Assignment task:
Lab I: History and Popular Memory: The Civil Rights Movement
Reading: Hollitz, 247-79
Prompt: The central theme for this week is how our understanding of the past is strongly influenced by popular memory-by the ideas and images embedded in our culture. The civil rights movement is a powerful example because most Americans continue to associate it principally with a few major personalities, events, and accomplishments. Historian Charles Payne has been a leader in challenging that popular narrative of the struggle. Using his secondary essay and the full range of primary sources, address: How does the local struggle in 1960s-era Mississippi challenge popular conceptions of the movement? And, methodologically, what are the strengths and weaknesses of relying on participants' personal memories (through interviews, memoirs, and other sources) as historical sources?