ALL1497-C 12 Weeks Wednesday 10:30-11:50 Start Date 16-Sep
Grossman 106 Limit 25
Freedom, as Martin Luther King wrote from a Birmingham jail cell, is never given—it must be demanded. But the demand does not begin with marches or manifestos. It begins in the cracks: in the quiet defiance of a veteran refused a seat at the counter he fought to defend, in the fractures of a democracy that preached equality and practiced exclusion. From Jackie Robinson to the Weather Underground, from Brown v. Board to Black Lives Matter, this is the story of a nation’s broken promises—and of the ordinary, extraordinary Americans who refused to stop demanding they be kept.
Coordinator: Lew Taylor 
Lew is a retired public librarian with a BA and an MA in American History. He studied Political Science under Dr. Howard Zinn at Boston University. His lifelong passion for history and civic understanding drives his interest in exploring how social upheaval, protest and reform from 1955 to 1980 shaped modern America. Teaching this course offers a chance to engage others in examining a dynamic era of civil rights struggles, political realignments and cultural transformation. Having seen the period’s effects on civic thought and democracy, he aims to foster critical discussion about activism, dissent and the enduring quest for social justice in American life.