Motivation to Teach Social Action:
As a historian of education and social movements with expertise in student activism, I have long been intrigued and inspired by the ability of students to bring about social change. In my courses, I encourage students to think about how the past can be used as an inspiration and blueprint for addressing contemporary injustices. I am very much interested in and welcome the opportunity to teach students how to tangibly apply the lessons of the past to a contemporary social justice issue.
Course Description:
This course examines the origins, development, and legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. Focusing on the 1950s—1960s, the movement's "classical" period, students will explore the struggle by African Americans to end racial segregation, disenfranchisement, and systemic discrimination, while also considering the broader impact on contemporaneous movements for social justice (e.g., women's rights and anti-war). Students will learn about the movement's key political actors, both well known (e.g., Septima Clark, Martin Luther King, Jr.) and lesser known (e.g., Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin), as well as its key organizations (e.g., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). Also examined are major events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Sit-In Movement, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and landmark legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Students will analyze key strategies employed by activists including sit-ins, boycotts, grassroots organizing, and litigation and the ideologies undergirding these strategies, as well as the legal and extralegal tactics employed by those who opposed the Civil Rights Movement. The course addresses the continuing struggle for racial equality and the movement's enduring influence on contemporary social justice efforts.
Taught By:
Alexis Johnson
Community Oral Historian and Project Coordinator, Lowcountry Oral History Initiative
Collection & Content Services (College of Charleston Libraries) and Department of History
College of Charleston
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