From Civil Rights to today's wealth gap and media literacy
The Civil Rights Movement's legislative victories, contemporary structural inequality, and tools for navigating diaspora discourse.
Learning Objectives
•Trace the Civil Rights Movement from Brown v. Board (1954) to the Voting Rights Act (1965)
•Analyze King's philosophy of nonviolence and critiques from Malcolm X and SNCC
•Connect the movement to African decolonization and Cold War politics
•Apply John Ogbu's cultural-ecological theory as one analytical lens — noting this framework is debated
•Explain redlining and its compounding effect on the racial wealth gap
•Define digital blackface and identify coordinated disinformation patterns targeting the diaspora
•Use the glossary to navigate contested language like 'Akata' with historical precision
Unit 6 Knowledge Check
Score 70% or higher to complete this unit. Answers stay hidden until you submit.
1. The National Research Act (1974) and the Belmont Report (1979) established the ethical framework governing all human subjects research today. What directly caused their creation?
2. The Tuskegee study enrolled men in 1932, a time when no effective syphilis treatment existed. By 1947, penicillin was available and inexpensive. The researchers chose not to treat the participants. What specific moral category does the 1947 decision occupy?
3. Nixon domestic policy advisor John Ehrlichman stated in a 1994 interview that the War on Drugs was designed to disrupt Black communities and the antiwar left by associating each with illegal drugs. How should this statement be used as historical evidence?
4. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 established a 100:1 sentencing ratio between crack and powder cocaine — 5 grams of crack triggered the same mandatory minimum as 500 grams of powder. The pharmacological difference between crack and powder cocaine is minimal. What explains the sentencing disparity?
5. The Voting Rights Act's Section 5 preclearance requirement was described by Justice Ginsburg as 'throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.' What evidence most directly supports her position?
6. 21st-century voter suppression mechanisms — strict photo ID requirements, polling place closures, voter roll purges — use race-neutral statutory language. How does this connect to the disfranchisement system documented in Unit 4.5?
7. President Truman desegregated the U.S. military with Executive Order 9981 in 1948. What was the primary argument African American civil rights leaders used to push for this change?
8. Algorithmic colorism refers to the way digital platforms:
9. Ghana's Year of Return (2019) was timed to commemorate:
10. The African Union's formal designation of the diaspora as its 'Sixth Region' is historically significant because:
11. Redlining's long-term economic effect is best described as:
12. John Ogbu's concept of 'involuntary minorities' argues that lower academic achievement in some Black communities reflects:
13. The Internet Research Agency's 2016-2018 social media operations specifically targeted Black Americans by:
Agency, Structure, and the Racial Wealth Gap
Document-Based Task · scored with the essay rubric
Using the provided documents, analyze the extent to which academic and economic outcomes for Black populations are shaped by individual cultural orientation versus historical structural policy. How do these sources challenge or complement John Ogbu’s theory of voluntary versus involuntary minorities when contextualized against the history of systemic housing discrimination in the United States?
Source Documents
Acting White: The Social Psychology of Academic Achievement (John U. Ogbu)
Secondary Source
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (Richard Rothstein)
Secondary Source
Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) 'Redlining' Maps of Major American Cities (1935-1940)
