Introduction

US History – Civil Rights, 1865-1941

In this course, Professor Robert Cook explores the development of African-American civil rights from the end of the American Civil War (1865) to the United States' entry into World War II (1941). After a brief introduction that provides an overview of the whole course, we begin by exploring the changing fortunes of African-Americans in the Reconstruction Era (1865-77), and in the final decades of the 19th century which saw the creation of a racially segregated (or 'Jim Crow') society in the Southern states. After that, in the following three modules, we explore the ideas of three key individuals in the fight for African-American rights: in the third module, Booker T. Washington; in the fourth, W. E. B. Du Bois; and in the fifth, Marcus Garvey. In the sixth and final module, we think about the impact of the Great Depression on African-American civil rights in the United States, focusing in particular on the question of whether Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'New Deal' was 'more potent in promise than performance' so far as blacks were concerned, and the degree to which this era of reform delivered positive gains for African Americans.

Introduction

In this brief module, we provide an introduction to the course as a whole, following American history from the end of the American Civil War (1861-65) through to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Depression, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 'New Deal'.