Our reading for Tuesday comes from Indian activist Leonard Peltier. Very few people are more associated with the term “political prisoner” than is Peltier. He is also an important figure in the narrative of our class, made all more so by the fact of his imprisonment since 1977. Peltier has now spent more than half of his life in a federal penitentiary. Before you do the reading, I ask that you do some research on who Peltier is, the conditions and controversies of his imprisonment, and his name as part of a movement to release him. Your readings (available as a digital download) are selections from his 1999 book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. Please bring your “prep sheet” to class on Tuesday.

We’ll follow up our discussion with a short lecture on the FBI and its surveillance programs of the 1960s and 70s.

For Thursday you are expected to read an article on Women of color political organizing. It is made available to you as DCR 14. While you do not have to produce a “prep sheet” for it, we will have a very involved discussion/activity in class where we will be using the reading. Please come prepared.

Feel free to share some further questions or comments related to our in-class discussion this morning by posting a comment below.

This week, we’ll continue with our exploration of American Indian activism and movement-making in the postwar era. On Tuesday we read from Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior’s book Like A Hurricane (1996). This is provided to you as DCR 12. As usual,come with your “prep sheet” for our in-class discussion. On Thursday we will watch the documentary “Alcatraz Is Not An Island.” You have no reading for that day.

As we discussed in class, I strongly recommend you begin the next phase in our semester project. We will have time this week to discuss any lingering questions you may have in terms of what is expected of you for the April 12th assignment.

If you weren’t chosen as an in-class Facilitator for today’s “Collective Discussion” then you are expected to post a comment below relating to the reading assignment and/or our discussion.

Your comment is due no later than Wednesday, March 7th at 9:35 a.m. PST.

Welcome back from the break. We have a short amount of time before the semester is over–only 13 classes remain! In that time we’ll discuss Puerto Rican, Native American, and Asian American movements. From here on out you have only two formal assignments left (not counting your weekly “prep sheets”)–the “Questions & Evidence” portion of your final project (due April 12) and the “Teaching the Freedom Struggle” history project itself (due May 1). Both should reflect a sustained and substantive amount of work.

On TUESDAY we will discuss the Young Lords Organization, a group of Puerto Rican youth in New York City who built a dynamic and creative nationalist movement. Your reading assignment–provided to you as DCR 10–are selections from Palante!, a collection of writings from the Young Lords newspaper of the same name. As usual, type up your “prep sheet” and bring it to class. We’ll follow-up our discussion with a multimedia presentation of other materials related to the Lords.

For THURSDAY you are expected to read DCR 11, a selection of chapters from the book Blood Struggle, by Charles Wilkinson. This will also mark our transition into 20th century Native American history, where we will begin to explore the politics within and among American Indians in the post-WWII period. While you do not have any writing assignment due that is related to this reading assignment, you will find future discussions and prep sheets difficult without having completed it as your foundation for future learning.

Be good and be safe.

If you were selected to serve as a “Commentator” for this week’s “Collective Discussion” then you are expected to post a comment below relating to the reading assignment and/or our in-class discussion.

Your comment is due no later than Wednesday, March 7th at 9:35 a.m. PST.

Welcome to the week before spring break!

At this point in the semester you should take pride in the fact that you have successfully completed more than half of the class. That includes earning more than half of the final grade points you will earn this semester. Our class is front-loaded for two reasons: 1) to make sure you do your best work when you are best equipped to do it, and 2) to give you the preparation to successfully complete your semester “teaching” project.

This Tuesday we will have our normal in-class discussion. You know the routine, so I won’t restate it here. The reading assignment is chapters 4-6 in the book by Muñoz. We’ll follow up our discussion with a brief lecture, and some further discussion on the rest of the project. I’ll also return your outstanding course work.

On Thursday we’ll talk about more radically-minded efforts by Chicana/o students in the later 1960s. You will prepare and turn in your second-to-last Critical Evaluation exercise (CE3) on the preamble to “El Plan de Aztlan.” The source is provided to you as DCR09. This is the foundational document of “Chicano nationalism” which was created at the Denver conference in March 1969. Your engagement with this source should help us understand your take on the following: what does this source tell us about the way a majority of youth were articulating and understanding the idea of Chicano nationalism?

A very compelling and thought-provoking article appeared recently in the online magazine Souciant. Written by Rutgers University senior Bilal Ahmed, the piece is called “Reverse Exodus Narrative” and it deals with topics familiar to students in our class. Ahmed, however, expresses them from within the present-day context of the “Arab Spring” and his own position as an Arab American in the 21st century.

Ahmed writes:

“Egypt allowed me to blend in for the first time in my life. Elsewhere in the Middle East, I had never felt a sense of unconditional accceptance. In Tahrir Square, not being Egyptian, or even a revolutionary, was never an issue. In Egypt, I was judged on the basis of my actions, the fact that I was marching, and my preparations as a medical volunteer. I wore my medical gear, with my shatterproof goggles and keffiyeh, and no one looked at me as if I was different. No one even spoke to me in English.”

You can read the entire piece by visiting the Souciant website.

If you were selected to serve as a “Commentator” for this week’s “Collective Discussion” then you are expected to post a comment below relating to the reading assignment and/or our in-class discussion.

Your comment is due no later than Wednesday, February 29th at 9:35 a.m. PST.

This week we move on to our investigation of the Chicano Student Movement. We’ll begin that process by starting on our second course book–Youth, Identity, and Power, by Carlos Muñoz Jr. Muñoz was a movement participant, and one of the so-called “East L.A. 13″ arrested and tried for their roles in organizing the student walkouts of 1968. His is a scholarly work written by a scholar/activist, with purposeful biases included.

On Tuesday we will read the introduction and chapters 1-3 for our in-class collective discussion, based on your “prep sheet” and critical reading of the text. We’ll follow that up with a short lecture and structured discussion of the broader Chicano Student Movement. On Thursday, we will watch a documentary in class, episode 3 of the 1996 series Chicano! A History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.

On Thursday you will also turn in the first part of your semester-long teaching project. Detailed instructions and expectation for this first step are provided to you in the “Assignments” page above as well as in the earlier announcement posted last week.

Chicanas and Chicanos march against the Vietnam War in East Los Angeles (August 29, 1970)