Human and Civil Rights Classes with Dr. Clayborne Carson
“For rights to be human rights, all humans everywhere in the world must possess them equally and only because of their status as human beings.”
Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights
Session 01: Enlightenment and Revolutions
Main Themes:
Enlightenment; Revolutions; Old Continent vs. New Colonies; Colonial Demands for Independence
Session 02. The Question of Slavery
Main Themes:
The Question of Slavery; Nascent age of industrialization.
Session 03: Abolitionist Movement and the US Civil War
Main Themes:
Abolitionists Movement; Civil War and political and moral evolution of Abraham Lincoln.
Session 04: Reconstruction
Main Themes:
After the Civil War: Passage of the 13-15 Amendments; Reconstruction
Session 05. Colonialism and the 1884 Berlin Conference
Main Themes:
The Berlin Conference of 1884-5 and its consequences.
Session 06: Young Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa
Main Themes:
Imperialism; Mohandas Gandhi and his experiences in South Africa.
Session 07: Assimilations vs. Agitation, U.S. in the 19th Century
Main Themes:
United States at the turn of the 19th century; W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T Washington
Session 08. Women’s Rights
Main Themes:
Women's Suffrage Movement in the U.S.
Session 09: Great Migration/Harlem Renaissance
Main Themes:
The 1920s in the United States; The Great Migration
Session 10: Great Depression/ Communism
Main Themes:
Great Depression; Communism
Session 11. WWII and the Universal Declaration of Human Right
Main Themes:
The 1940s, World War II, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Session 12: Universal Declaration of Human Right
Main Themes:
Review of the evolution of the human rights idea, from the era of enlightenment to the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Session 13: Review: How did we get here? Where are we today in human history?