HSTA 344W - The African-American Struggle for Equality

3 credits (Hrs: 3 Lec.)

This course covers the history and development of the civil rights movement in the United States. Also known as the black freedom struggle, the civil rights movement was an interracial movement that wrought significant change in America’s political and social environments. This course will study the beginnings of the movement and its developments throughout the twentieth century. Much of the focus will be on the two prongs of the movement: the top-down reaction of the federal government and its policies concerning civil rights, and the mass mobilization of people that exerted bottom-up pressure on the federal government to act. Other facets of the movement, such as white responses (of both supporters and opponents of the movement), the role of religion and secular ideologies in the movement, and divisions and differences within the movement will also be covered. This is also, obviously, a course about the sensitive subject of race, so there will be open discussions about this subject and questions about it on the exams.

Prerequisite(s):

HSTA 101

and

HSTA 102

or junior standing.