Fall 2023: The History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement

Enrollment for this course is now closed. Please check back next semester to see what's on offer!

About this course: 

The objective of this course is to examine the modern Civil Rights Movement. As traditionally understood, this period began with the May 17, 1954, "Brown vs. Board of Education” Supreme Court decision and ended with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This course will expand this time frame and seek to place this movement in the context of global developments and the broad sweep of United States History. Assigned readings consist of historical and autobiographical texts. Lectures will contextualize the readings by placing the material and its significance within the overall history and culture of Americans.

Format: online; asynchronous

Dates Available: September 25 - November 22, 2023

Optional live session (via Zoom):
Discussion with Dr. Ula Taylor and Adriana Green
Friday, November 17, 10:00AM - 11:00AM Pacific Time

Required Materials: 

• Access to a computer with internet connectivity
• Coming of Age in Mississippi: the Classical Autobiography of Growing Up Poor and Black in the Rural South by Anne Moody (Mass Market Paperback, originally published in 1968)
• A Kanopy account for video streaming. If you do not have a Kanopy account, you may be able to register for free through your local public library or by logging in with your university (CalNet) credentials. More information can be found below.

Additional details about accessing content in this course:
This course includes a series of media and reading materials. The media materials include lecture videos, which can be accessed directly on the course pages, and third-party videos, which are available on the video streaming service Kanopy. If you don't have a Kanopy account, you can set one up using a membership in your local public library or using your CalNet ID, if you have access to it.

The reading materials include book excerpts which can be purchased or rented at various online sites or in your local libraries. The course also includes external readings that are linked from the course pages. Some of these will prompt you for a subscription log-in, such as the New York Times or Washington Post articles. However, all external sites will allow you to access a certain number of articles for free.

To enroll, hover over the Shopping Cart icon (next to the blue Enroll button) and click "Add to Cart".  Then click on the Shopping Cart icon at the top right of the page to go to Check-out.