Section Number: HIS 5397.01
Credit Hours: 3 hours
CID Number: 42504
Class Time: Online Course
Semester: Summer I 2011
Dates: June 1 to July 1

Dr. Jeffrey L. Littlejohn
Office: AB4–455
Office Hours: online anytime
Telephone: 936.294.4438
Email: littlejohn@shsu.edu
Web: http://www.studythepast.com

When Brown v. Board of Education came before the Supreme Court at the dawn of the 1950s, the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) still governed race relations in America. Restaurants and restrooms, train cars and taverns were segregated. In addition, seventeen southern and border states legally barred African Americans from white public schools; four western states allowed local school districts to determine segregation policy; and almost every other state in the nation practiced some form of de facto public school segregation.

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) challenged the status quo and overturned the Plessy precedent. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that, “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” A year later, in Brown II (1955), Warren announced that public school districts must integrate with “all deliberate speed.” And, yet, of course, it was not that easy.

In the wake of the Brown decisions, white Southerners launched a coordinated campaign of Massive Resistance to prevent school desegregation in the South. Spearheaded by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, the Massive Resistance movement utilized legal and political measures to halt implementation of the Brown decisions. As part of the campaign, state legislators enacted interposition resolutions, pupil placement acts, and school-closing measures that enabled the South to defy the Supreme Court's ruling for years to come.

Despite this position of defiance, however, white Southerners did not present a "monolithic wall of resistance" to civil rights. As African American activists carried out the Montgomery Bus Boycott, sit-In demonstrations, and freedom rides, white Southerners took a variety of positions on the changes taking place around them. Drawing on the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., historian David Chappell has argued that the white South divided into three district groups: "extreme segregationists who were willing to fight (against civil rights); middle-roaders who favored segregation but would sooner see it destroyed than take personal risks to defend it; and the tiny minority who would, with varying degrees of caution, support action to undermine segregation."

This course will examine the divisions within the Southern white community during the civil rights controversies of the mid-twentieth century. It is my belief that such a study may shed light on more recent times by providing a framework to understand the political landscape of the 1970s, 80s, and even more recent times.

A) Students will gain factual knowledge.
B) Students will learn fundamental principles, generalizations, and theories.
C) Students will learn to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view.

Please note: All students in this course will receive an incomplete at the end of the first summer session. Assignments must be completed by the posted due dates. Grades will be turned in at the end of the second summer session.

Topic 1: Old South/New South
Virginia Durr, Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr (University of Alabama Press, 1985). Available through our library as a free ebook. Click here. Twenty questions due by June 10.

Topic 2: Massive Resistance
Clive Webb, ed., Massive Resistance: Southern Opposition to the Second Reconstruction (Oxford University Press, 2005). 500-word precis of assigned essay due by June 17.

Topic 3: Moderates Serve their Own Ends
Anders Walker, The Ghost of Jim Crow: How Southern Moderates Used Brown v. Board of Education to Stall Civil Rights (Oxford University Press, 2009). 750-word book review due by June 24.

Topic 4: Subversive Southerner
Catherine Fosl, Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002). 750-word book review due by July 8.

Topic 5: Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!
Dan T. Carter, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics (Louisiana State University Press, 2000). 750-word book review due by July 22.

Topic 6: Racial Controversies Remain
Timothy B. Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story (Three Rivers, 2005). 750-word book review due by August 3.

A) Course Readings
Students will complete reading assignments as provided in the syllabus.

B) Writing Assignments
After each reading assignment, students will submit a writing assignment to the drop box in our SHSUonline course.

C) Grading
Grading will be based on 6 writing assignments each worth 50 points (for a total of 300 possible points).
Grades will be based on a 10 point scale.

As part of this class, you will be expected to check your university email and our SHSUonline page regularly. To email me, you can either go to SHSUonline or send directly to littlejohn@shsu.edu.

The University expects all students to engage in all academic pursuits in a manner that is above reproach. Students are expected to maintain complete honesty and integrity in the academic experiences both in and out of the classroom.  Any student found guilty of dishonesty in any phase of academic work will be subject to disciplinary action.

5.31 The University and its official representatives, acting in accordance with Subsection 5.32, may initiate disciplinary proceedings against a student accused of any form of academic dishonesty including, but not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, and the abuse of resource materials.
"Cheating" includes the following and similar actions:
(1) Copying from another student's test paper, laboratory report, other report, or computer files, data listings, and/or programs.
(2) Using, during a test, materials not authorized by the person giving the test.
(3) Collaborating, without authorization, with another student during an examination or in preparing academic work.
(4) Knowingly, and without authorization, using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, soliciting, copying, or possessing, in whole or in part, the contents of an unadministered test.
(5) Substituting for another student, permitting any other person, or otherwise assisting any other person to substitute for oneself or for another student in the taking of an examination or test or the preparation of academic work to be submitted for academic credit.
(6) Bribing another person to obtain a test or information about an unadministered test.
(7) Purchasing, or otherwise acquiring and submitting as one's own work any research paper or other writing assignment prepared by an individual or firm. This section does not apply to the typing of the rough and/or final versions of an assignment by a professional typist.

5.32 "Plagiarism" means the appropriation and the unacknowledged incorporation of another's work or idea into one's own work offered for credit.
5.33 "Collusion" means unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing work for credit.
5.34 "Abuse of resource materials" means the mutilation, destruction, concealment, theft or alteration of materials provided to assist students in the mastery of course materials.
5.35 “Academic work” means the preparation of an essay, dissertation, thesis, report, problem, assignment, or other project that the student submits as a course requirement or for a grade.

2.00 PROCEDURES IN CASES OF ALLEGED ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

2.01 Procedures for discipline due to academic dishonesty shall be the same as in disciplinary actions specified in The Texas State University System Rules and Regulations and Sam Houston State University Student Guidelines except that all academic dishonesty actions shall be first considered and reviewed by the faculty member teaching the class. The faculty member may impose failure or reduction of a grade in a test or the course, and/or performing additional academic work not required of other students in the course. If the faculty member believes that additional disciplinary action is necessary, as in the case of flagrant or repeated violations, the case may be referred to the Dean of Student Life or a designated appointee for further action. If the student involved does not accept the decision of the faculty member, the student may appeal to the chair of the appropriate academic department/school, seeking reversal of the faculty member's decision.

2.02 If the student does not accept the decision of the chair of the academic department/school, he/she may appeal to the appropriate academic dean. The chair of the academic department/school may also refer the case directly to the academic dean if the case so warrants. 

At the end of the semester, students will be asked to complete an evaluation of the course, but I welcome feedback about readings, assignments, and my instruction throughout the semester. Let’s work together to make this a successful and rewarding learning experience for everyone.

This syllabus is your contract for the course. I will not change the nature of the course, the number of assignments, or the grading system. However, I reserve the right to update the course schedule and reading assignments.