SFFS at SFSU - Spring 2012 Semester - visitors welcome!!

Below is the course schedule of PLSI 357 at SFSU (Political Movements: Lessons from Freedom Summer). 

This is the course that was developed over six summers as the SF Freedom School (2005-2010), which took place in the Parish Hall of St. Francis Lutheran Church.  This Spring will be the third time this course has been taught at SFSU.

If you are interested in attending any of the films or to listen to a guest speaker, please drop by.  The class is every Thursday night,  from 6:10 - 9:50, in the Business Building (Room 122) at SFSU. If you are coming from the East Bay by public transport, take BART to Daly City and then get the SFSU shuttle to campus.

Normally, the guest speaker (Civil Rights Veteran) will speak during the first hour and answer questions for another half hour. Then we will show a movie, if that is on the agenda.  We will also be referring to the assigned chapter in Lessons from Freedom Summer.  IF you have any questions, please contact me (mke4think@gmail.com or 415-703-0465).

January 26: Community
Movie: When We Were Colored ( approximately 7:30 pm)

Wazir Peacock

February 2: Building the Foundations of the Movement 
Movie: 10,000 Men Named George
Reading from Lessons: Foreword, Introduction and About Using this Book (pp. xiii-xxiii)

February 9: Building the Foundations of the Movement 
Movie: With All Deliberate Speed
Reading from Lessons: Chapter One

February 16: Why become an Activist?
Guest Speaker: Chude Allen
Movie: You Got to Move
Reading from Lessons: Chapter sections 4.B

February 23: The Montgomery Bus Boycott 
Guest Speaker: Bruce Hartford (talking about March 1st actions)
Movie: Boycott (excerpts)

Reading from Lessons: Chapter sections, Intro to Chapter 4 and 4.A, 4.C, 4.D

March 1 : Sit Ins and the formation of SNCC

Chude Allen

Movie: When We Were Warriors
Reading from Lessons: Chapter 5

March 8: Freedom Rides 
movie: Freedom Riders (excerpts)

Reading from Lessons: Chapter 2

March 15: Guest Speaker: Mimi Real (Freedom Rider)

March 22 SPRING BREAK -- NO CLASS

March 29: The White Power Structure in Mississippi
Movie: Take Me to Chicago
Reading from Lessons: Chapter 6

April 5: Freedom Summer – Mississippi 1960-63
Movie: Freedom Song
Reading from Lessons: Chapter 7

April 12: Mississippi before Freedom Summer –
Guest Speaker: Wazir Peacock
Movie: Murder in Mississippi
Reading from Lessons: Chapter 8

Phil Hutchings

April 19: Freedom Summer
Movie: Freedom on my Mind
Reading from Lessons: Chapters 9 and 10

April 26: Selma to Montgomery
 Movie: Eyes on the Prize: Bridge to Freedom (excerpts)

May 3: Lessons from Freedom Summer
Guest Speaker: Jimmy Rogers (SNCC organizer in Lowndes County, Alabama)
Reading from Lessons: Chapter 11

May 10: From Civil Rights to Black Power 
Movie: Orangeburg Massacre 

Guest Speaker: Phil Hutchings
SNCC, 1963-70, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee
Phil was one of the most effective urban organizers of the Sixties and Seventies.  In 1966, he was the leading SNCC field secretary in Newark, NJ--"the urban Mississippi."  Phil became a national SNCC leader in 1968. He was actively involved in the anti-Vietnam War and peace movements and was one of the founders of the Venceramos Brigade. For many years, Phil lived in Detroit where he was involved in organizing young people around issues of education, community control of educational institutions and drug abuse. He was a regular columnist for the Guardian newspaper and a board member of PRSC, an organization in support of independence for Puerto Rico. After moving to the Bay Area of San Francisco, he has worked on organizing multi-racial/multi-ethnic coalitions (e.g., Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and Just Cause), neighborhood organizing and serves as a technical and financial consultant for non profit organizations. He was the grants director for the Vanguard Foundation. He is an active participant in the Bay Area Veterans of the CivilRights Movement and consultant to neighborhood organizations.




May 17: Review of Course