THE QUEST FOR EQUALITY:

THE BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENT

Robyn C. SpencerAssistant Professor of History

Lehman College

AGENDA Update on Archival Work (10 min)

Race, Reform and Rebellion (30 min) Overview Triple Entry Journal Group Work

New Directions in Teaching the Black Freedom Movement (60 min)

Classroom Strategies Overview (20 min) Teaching Resources/Videoclips from Vital Letter; music; debates

“No Justice, No Peace: African Americans Against Vietnam”

• 1. Read Newspapers at Local Libraries to collect data and ID relevant people/groups.

• 2. Visit Archives to follow up on leads and collect more data.

• 3. Begin Oral Interviews

Step one: Read newspapers

Step 2: Archives

Elbert Howard

Step 3: Identify

Oral Interview Subjects

The Price Brothers

Emory Douglas

Elbert Howard

The Price Brothers

Emory Douglas

RACE, REFORM AND REBELLION

Hope, Activism, DemocracyViolence, Economic Exploitation, Jim Crow The persistent barrier of the color line

Triple Entry Notebook /Discussion

• Statement • How you understand the idea• Surprises/Responses/Questions/Importance

• Group Discussion: Break into small groups and each share one items from your list with your group members as a springboard to discuss the core concepts of the chapter. (25 minutes)

RETHINKING THE FAMILIARHow can familiar stories of civil rights activism be complicated in order to reflect the latest historical scholarship?

Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955

• Black Women’s Activism and The Roots of Protest

• Women’s Political Council (1946)– Jo Ann Robinson

• Claudette Colvin’s Arrest (15 years old)– March 2, 1955

• Rosa Parks Arrest– December 1, 1955

• WPC Mass Mobilization• The role of working class women

History of Activism The Politics of Respectability Rethinking an Icon

• Duration: 381 Days• Cost: 65% of Bus Company’s business• Supreme Court Decision on November 13,

1956

COMPLICATING TIMELINES How to counter the assumption that nonviolence was an unchallenged belief within the movement until the emergence of Black Power in 1966?

How to rethink the origins of the Black Power movement?

Robert Williams, 1957 Monroe, NC NAACP leader

Malcolm X: Origins of Black Power

Nation of Islam (NOI)

• Black Nationalist Ideology• Religious Interpretation• Appeal of NOI?– ”Promise dignity, racial pride and hope”

• Who was attracted to NOI and why? • Activities

Last Year of Malcolm X’s life

• March 1964 Leave NOI• Pilgrimage to Mecca– Change name to El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz

• New Political Direction • Organization Building– Muslim Mosque, Inc– OAAU

• Tour of Africa• Assassination on February 21, 1965

RETHINKING LEADERSHIP How to introduce alternatives to the charismatic male leader model?

ELLA BAKER: I have always felt it was a handicap for oppressed peoples to depend so largely upon a leader, because unfortunately in our culture, the charismatic leader usually becomes a leader because he has found

a spot in the public limelight. . .

Baker’s Organizing Activities/Political Philosophy

“Strong people don’t need strong

leaders.”

Young Negroes Cooperative

League1930

NAACP Field Secretary, 1938-

1946;1952

In Friendship, 1956

Southern Christian Leadership

Conference, 1958-9

Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee, 1960

TEACHING RESOURCES FOR ACTIVE LEARNING

Debates Skits

Group Work

Active Readin

g