A Description of our course (Spring Phase 2019)

In this course, we will examine and evaluate the factors that have shaped our country’s approach to race and justice, and the evolution of civil rights in America. Through bi-weekly seminars and working sessions during the Winter Semester (January 2019 to April 2019), students in this course will read and research about the history of slavery before and after the Civil War; the racial terrorism of lynching; legalized racial segregation commonly known as “Jim Crow”; and mass incarceration.  Students will build timelines to understand the history of the Civil Rights movements, and prepare detailed plans about our travel to the places in the South that were important in the Civil Rights movements.

During Spring Phase, the students will continue to prepare for the travel to the South (Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama) by learning interview skills, photography and videography, and reflective writing.  For 20 days during Spring Phase, the class will travel through several states in the South, meeting with persons involved in the Civil Rights movement, interviewing them about their experiences and insights.  The class will visit the various sites in the South that are associated with the history of the struggle for racial justice in America, and then correlate their visit with what the class learned from their research and interviews.  The class will prepare a video and oral presentation about their experience.