Course Description
Approaches the African American civil rights movement from the perspective of rhetoric. Students will study the rhetorical artifacts: slogans, speeches, letters, news articles, songs, photographs, etc., produced by movement members in their attempts to instigate race-based changes to the “southern way of life” from 1954-1965.
Athena Title
RHET CIV RGHTS MVT
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in SPCM 3330
Non-Traditional Format
Rolling classroom involves a 4-day trip visiting sites of the Civil Rights Movement.
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, students will: • Gain an understanding of the historical and cultural conditions that related to the emergence or inhibition of Black civil rights discourses of the 1950s and 1960s. • Become familiar with key speeches and other significant rhetorical acts that comprised the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. • Develop an understanding of the rhetorical situation and be able to assess and appreciate rhetorical artifacts based on the constraints and opportunities offered by the speaker, audience, and occasion. Students will also develop a critical vocabulary to aid them in analyzing rhetorical artifacts. • Analyze how a person’s identity traits, such as race, religion, ethnicity, gender, and/or class, not only influence that person’s perspectives, attitudes, and beliefs, but also his or her ability to craft and accept persuasive messages. • Examine the news media’s both historical and contemporary role in shaping popular attitudes and beliefs about race and civil rights. • Investigate how contemporary artifacts designed to commemorate civil rights, such as museums, documentaries historical markers, and books, serve contemporary social, political, and cultural functions.
Topical Outline
This course is organized chronologically to include major events in the civil rights movement from 1954-1965: a. What is rhetoric? b. Why there had to be a civil rights movement c. Early motivations: 1954-58 i. Emmett Till ii. Montgomery Bus Boycotts iii. Brown vs. Board of Education and the Little Rock Nine d. Organizing and pushing boundaries: 1960-1961 i. Nashville Sit-ins ii. Freedom Rides e. Marching forward: 1963-1964 i. Project C – Birmingham ii. 1963 March on Washington iii. 16th Street Bombing iv. Voting in Mississippi v. Mississippi Freedom Summer f. On the bridge: 1965 i. Selma, AL
Syllabus