Assessing the Civil Rights Movement: History and Historiography

(Please print the reading.)

For the first reading, "Major Events and Legacies," please go through the history of the movement and take notes on what you see as the most effective moments, and determine who played the biggest role: the government, the media, local and regional figures, or national figures and organizations, like King. Also, please take notes on why the movement fell apart.

For the second reading, "Different Perspectives," please identify all of the arguments that historians have made about the history of the movement. Who started it, how it succeeded and failed, etc.

Note: Please continue to think about a subject you would be interested in pursuing for a paper.

Civil Rights, II (895-898, 903-906 and Southern Manifesto

FYC:

1. What was the goal of the Freedom Riders? What happened to the first group near Anniston, Alabama?
2. Who was James Meredith?
3. What effect did the Birmingham campaign, and the news coverage of it in particular, have on the nation?
4. Define: The Civil Rights act of 1964 (898-900)
5. Define: The Voting Rights act of 1965
6. What happened to the Civil Rights Movement after 1965? (Long question.)

Southern Manifesto:

1. How do the Southern politicians frame their argument against Brown? Where have you seen this type of language before? 
2. What are they worried about?
3. How do they defend segregation?
4. What historical claims do they make?