The past is present
Today’s activists know what those in the Black freedom movement knew: Jail, No Bail was a critique of not just bail, but of an entire system of unjust laws and courts. Then and now, activists understand that power concedes nothing–not desegregation, not pre-trial freedom—without a fight.
The United States must confront the truth about its history in classrooms and in public—parks, museums, and government websites.
This course uses graphic novels to think about the past and considers how the visual medium can reveal new understandings of familiar historical events. Students examine graphic novels alongside archival materials to analyze and interpret complex and difficult stories of war, trauma, slavery, social protest, sexuality, citizenship, and civil rights.
The parallels between the civil rights movement of the early 1960s and the 2020 uprising can situate Gov. DeSantis’s proposal in a broader context. Many of the legislative efforts to curtail Black Lives Matter demonstrations parallel efforts made to criminalize nonviolent actions led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Clio and the Contemporary 