The U.S. Civil Rights Movement was a response to a world structured by rules, institutions, and beliefs centering around race. White supremacy may be a widely discredited notion today, but our world is still largely shaped by four centuries of unapologetic racial ideology, conquest, slavery, and colonialism. In this course, we will explore the life and work of James Farmer, an exemplary leader of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who taught at Mary Washington during the 1990s, the historical background to the black freedom revolution, and its ongoing relevance to our contemporary dialogues, interactions, and policies about race in the U.S. We will investigate the history of the concept of race and its impact on how we perceive ourselves and the world.
This FSEM counts as an Honors-designated class.