AfroAm 236. History of the Civil Rights Movement is an introductory level undergraduate course that critically interrogates the history of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) principally in the years from 1954 to 1968. We designed the course, but its meaning to will you depend on your engagement of the ideas and readings presented. In the main you will get out of it what you put into it.
The course has both a lecture format and a seminar-like component, which is, as stated in Wikipedia, “a form of academic instruction….[that] has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is requested to actively participate. This is often accomplished through an ongoing Socratic dialogue with a seminar leader or instructor, or through a more formal presentation of research….The idea behind the seminar system is to familiarize students more extensively with the methodology of their chosen subject and also to allow them to interact with examples of the practical problems that always occur during research work. It is essentially a place where assigned readings are discussed, questions can be raised and debates can be conducted.” The lecture part on Mondays and Wednesdays is set in Goessmann Laboratory, room 64. The seminars on Fridays are in smaller rooms on campus.
“We” Who?
Your primary course instructor (and its “designer”) is Amilcar Shabazz, but this course has an interesting history that I will get into in a moment. You will also participate in a discussion section led by either Olivia Haynes, Marcus Smith, or Christian Woods. A little information on us is provided below:
Dr. Amilcar Shabazz is a professor in and former chair of the illustrious W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and teaches Africana studies and history with an emphasis on the political economy of social and cultural movements, education, and public history. Shabazz’s books include Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas (University of North Carolina Press, 2004) which received numerous honors including the T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award; Women & Others: Perspective on Race, Gender, and Empire (Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2007), co-edited with Celia R. Daileader and Rhoda E. Johnson; and The Forty Acres Documents, a sourcebook on the history of black reparations, along with journal articles, book chapters, digital projects, reviews and writings in publications as diverse as The Source Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture & Politics. As a Fulbright Senior Specialist, Shabazz has done work in Brazil; has taught study abroad courses in Cuba, Ghana and Jamaica; has given scholarly presentations in China, Colombia, France, Japan, Mali, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and was a brigadista in Nicaragua in the mid-1980s. Shabazz is completing an historical biography entitled “Master of the Blast: Carter Wesley and the Struggle for Freedom,” among other projects.
A bit of History…
There is sort of a 20-year rule among historians. You cannot begin to write or to teach properly a “history of” course until you or at least 20 years away from the events or period of study. Thus it was that almost 20 years from the era of the Modern Civil Rights Movement that our Department of Afro-American Studies offered this course. In the Spring of 1984, the eminent writer and activist James Baldwin taught the course.
Although teaching about the CRM in the Du Bois Department as the Five College Professor of Literature, Baldwin lectured every Tuesday in Mahar Auditorium on the UMass campus with the Thursday class period taught in smaller sections by four members of the Du Bois Department–Ernest Allen Jr., John H. Bracey Jr., Julius Lester, and Michael Thelwell. Faculty members from Amherst, Hampshire, and Smith Colleges participated as well.
Former field secretary of SNCC (just hold the word “snick” in your mind for now for you will learn about this organization in the course) and founding chairman of the Du Bois Department, professor Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, was teaching the class when I arrived here at UMass in 2007. When he retired I took it on and it is my privilege and honor to do so. Learn about Professor Thelwell and hear his eloquent voice by going to the Democracy Now website at http://www.democracynow.org/2005/8/8/sncc_activist_ekwueme_michael_thelwell_people
To email your TA click their name below:
Olivia Haynes is from Philadelphia, PA. A member of the Phi Beta Kappa society, she received her B.A. in Visual and Material Culture with Africana Studies and Peace Studies from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD. Her research interests include unpacking historicized spaces and investigating ways of visualizing and reconstructing memories of the Middle Passage through the lens of visual and material culture.
Marcus Smith is from Houston, Texas. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Houston and his M.A. in African-American Studies from Georgia State University. His research interests include the study of domestic and international social movements, history of the Southern United States, critical race theory, Africana critical theory, and the construction of race, ethnicity and nationalism in the United States as it relates to interracial political relationships, ideology, and practices.
Christian Floyd Woods was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Brockton, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. in Afro-American Studies from the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst in 2020. As an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, Woods was a member of numerous cultural organizations, including C.V.S.A., H.A.S.A., S.O.C.A., B.S.U., A.S.A., E.O.R.O. as well as serving as secretary for the Afro-American Studies Undergraduate Council. Woods is well rounded in African-American and African history as a whole but specializes in 20th century African-American music history, African-American film history, and the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.
Email your instructor of record at shabazz@umass.edu and please put “236” in subject field with any other information on the content of your message. Putting the course number helps me manage the large flow of mail coming into my inbox and helps assure that I respond within 24 hours or so. To phone me, call 413-545-5018 and phone messages can be left at 413-545-2751.