Black History Commons^™

His 127 Microhistories: A Lens Into The Past — Apartheid In South Africa Syllabus, Marta Millar

Open Educational Resources

The microhistory course introduces students to the study of history by exploring a particular event, individual, or issue, and its legacy. Students will read both primary source documents and modern texts to examine how the topic under consideration was shaped by, and in turn shaped contemporary culture.

This syllabus is for a course focusing on the history of apartheid in South Africa. Students will analyze the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the apartheid era. This includes understanding how segregationist policies developed in South Africa, what political transformations led to the implementation of the apartheid system, how different policies …

Bear Bryant, Sam Cunningham, And Popular Memory Of The Civil Rights Movement, Kurt E. Kemper

Research & Publications

Popular writers, sports journalists, documentarians, and fans of college football have built a legend surrounding the 1970 USC-Alabama game and its alleged significance in the process of desegregation, a legend that is deeply flawed and strongly resistant to scholarly correction.  The persistence of the legend, told from a white perspective for a white audience, does much to illustrate ongoing resistance to an interpretation of the Civil Rights Movement that places Black activists and direct action at the center of the story.

"Dark Spirits: The Emergence Of Cultural Nationalism On The Sidelines And On Campus", Kurt E. Kemper

Research & Publications

Black college students in the 1960s and 1970s struggled to gain access to the university extracurriculum, particularly in spaces dominated by the Greek system and Black females struggled against prevailing assumptions of traditional white femininity. Efforts by Black female students at UCLA to participate in the university spirit squads became enmeshed with broader efforts to create a campus Black Studies Department and the growing campus debate around Black Power.

"'The Smell Of Roses And The Color Of The Players:' College Football And The Expansion Of The Civil Rights Movement In The West", Kurt E. Kemper

Research & Publications

College students in 1961 utilized college football to make tangible linkages not only to the civil rights movement taking place in the South but also their own restrictions on campus, shaping a growing awareness of the broader of the restrains of American Cold War liberalism.