Unit information: Black Lives Matter: The African American Freedom Struggle (1945-Present) in 2020/21

Unit name	Black Lives Matter: The African American Freedom Struggle (1945-Present)
Unit code	HIST30095
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Saima Nasar
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit explores the history of the African American freedom struggle from 1945 to the present day. We will set out to examine the goals, strategies and history of the civil rights movement and assess its importance to contemporary African American experiences. The unit will cover the role of key figures, such as Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, as well as key events and organisations, such as the SNCC, Black Power and Black Lives Matter. By the end of the course, students will be able to critically research and discuss key concepts in African-American history since 1945.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, successful students will be able to:

1. Identify and analyse key themes and contexts in the modern African American freedom struggle.
2. Discuss and evaluate the key historiographical debates that surround the topic
3. Critically assess and interpret primary sources and select pertinent evidence in order to illustrate specific and more general historical points
4. Present their research and judgements in written forms and styles appropriate to the discipline and to level H/6

Teaching Information

1 x two-hour interactive lecture

1 x one-hour workshop

Assessment Information

One 3,500-word summative essay (50%) [ILOs 1-4]

One two-hour exam (50%) [ILOs 1-4]

Reading and References

Howell Raines, My soul is rested: movement days in the Deep South remembered (1983)

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past (2005)

James T. Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education : a civil rights milestone and its troubled legacy (2001)

Leigh Raiford, Imprisoned in a luminous glare: photography and the african american freedom struggle (2011)

August Meier, John H. Bracey, Elliott M. Rudwick, Black protest in the sixties (1991)

Steven F. Lawson, Charles M. Payne, Debating the civil rights movement, 1945-1968 (2006)