The civil rights movement of the 1960s was started and perpetuated by college students who risked their safety and even their lives for the cause. History professor Cynthia Fleming is taking her own University of Tennessee, Knoxville, college students back to the scene of these events to revisit history through firsthand accounts.

With the help of UT’s Ready for the World initiative, Fleming will take her spring 2012 civil rights mini-term class on the road so her 15 students can visit historical sites in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama associated with the civil rights movement.

Fleming is an oral historian and has interviewed numerous people involved in the civil rights movement. She’s tapped into some of her contacts so her students can hear from archivists, scholars and activists themselves to get the full view of what took place.

Students will begin by spending time in a classroom learning about the history of the civil rights movement, part of which involves watching the documentary “Eyes on the Prize,” profiling the movement through archival footage of demonstrations and police brutality, as well as interviews of people involved first-hand.

... read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.