Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Lake Forest College/Protest and Police in US History (Spring 2024)

This course examines historical instances of policing, inequality, and protest, including mobs in the American Revolution, abolitionist direct actions, the terror of the Klu Klux Klan, sit-ins against Jim Crow, protest against military action, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Throughout U.S. history, Americans have been committed both to protest and disruption in order to advance their causes, and to stability, security, and the maintenance of order. Despite widespread fears about disorder and crime today, Americans in the past were far more violent. In this course, we will trace how ordinary people came together to challenge authority, and how those with power built state structures that could legitimately use violence. We will see how policing was shaped by fears of newly- arrived immigrants, the demands of a slave economy, and entrenched racism. We will study the intersecting histories of race, inequality, and state power across the American past. Students will develop a major research project on a particular historical instance of policing, inequality, and protest. Prerequisite: HIST 200 or HIST 201 or permission of instructor.