Course Description
May 23, 2009
The 1960s, offered in the spring of 2010, is an English elective course designed primarily for college-bound sophomores, juniors and seniors. The course spotlights historical events of the civil rights movement from Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, through Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The course utilizes historical events as the backdrop for analyzing literature, poetry, music, and film of the period. In addition to exploring various primary source documents, students will examine biographies for such movers and shakers as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, etc. Students will interpret music from artists including Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary, as well as the poetry of Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Maya Angelou, and Alice Walker, just to name a few. Films will include elements of the PBS series The Civil Rights Movement, the award-winning video series Eyes on the Prize, as well as clips of a variety of contemporary films about the period.
Social Protest Music
“We Shall Overcome”
“People Got to be Free”
“Abraham, Martin and John”
“If I Had a Hammer”
“Stand”
“Keep on Pushing”
“Think”
“Give Peace a Chance”
“The Times They Are-A Changin’”
Historic Events
Brown v. BOE
Freedom Riders
Bombing in Birmingham
Lunch counter sit-in
Vietnam War
Central High School in Little Rock
Emmett Till
Medgar Evers
Selma – Pettus Bridge
Writings, Speeches & Poetry
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Malcolm X
Rosa Parks
Maya Angelou
Langston Hughes
Alice Walker
