one point deducted from your final grade. If the class is particularly lethargic when it should be animated and eager to discuss the reading assignment, the frustrated professor deserves the right to give a pop (i.e., surprise) quiz. Your experience in the course will largely depend on how prepared you come to class.
Writing Mechanics exercise can be found on my web site. Click the “Writing Mechanics Exercise” link under the “Course Handouts” section. Printout and answer the questions by circling that which you believe to be the correct response. You will be required to follow the rules of writing mechanics in all writing assignments for the course. Up to five points will be deducted from your assignment grade if you violate these rules.
Take-home essays will represent responses to a list of essay questions posted on my web site. The questions will be drawn from the assigned readings and the course lectures, and you will be expected to use the course readings and your class notes as sources to answer the questions (do not consult any other sources). Each answer must be presented in essay format, using formal, academic language and style (i.e., complete sentences, tightly constructed paragraphs, no colloquialisms). Do not, in other words, provide answers in lists or bullets. Those exams that address each question in a rigorous and organized manner are more likely to earn a decent grade. These grades, too, will be dependent in part on your compliance with the rules in the “Writing Mechanics” exercise.
Archive material exercise The essentials are the same as those with
the five-page Internet exercise below, except you do not use Internet sources.
You will be using printed primary sources from an archive, such as the P. K.
Yonge Library of Florida History in Library East. Another possible repository
of civil rights material is the
Internet exercise requires that you write a five-page paper using
original-source materials–such as letters, a memoir, promotional pamphlets,
advertisements, government documents–from an Internet site. The primary-source
materials must not have been published in a book, and they must be related to
Again, following the rules of the “Writing Mechanics” exercise is imperative to doing work of full potential.
Plagiarism:
Keep in mind that your written assignments must represent original work. You cannot copy the work of anyone else or text from the Internet or any other source. Do not cobble together paragraphs or passages of separate texts and then try to claim that you have done original and legitimate work. You must write with your own ideas and in your own words. If you copy the words of someone else without putting those words in quotation marks, REGARDLESS OF CITING THE SOURCE, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism is theft, and it is academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is grounds for an automatic failing grade in the course, a grade that is final and that cannot be made up. Please, if you have any questions about how you are citing or using sources, come to me for the answers.
LAST SEMESTER, I CAUGHT FOUR PLAGIARISTS.
Classroom Assistance:
Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor during the semester if you have any individual concerns or issues that need to be discussed. Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office {http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/}. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide that documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation.
UF Grading Scale
Please note UF’s new grading scale with the addition of minuses.
A = 4.0
A- = 3.67
B+ = 3.33
B = 3.0
B- = 2.67
C+ = 2.33
C = 2.0
C- = 1.67
D+ = 1.33
D = 1.0
D- = 0.67
E = 0.0
E1 = 0.0 Stopped attending or participating prior to end of class
I (incomplete) = 0.0
Welcome, and good luck!