ABSTRACT
Fifty percent of Texas college students who study U.S. history do so at community colleges. Most take the six hours required of students who plan to graduate from public institutions of higher learning in Texas and take no other history courses during their college careers. Those of us who teach history surveys, then, have both the opportunity and challenge of introducing students to the rich, complex history of the African-American freedom struggle, especially what has come to be known as the Civil Rights Movement. At a 1998 NEH Summer Institute, I began to rethink how to fully infuse these narratives into my courses. That fall I planned to continue with active lectures, but also hoped to stimulate small group discussions to encourage students to think and write critically, and help them to see their Houston neighborhoods in new ways through an Architecture of Segregation project. 1
