I. The Civil Rights Movement as
a Social Movement
A. SM
theories
1. pluralism/exclusion
2. relative deprivation
3. contentious politics
4. resource mobilization
5. political opportunity structure
B. McClain
and Stewart
pluralism - SM as an outsider strategies employed by "dominated groups"
C. Resources
needed for successful SM mobilization
1. organization
2. leadership
3. access to resources outside the movement
4. "plan" - i.e.
a. critique of current situation
b. tactics to make critique known
c. prescription for change
d. strategies to sustain movement (relates to 1 and 2 above)
II. Civil Rights Movement
of the US
A. Beginning
of Movement
Baton Rouge
Bus Boycott June 19, 1953
B. Social/Structural
Conditions in the US in the 1950s
giving rise
to the movement
1. urbanization, industrialization
2. upward mobility of blacks, growth of black middle class
3. WWII veterans, GI bills, programs for home ownership
Truman desegregating the Armed Forces
C. See
elements of each SM theory in these conditions, why each is important
in explaining
timing of movement, growth, sustainability of the movement
D. Baton
Rouge Boycott
1. boycotts as a tactic - why? why are they effective?
2. why was the Baton Rouge boycott effective?
3. why is the Montgomery boycott better known?
E. Mississippi
Student Non-violent
Coordinating Committee
Organizing, training of local leaders, led by Robert Moses
Organized Freedom Rides for black and white students
Staged alternative
voting places - over 80,000 turn out - dispels
"apathy" myth
Council on Federated
Organizations, worked to register blacks to vote
Murder of white students - FBI investigation - Missippippi Burning
F.
Other violence
Fire
bombing church; African American girls killed
Assassination
of NAACP Secretary Medgar Evers 1963
ASsassination
of MLK, April 1968
G. Why,
according to McClain and Stewart, was the participation of white students
from elite universities
helpful to the civil rights movement?