2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST3220 Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement

40 creditsClass Size: 16

Module manager: Professor Simon Hall
Email: S.D.Hall@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This course charts African Americans' long and unfinished struggle for racial equality since 1945. Themes explored in this module will include the impact of the Cold War on the civil rights struggle; the relationship between nonviolent direct action and Black Power; and the role of the federal government in securing advances for black Americans.Although we will explore the role of civil rights leaders, particularly Martin Luther King Jr., the course will also emphasise the importance of ordinary people and grassroots organising to the black freedom struggle. Finally, the movement's success will be debated in light of contemporary race relations in the United States.

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
a) demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the strategies employed by the civil rights movement, and show awareness of the movement's successes and limitations.
b) appreciate the role played by 'ordinary people' in the struggle for racial equality.
c) construct lucid analytical arguments that engage intelligently with historical scholarship and draw upon primary source material.

Learning outcomes
1. Understand the complexity of the struggle for racial equality in the United States since the Second World War.
2. Be familiar with, and capable of engaging critically with, the main ways in which historians have interpreted the struggle for African American civil rights.
3. Be able to engage critically with original primary source materials from the period and draw out their wider significance.
4. Construct sophisticated and rigorous arguments, supported by relevant evidence and scholarship.

Skills outcomes
Further enhances Common Skills listed below:

- High-level skills in oral and written communication of complex ideas.
- Independence of mind and self-discipline and self-direction to work effectively under own initiative.
- Ability to locate, handle and synthesize large amounts of information.
- Capacity to employ analytical and problem-solving abilities.
- Ability to engage constructively with the ideas of their peers, tutors and published sources.
- Empathy and active engagement with alternative cultural contexts.

Plus:
- Skills in interpretation and analysis of complex documentary-based material.

Syllabus

Topics are likely to include: the Cold War and the civil rights movement; the Brown Decision and the White Backlash; the role of nonviolence and armed self-defence in the movement; gender and the role of women; the role of the federal government; civil rights in the North; the Black Power movement; civil rights in the global context.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	4	1.00	4.00
Seminar	22	2.00	44.00
Private study hours			352.00
Total Contact hours			48.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			400.00

Private study

- Reading to prepare for seminars (120 hours)
- Further self-directed reading (66 hours)
- Preparing and researching essay, including formative elements (80 hours)
- Preparing and researching portfolio, including formative elements (80 hours)
- Reflection on feedback 6 hours

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Participation in class discussion.
Feedback on written work (feedback on the source commentary should prove helpful for students in preparing their assessed essay).
For the assessed essay, students will receive oral feedback on their essay plan, and will have the opportunity to discuss each portfolio element with the module tutor.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	4000 words	50.00
Portfolio	4500 words, likely to include a 1500 word source commentary, a 1500 word book review and 3x500 word blog posts	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 18/10/2024

Disclaimer

Browse Other Catalogues

• Undergraduate module catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate module catalogue
• Undergraduate programme catalogue
• Taught Postgraduate programme catalogue

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team.PROD