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HIS-30157 - Module Specification
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

For academic year: 2025/26 Last Updated: 04 December 2025

HIS-30157 - 'Eyes on the Prize': The Struggle for Civil Rights in America
Coordinator: David Ballantyne Tel: +44 1782 7 34409
Lecture Time: See Timetable...
Level: Level 6
Credits: 15
Study Hours: 150
School Office:

Programme/Approved Electives for 2025/26

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2025/26

This module allows you to study one of the most dramatic processes to shape the modern United States: the struggle for African American civil rights. From a nation blighted by white supremacy (and an especially racially oppressive South) to a country where legal equality was achieved but significant racial disparities remained, we will assess the aims and achievements of Black leadership, and the contribution of ordinary men and women, Black and white, northern and southern, to re-shaping American society through their activism. You will also study the actions of opponents of racial change.
Through engagement with a range of primary and secondary materials, this module will give you an in-depth familiarity with the struggle for civil rights and key historiographical debates about the period, with a particular focus on the 1940s through the 1960s.

Aims
To introduce students to the role of civil rights conflict in the shaping of contemporary America;
To assess the aims and achievements of Black leadership in the Civil Rights Movement;
To document and evaluate the contribution of mainstream protests by ordinary men and women, Black and white, Northern and Southern, in re-shaping American society;
To document and evaluate the broader African-American contribution to American society and culture.

Intended Learning Outcomes

recognise and explain the particular issues and debates associated with the struggle for Civil Rights and racial equality in the United States: 1,2
assess the relative merits of conflicting interpretations of significant events and phenomena, recognising the complexity and diversity of historical situations, events and belief systems: 1,2
use source materials constructively, evaluating primary and secondary accounts to develop original interpretations of evidence: 1,2

Study hours

12 x 2-hour seminars; 50 hours seminar preparation; 28 hours reflective diary preparation; 48 hours long essay preparation.

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment

1: Reflective Diary weighted 35%
1000-word Reflective Diary
Following appropriate seminar preparation, students will write a 1000-word (+/-10%, excluding footnotes and bibliography) reflective diary that reflects critically upon the student's engagement with key themes during the module. This piece must reflect on at least 3 weekly seminars of which at least one must be a topic addressed in weeks 8-11 of the module, and must engage directly with assigned secondary and primary readings from the chosen weeks. Students will have the opportunity to submit a sample diary entry for mid-semester formative feedback.

2: Essay weighted 65%
2000-word essay
Students will write a 2000-word essay (excluding footnotes and bibliography, plus or minus 10%), from a choice of questions.

The University undertakes a continuous review of its teaching and research provision to ensure programmes are of a high quality and changes may be made to modules where it is necessary and reasonable to do so. Please be aware that minor changes to modules, such as a change to an individual assessment, can occur up until enrolment, although we endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes. Details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/legalgovernancecompliance/governance/actcharterstatutesordinancesandregulations/studenttermsconditions/

Last Updated: 04 December 2025