Anne Witte Garland, Women Activists: Challenging the Abuse of
Power, New York, 1988
Moody, Anne, Coming of Age in Mississippi, New York, 1976
Deming, Barbara, Prisons that Could Not Hold, Athens, GA
1995
Dog, Mary Crow, Lakota Woman, New York, 1991
Additionally, there are readings on reserve at Library
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND DEFINITION:
This course examines the roles women have played in securing for
themselves and others the promises of democracy, or social justice,
in the United States. This is a history course. Therefore we will
begin this course by turning to the origins of our belief in "liberty
and justice for all," namely the documents in US history that
articulate the meaning of liberty and justice for its citizens.
Through the use of a time line we will reflect on how much of our
nation's history has been that of individual and collective quests
to claim the promises made in those documents. The goals of this
course are twofold: To identify the numerous ways women have interpreted
and claimed the promises of democracy, and to understand why and
how certain women have become activists. Although community service
is strongly encouraged (see Plan B below under assignment three),
the ultimate purpose of the course is not to turn us into community
activists, but rather to make us aware of the role activism, and
especially women involved in activism, have played and continue
to play in making the promise and hope of America a reality in our
lives.
Our means of achieving the stated goals are many-fold: We will do
so through reading, thinking, discussing, reading, writing, thinking,
reading, watching films, thinking, reading, researching, reading,
working in the community, reading, interviewing community activists,
reading, thinking, and reading some more. Reading and reflecting
thoughtfully are the most essential requirements of this course.
For each subject we choose, we will attempt to discover and clarify
several things about her and her work for social justice:
1) for whom was she seeking justice;
2) what was her relationship with the ones for whom she worked for
justice;
3) was there an identifiable incident or event that sparked her
work in their behalf and if so, what was it;
4) how far removed legally, socially, and personally from the promises
of democracy were those for whom she sought justice;
5) what obstacles to gaining social justice did she encounter;
6) how did she meet the challenges she faced; and, finally,
7) what was it in the woman's personality, family background, training,
life experience, etc. that made her receptive to becoming an activist?
SPECIFIC COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
CRITERIA:
This course is not for everyone. It requires a considerable amount
of self-discipline, self-motivation, organizational and time-management
skills, and a sense of commitment to the community, or if not to
this particular community (for students who are transient) at least
a commitment to the principles of community service. Success will
depend upon the measure students have of each of these traits.
There are three major assignments in this course. The first
is the only assignment that distinguishes between graduates and
undergraduates. The distinction includes the length of paper and
the number of sources required. Graduate students registered in
History 505 will turn in a short paper of 7-10 pages; undergraduates
will turn in a paper 3-5 pages in length. The first paper will look
at a woman activist (to be chosen from a list provided by the professor)
who lived and worked in the US sometime between 1850-1950. In this
very brief research essay the student will address the questions
posed above; additionally graduate students will use not fewer than
five sources and undergraduates not fewer than four. One source
must be primary (the author's own written work), and only one reference
source (encyclopedia, biographical dictionary, etc.) may be cited.
(Do not hesitate, in fact I encourage you, to use the Internet as
a source.)
The second assignment will include a longer paper (10-12
pages) in which the student first addresses the above questions
for each of the three autobiographers in the required reading list
(Anne Moody, Barbara Deming, and Mary Crow Dog), and then analyzes
the differences and similarities among the experiences of the three
women. Each of these women was active in the Civil Rights movement
of the 1960s and seventies. Moody and Deming fought primarily for
Civil Rights for African Americans while Mary Crow Dog devoted her
life to gaining Civil Rights for Native Americans. The purpose of
this assignment is to determine comparatively how class, race, and
ethnicity as well as gender shaped these women's experiences.
The third major assignment requires the student to choose
between Plan A and Plan B. Plan A will require a forty-five
(45) page research paper on a related subject, the parameters of
which will be specified at a later date. Plan B requires
two parts: twenty (20) hours of community service work in an agency
to be chosen after careful consideration and discussion including
the student, the professor, and the Association Directors. In addition
to the twenty hours of service, the student will be required to
write a fifteen to twenty (15-20) page paper that is a mini-history
of the agency or association with whom one works and a mini-biography
of the woman/women who were instrumental in its origins or have
been involved in its continuation. As a model for this paper,
the student will follow one or more of the essays in the text, Women
Activists by Anne Witte Garland, each of which implicitly if
not explicitly addresses the seven questions posed above. This assignment
will require the student(s) to interview the current Director of
the association and any others who are available for interview as
well as staff suggested by the Director. For the purposes of convenience
for both the Association staff and the student, students may be
allowed a maximum of three hours of the twenty hours of time committed
to service to conduct these interviews. In other words, three of
the twenty hours committed to service may be used by the student
to conduct the interview(s) or compile resources offered by the
Association. But at least seventeen hours must be left to service.
The exception to this allowance will be if the project designed
for the student by the Director of the Association requires all
twenty hours of service to complete the project agreed upon by the
student and agency Director. In that case, the student will be required
to conduct interviews and collect sources on time over and above
the twenty committed to service. Students are encouraged to work
together on the research (much of which will come from oral interviews)
required for this assignment, being careful not to duplicate each
others' interviews. The staff at all of the associations chosen
for participation are extremely busy and have agreed to participate
in this part of the assignment with the understanding that their
time for such interviews is limited.
Suggestion for the three assignments: Every good essay has
a purpose or thesis clearly stated in the introduction. (A thesis
is an arguable point defended or proven by the body of the paper.)
