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This course addresses the rise, institutionalization, fall, and lasting impact of racial segregation laws in the United States. While Reconstruction policies attempted to bring Black people (free and formerly enslaved) into the American fold, the abrupt end of Reconstruction ended the promise of full American citizenship for all African Americans. Following the codification of the Jim Crow laws with the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision, there was an emergence of African American activism across the political spectrum that carried into the Civil Rights Movement and its many forms—legal, educational, political, and grassroots. Students will examine the growth and popularity of Jim Crow laws and spend particular time exploring the ways African Americans mitigated, or tried to moderate, the worst excesses of these laws.
COURSE CONTENT
- Twelve lectures
- Primary source readings to complement the lectures
- A certificate of completion for 15 hours of professional development
Readings: The suggested readings for each session will be listed in the “Resources” link on the course site. You are not required to read or purchase any print materials. The quizzes are based on the lectures.
Course Access: After your purchase, you may access your course by signing into the Gilder Lehrman website and clicking on the My Courses link, which can be found under My Account in the navigation menu.
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LEAD SCHOLAR
Nikki Brown is an associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky. Her book Private Politics and Public Voices: Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal (2007) won the Letitia Woods Brown Award for Best Book in African American women’s history. Dr. Brown is also a professional photographer and has completed a photography project on African American men in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. She travels often to Turkey, where she taught civil rights history and American women’s history as a senior lecturer with the Fulbright/CIES Program. She is also preparing an oral history of the Afro-Turks, the African descendants of enslaved people in the Ottoman Empire.
