A Study Encounter With the Civil Rights Movement: On Location in the South

An intensive academic experience, the FREEDOM SUMMER CLASS is a sixteen day journey, not only into the geographic “south”, but also into an encounter with many of the people who made the Civil Rights Movement possible.

No episode in American history, with the possible exception of the Civil War, has transformed life in this country so dramatically as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's. Like the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement originated in the South and its major battles were fought in the South. This “movement” had a very close attachment to place, because it was a collective response of everyday people in their own hometowns, challenging and defending centuries of tradition in their own schools, stores and courthouses. The outstanding journalist David Halberstam, praised the civil rights participants as men and women of “courage and nobility” and their efforts as those of “ordinary people in times of stress.” If you believe in their personal efforts, he says, “you are inclined to believe in democracy, despite endless examples of its weaknesses and flaws.”

By traveling to the key sites of the Civil Rights Movement — Memphis, Oxford, the Mississippi Delta, Jackson, Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, Albany, Atlanta and Nashville — students will literally touch this defining time in our nation’s history. They will walk the walks, visit with and share meals with actual participants, study museums preserving the records, and live, however briefly, in the land where it took place 35, 40 or 45 years ago. It is a rigorous, three-hour academic course, but it is also an intensely personal experience for those who join the group.

The Civil Rights Heritage Center coordinates this program and past journeys have been led by IUSB professor Les Lamon. Professor Monica Tetzlaff will lead the group starting in 2006, following Dr. Lamon’s retirement.

Click on the following link for more information about this living history experience of FREEDOM SUMMER 2008.