The Civil Rights Public History miniterm (HST277T) is a course offered as a part of Union College’s new Public History program. On this miniterm we will tour the sites of the major Civil Rights actions in the South. The mini-term will begin in Charleston, S.C. Touring Charleston’s historic sites, among them a slave mart, slave cabins, and Denmar Vesey’s neighborhood, will allow us the opportunity to discuss the first three centuries of African American history and the early emergence of resistance. The next two weeks will be spent traveling to the sites of major Civil Rights actions, including Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage in Montgomery, AL, the Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, AL, the Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum) in Memphis, TN; Little Rock Central High School in AK, and the Medgar Evers House Museum in Jackson, MS. Along the way we will hear from a number of the men and women who made the movement possible. We will end our tour in New Orleans, celebrating African-American culture while we consider the enormous successes and persistent limits of the heroic struggles of the Civil Rights Movement.
