Summer 2007

AMS s370 • Race and Civil Rights Politics in Texas and the Southwest

Course Description

This course explores the ways in which Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans sought to end Jim Crow in Texas and other parts of the Southwest in the twentieth century, paying particular attention to the ways in which local, national, and international politics both shaped and were shaped by these civil rights struggles. The course will also examine legal strategies and court cases of these groups in seeking to fulfill the promise of democracy and equality at home as well as abroad, particularly as social, political and legal challenges to Jim Crow came into direct conflict with the nation's, particularly the South's, ongoing commitment to white supremacy.

Texts

Amilcar Shabazz, Advancing democracy African Americans and the struggle for access and equity in higher education in Texas Chester Hines, If he Hollers Let Him Go Sinclair Lewis, Kingsblood Royal Penny Von Eschen, Race Against Empire Chandler Davis, Race and Class in Texas Jason Sokol, There Goes My Everything: White southerners in the Age of civil rights, 1945-1975

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