Unit 3
Race and Identity
Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man, a novel about American racial identity published in 1953. His work was banned by a North Carolina school board as recently as 2013, although it reversed itself after a public outcry. Click on the picture to learn more about that.
Racial identity was complex in the 1950s, even though a rather stark white-black binary color line ran through much of the United States during the decade, often hidden but sometimes open and contested. In this unit we will explore civil rights and racial identity with a focus on the beginnings of the grassroots mobilization phase of the African American civil rights movement and on the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and various American responses to it.
Wed 10/11 Historical Context and Background Day: Domestic Politics under Eisenhower. Reading: Dunar, Ch 4
Fri 10/13 Birthing the Movement. Reading: Dunar, Ch 7. We will attend the Honors Program coffee that morning from 8:30 – 8:50 in the Honors lounge and then have a shortened class from 9:00 – 9:20.
Google doc for discussion question and notes on Chapter 7
Mon 10/16 Brown, Part I. Reading: Martin, Brown v. Board of Education, Intro & up to page 40
GoogleDoc Notes for Martin’s Book
Wed 10/118 – Brown, Part II. Reading: Martin, Popular Response chapter and Epilogue (pp. 199-237) *AND* Barkhorn, “Why Are American Schools Still Segregated?” PDF on Blackboard
Fri 10/20 Revisiting Rosa. Reading: Theoharis + Halberstam Ch 36 (both as PDFs on Blackboard). History Lab #3 is due.
