Citizen Nation

Tues 11/8 Peer Review Day + Election Coverage
As election coverage streams in the background, we’ll have a peer review session on the drafts of the CITIZEN project. Be sure to bring a current paper copy of your project for others to look at and critique.

Thurs 11/10 Post-Election Debriefing
Prepare something specific to talk about in discussion from this week’s news; anyone could be called upon to share their thoughts on election results, news coverage, and what it all means.

The rest of this month, we explore what happened with citizenship and civil rights from the 1960s to the present. Remember this was a complex movement, or really – a set of overlapping movements – with different strategies, constituencies, and histories. It cannot be reduced to a few key figures or events, and it did not end with the 1960s or even in the 1970s. So it helps to think about the civil rights revolution as unresolved, unfinished, and ongoing, and as part of a shared American history no matter your background.

Tues 11/15 Rights Revolution
Reading: Back to both books – Good Citizen pp. 240-264 and Right to Vote 205-217. Due by the start of class: Final version of the CITIZEN project. Submission options: 1) as electronic document (.doc or .docx) emailed by 8:30 am with your last name in the filename, or 2) contact me if you want to post it directly to WordPress if you have strong skills with that platform.

Links for Today:
Voting Rights Act, post 2013 Shelby decision
Audio of “Where Do We Go From Here?” Martin Luther King, Jr 1967
Official Trailer for Loving (2016)

Thurs 11/17 We Shall Overcome, Part I + Soapbox #6
Soaps for today = Danny, Connor, Sophia, John, Jennie, and Janine

Instead of a reading, please watch the entire “Eyes on the Prize” episode 5 posted below (55 minutes), which covers the period 1962-1964, mainly focused on Mississippi. Take notes, and you might want to leave time to go back to certain scenes to make sure you fully understand this history and its timeline, including the main people and organizations.

Links for Today:
Jim Crow Voting Restrictions (PBS)

Tues 11/22 We Shall Overcome, Part II
Reading – Spend some time exploring one or more of these digital archives related to the civil rights movement. Due in class: Response Paper #4. Please write 2-3 pages analyzing something you found in one of these archives AND CONNECTING it to either the “Eyes on the Prize” episode or to something in the Schudson or Keyssar readings assigned for 11/15, in the form of a short coherent essay brought PRINTED to class.

Calisphere – Social Reform 1950-1970
Library of Congress – Civil Rights History Project
Library of Congress – Voices of Civil Rights
Civil Rights Digital Library
American Indian Movement 1968-1978 – Digital Public Library of America
Black Panthers Newspapers and Posters – Medgar Evers College

Update, Link from Class Discussion: Texas Textbook Deemed “Racist” Against Mexican Americans (Sept 2016); related = Texas School Board past struggles over historical content.

No class Thurs 11/24 – Enjoy Thanksgiving break!