Any combination of the seven questions posed above might provide
such a purpose for your paper, but questions three and seven especially
lend themselves to crafting an arguable point.
GRADING for Students in Plan B
GRADING for Students in Plan
A
Assignment One
15%
Assignment One
15%
Assignment Two
25%
Assignment Two
25%
Assignment Three
Assignment Three
40%
Service
15%*
Final Exam
20%***
______
History/Biography
25%
100%
Class Participation
10%**
Final
Exam
10%***
_______
100%
* Students' work in the associations will be assessed and evaluated
by the Executive Director of the Association. The assessment will
be consulted by the professor to determine the students' grade for
Service. Additionally, to compensate for any unusual inconvenience
the student might encounter in managing the twenty hours of Service,
class will not meet the week of May 18-22. Please note that this
is an act of mercy on the part of the professor. Given the assumption
that students are expected to spend three hours outside class for
every hour they spend within class, a five hour course (total of
50 in-class hours) theoretically assumes 150 hours outside work
over the course of the quarter. Proportionally speaking, assignment
number three is two-fifths of the student's grade, which would theoretically
require 60 hours+ of outside class work, but your service is limited
to 20 hours. (That leaves 40 hours to prepare the paper.) Please
be governed by this formula before voicing complaint over the course
requirements.
**Class participation includes everything from informed discussion
to scores on pop quizzes over films, readings, lectures or discussions.
***The final "exam" for students choosing Plan B will
not be an exam in the proper sense, but rather a reflective piece
on one's experience in community service and in gathering the material
for and writing a mini-history and biography of the institution
and the woman currently and/or formerly directing the institution.
The final exam for students choosing Plan A will be comprehensive
in scope and will be a subjective and objective exam covering all
the readings, films, lectures, and class discussions throughout
the quarter.
ATTENDANCE AND CLASS CONDUCT POLICY
If enrollment permits, most days we will conduct the class much
like a seminar, wherein discussion and dialogue rather than monologue
and lecturing characterize the class. In any event student participation
is encouraged. An exception to the rule of participation will apply
if any one or a small number of students begins, for whatever reason,
to monopolize student response. An additional exception to the rule
of participation will apply if the expression of dissenting or differing
opinions becomes disruptive or anything but diplomatic and well-meaning.
Independent thinking is highly encouraged as long as it is informed
thinking--that is, thinking informed by credible sources (your textbooks,
for instance)--but especially as long as diplomacy, respect, and
tact govern its sharing and expression.
Attendance is required. Five absences will be tolerated without
penalty. Those five absences include both legitimate as well as
not so legitimate excuses. Legitimate excuses are illnesses, yours
or your family's, deaths in the family, etc. athletic obligations,
and any other allowable university functions. Doctor's excuses,
notes from coaches, etc. are not necessary. The penalty for each
absence beyond five will be a reduction of 2% in your final grade.
For instance, seven absences would subtract 4% from your final score,
10 absences would subtract 10% from your final score, etc.
For policies regarding withdrawal, please refer to the VSU annual
bulletin for university policy.
TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE
(This schedule is tentative for a number of reasons. Not all of
the planned speakers have been able to commit to a date at the time
of the making of this syllabus. Nor have all of the films ordered
arrived. Priority will be placed on thorough coverage of the required
readings and presentation of research.)
Week 1
March 31-April 3 Introduction; Syllabus; Brief look at the Declaration
of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution and a recollection
of the Pledge of Allegiance; Time Line; Video "Social Justice,"
from A Century of Women series; "Forward," "Preface,"
and "Introduction" in Garland, Women Activists;
Discussion of Assignment Three; Choosing subjects for Assignment
One;
Week 2
April 6-10 Brief look at legal & social realities of women in
the Antebellum US; Video "Family," from A Century of
Women series; Chapters 1 & 2 in Garland (Cirillo, "Every
Mountain Hollow" & Kaczynski, "The Human Element");
Speaker;
Week 3
April 13-17 Discussion of legal and social realities for women in
Gilded Age and Progressive Era; film, "One Woman, One Vote";
presentation of research by students on Assignment One; Speaker;
Chapter 3 in Garland (Cincotta, "We Found the Enemy"); Assignment One due April 17
Week 4
April 20-24 Discussion of legal and social realities for women in
Twenties, Depression Era, WWII and Cold War Era; beginning of film
series Eyes on the Prize and Fundi: the Story of Ella Baker;
Chapter 4 in Garland (Fava & Tudy, "Education's the Thing");
Week 5
April 27-May1 Discussion of Anne Moody; Eyes on the Prize;
discussion of legal and social realities of women in Cold War Era
cont'd; Women Strike for Peace; discussion of women in Civil Rights
Movement; Chapter 5 in Garland (Sinclair, "The Tongue of Angels");
Week 6
May 5-8 Discussion of Barbara Deming; Eyes on the Prize;
discussion of rebirth of Women's Movement of the 1960s; Chapter
6 in Garland (Hinds," "Vociferous Residents");
Week 7
May 11-15 Discussion of Mary Crow Dog; Savagery; The Learning
Path; The Pow Wow Highway; Assignment Two due May 15
Week 8
May 18-22 Week off;
Week 9
May 25-29 Discussion of women in the military: the Vietnam War Memorial;
Chapters 7-9 in Garland (Weinstein & Weisfelner, "Common
Sense"; Tucker, "Good Noise"; Greenham women, "Emboldened");
Week 10
June 1-5 Presentation of research on Assignment Three; Assignment Three due June 5
Last Day of Class: Monday, June 8
Final Exam Thursday, June 11, 1998 8:00a.m.-10:00a.m.