In the 1950s and 1960s the Civil Rights Movement filled news headlines across the country. No one could turn on the television, or open a newspaper, without hearing new reports about sit-ins, riots, massive demonstrations, Supreme Court decisions, or the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. News photographers, as well as TV news crews, were regularly documenting the protests and police violence associated with the activities of the movement. These images and videos, which appeared on the front pages of many newspapers and on the nightly news broadcasts, have formed integral parts in constructing the historical memory of the era. Looking back at the iconic images and videos of the civil rights era, the course asks: What roles had the Civil Rights Movement photographs played in the struggle for equality? What impact did they have on American political and social life? How have these images negotiated the memory of the movement through time, and what historical narratives did they help to construct? This course seeks to answer these questions by examining photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. By the end of the semester students will have a better understanding of the wide range of complex ideas and competing ideologies that these photographs stand in for, as well as of their impact on the Civil Rights Movement and later struggles.