• Have your students select a court case that is currently in the news or being discussed on the Internet that has implications for civil rights. The class should follow the case as it develops and try to evaluate how well it fits within the framework of what they have been reading in the textbook.
• During World War II, Americans of Japanese descent were sent to “relocation centers.”
Ask your students to discuss whether the alleged threat of espionage and a Japanese
invasion of the Pacific Coast justified this action. Ask students to review the Court decision (and public reaction) in Korematsu v. United States, as well as the recent decision to pay families sent to relocation centers for damages incurred. Finally, are there any parallels regarding the detainment and questioning of large numbers of Arab Americans and U.S. residents of Muslim descent?
• Suggest that your students compare the Equal Rights Amendment with the Fourteenth Amendment. Did the ERA cover some of the same ground as the Fourteenth Amendment, or did they deal with completely separate concepts?
• Divide your class into panels to discuss the role that women and homosexuals should play in the military. One team should be assigned to examine the congressional hearings that were conducted after the Persian Gulf War which led to a congressional decision to permit women to serve as combat pilots; another team should be given an assignment to look at coverage in the media of public reaction to the 1993 compromise concerning gays in the military (“don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue”).
• Ask students to write brief essays assessing the formal role of women in combat and how the media covered the role of the women in the military during the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s with that of the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq. How similar or different was the coverage? Why?
• Surveys show that most Americans oppose affirmative action programs, even though Americans in general support nondiscrimination in employment and education. Ask students to research the legal rationale behind affirmative action policies, and how the courts have evaluated various affirmative action programs. Have several members of your class debate the concepts of affirmative action and reverse discrimination. Can one group be protected without discriminating against another? Where would your students place their priorities?
• It can be instructive to show a segment of Eyes on the Prize in a classroom setting. The civil rights era is recreated through newsreel footage and interviews, and the era is
“brought to life” for students who otherwise view the 1950s and 1960s only as
“history.” This award-winning series is available on videocassette.
• Engage the students in a discussion of the recent Michigan Supreme Court case on affirmative action. What will it mean, if anything, for minority attendance levels in undergraduate and professional schools?
• Ask students to document historical and contemporary civil rights issues in South Africa to assess whether there is anything familiar about the problems of citizenship and discrimination. In general, the discussion should focus on disenfranchisement and dual citizenship problems, which Blacks and women have especially suffered both there and in the United States.
• Have students do a clipping file of current or recent events involving violations of civil rights and the expansion of government. Ask them to write an essay identifying the violations and to describe how government has expanded as a result of efforts to provide protections.
• For a reading and writing connection, have students choose one of the key conflicts of the 1960s civil rights movements (e.g., Selma, Montgomery). Ask students to write a brief description of the events, explaining why Blacks and Whites engaged in the behaviors they did. Who won? Who lost? Why?
B
ACKGROUND READINGChong, Dennis. Collective Action and the Civil Rights Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Cohen, Carl. Affirmative Action and Racial Preference : A Debate. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Hampton, Henry, and Steve Fayer. Voices of Freedom. New York: Bantam, 1990.
Klein, Ethel. Gender Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974.
McAdam, Doug. Freedom Summer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
McGlen, Nancy E., and Karen O’Conner. Women, Politics, and American Society, 2nd ed.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.
Steele, Shelby. The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America. New York:
St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
M
EDIA SUGGESTIONSAffirmative Action: The History of an Idea. This program considers the historical development of affirmative action policies and highlights current debates over its usefulness. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.
American Civil Liberties Union: A History. This program reviews the history of the ACLU, highlighting its contributions to protecting minorities. Films for the Humanities.
Eyes on the Prize. A Public Broadcasting Service series chronicling the civil rights movement in America. Excerpts are especially useful for visual effect.
Figures of the Civil Rights Movement: Sit-Ins and the Little Rock Nine. This show highlights the 1960 Nashville sit-ins and the desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957.
Includes archival footage. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.
Murder in Mississippi: The Price for Freedom. 1996. This film provides an in-depth examination of the murders of three civil rights workers during Freedom Summer in Mississippi. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.
Politics in Action, Chapter 8: A History of the Women’s Movement. Provides a history of the women’s movement, noting its successes and failures.
Racism in Theory and Practice. 1995. A historical examination of racism. Insight Media.
Religion and Race in America: Martin Luther King’s Lament. 1996. This film provides an analysis of the different roles churches play in shaping a nation’s political culture. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.
Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The 90-Year History of the NAACP. This program, hosted by Julian Bond, provides a historical overview of the NAACP and the issues that it has worked on since 1920. Edudex.com.