History 280CV - The Culture of Civil Rights

Students will examine the cultural history of African American political resistance from the early to middle twentieth century. We will study the various art forms that people of African descent have employed to assert their humanity, preserve their identity, and critique oppression of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Fiction, poetry, film, music, theater, memoir, aesthetics, and athletics are the creative devices that we will explore. We will mine the complex cultures of the seminal places and organizations recognized as having played crucial roles in the long black freedom struggle. We will also probe the political contributions and legacies of leading African American cultural figures.