Course Description
Exploration of and immersion in multiple sites of major Civil Rights protests, examining the use of protests and demonstrations that were often met with aggressive responses and arrests by reviewing Supreme Court cases and government actions aimed at restricting protests and how activists responded.
Athena Title
The Freedom to Assemble
Non-Traditional Format
This course is a domestic study abroad course to be delivered during Maymester.
Prerequisite
POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Semester Course Offered
Offered summer semester every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
• Students will understand of U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence on questions of peaceful assembly broadly, and specifically as it relates to the Civil Rights Movement. Students will be required to brief U.S. Supreme Court cases involving 1st Amendment Assembly/Petition Provisions. • Students will have knowledge of state/local government response to Civil Rights protests, sit-in marches through direct engagement, legal policy, and judicial injunctions. • Students will have awareness of strategies and tactics of those engaged in peaceful assembly through research of primary and secondary sources, site visits, and first-person narratives. • Students will understand personal consideration and engagement of historical Civil Rights events through journalistic and photographic reflection.
Topical Outline
1. Introduction and the History of the First Amendment 2. Supreme Court and Assembly/Petition Jurisprudence 3. Atlanta: MLK and Organizational Impact 4. Albany: The Southern Freedom Movement. Impact, and Lessons Learned 5. Montgomery: U.S. Suffrage 6. Selma: Protest and Voting Rights 7. Birmingham: Protests and Desegregation 8. Memphis: Protest and Economic Equality 9. Athens and Civil Rights