Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement

Description

The civil rights movement transformed the United States in such fundamental ways that exploring it in the classroom can pose real challenges for instructors and students alike. Speaking to the critical pedagogical need to teach civil rights history accurately and effectively, this volume goes beyond the usual focus on iconic leaders of the 1950s and 1960s to examine the broadly configured origins, evolution, and outcomes of African Americans' struggle for freedom. Essays provide strategies for teaching famous and forgotten civil rights people and places, suggestions for using music and movies, frameworks for teaching self-defense and activism outside the South, a curriculum guide for examining the Black Panther Party, and more.
Books in the popular Harvey Goldberg Series provide high school and introductory college-level instructors with ample resources and strategies for better engaging students in critical, thought-provoking topics. By allowing for the implementation of a more nuanced curriculum, this is history instruction at its best. Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement will transform how the United States civil rights movement is taught. Hasan Kwame Jeffries is an associate professor of history at The Ohio State University and the author of Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt. Contents Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 3
Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Part One. Dispatches from the Frontline: Reflections on Teaching the Civil Rights Movement Who Is Fannie Lou Hamer? A Movement Veteran Reflects on Teaching Civil Rights History 13
Charles E. Cobb Jr.
“They won’t just be reading about history—they’ll be living it”: The Anderson Monarchs Civil Rights Barnstorming Tour 22
Steve Bandura
Rosa Did More Than Sit and Martin Did More Than Dream: Pushing beyond the Master Narrative with High School Students 39
Adam Sanchez
“I had this black professor at UT”: Teaching Civil Rights and Black Power to White and Black College Students 47
Leonard N. Moore
Part Two. “Bigger than a hamburger”: Reframing the Civil Rights Movement Obstacles to Freedom: Life in Jim Crow America 59
Stephen A. Berrey
Freedom Rights: Reconsidering the Movement’s Goals and Objectives 73
Hasan Kwame Jeffries
The Ballot and the Bullet: Rethinking the Violent/Nonviolent Dichotomy 83
Christopher B. Strain
Place Matters: The Indispensable Story of Civil Rights Activism beyond Dixie 95
Patrick D. Jones
Part Three. “Now that he is safely dead, let us praise him”: Teaching Iconic Civil Rights People, Organizations, and Events Complicating Martin Luther King Jr.: Teaching the Life and Legacy of the Movement’s Most Iconic Figure 113
Charles McKinney
Not That Kind of Tired: Rosa Parks and Organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott 131
Emilye Crosby
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Teaching the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Project 144
Nicole A. Burrowes and La TaSha B. Levy
Teaching Malcolm X beyond the Mythology—By Any Means Necessary 159
Clarence Lang
The Long Hot Summers of the 1960s: Teaching the Racial Disturbances of the Civil Rights Era 175
Shawn Leigh Alexander, John Rury, and Clarence Lang
Power to the People! A Curriculum for Teaching the Black Panther Party and the Transition from Civil Rights to Black Power 185
Jakobi Williams
Part Four. “The essence of scholarship is truth”: Sources for Teaching the Civil Rights Movement Everybody Say Freedom: Using Oral History to Construct and Teach New Civil Rights Narratives 197
J. Todd Moye
Freedom Songs: Building a Civil Rights Playlist 209
Charles L. Hughes
Two Thumbs Up: Movies and Documentaries to Use (and Avoid) When Teaching Civil Rights 224
Hasan Kwame Jeffries
A Rich Record: Using Primary Sources to Explore the Civil Rights Movement 241
John B. Gartrell
The Revolution Was Not Televised but It Is Available Online: Using the SNCC Digital Gateway to Tell Civil Rights History from the Bottom Up 247
Karlyn Forner
Part Five. “Strong people don’t need strong leaders”: Methods for Teaching the Civil Rights Movement Stay Woke: Teaching the Civil Rights Movement through Literature 261
Julie Buckner Armstrong
“Nonviolence is impossible”: Role-Playing in the Classroom 276
Wesley Hogan
California Democracy Schools: A Model for Teaching Civil Rights to Students of All Ages 291
Michelle M. Herczog
Walking in Their Shoes: Using #BlackLivesMatter to Teach the Civil Rights Movement 300
Shannon King
Contributors 313
Index 319
 

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