Democracy Curriculum
The Institute for Common Power strives to facilitate the creation of a just and inclusive Democracy while working to eliminate racial and social inequity. Education can and must lead to action. To this end, the Institute’s Democracy Curriculum provides clear, comprehensive examinations of multiple topics related to race, culture, and politics in America. You cannot understand our modern existence without exploring the historical processes that have worked to create both tragedy and triumph. Register for courses, workshops, and vision conversations that help to historicize our modern world. You will come away inspired to create change!
Democracy Curriculum Offerings
Institute Courses: We offer a series of courses taught by award-winning scholars who are widely recognized experts in their fields of study. Each course is three to four lectures, with one lecture occurring per week. You will receive a course syllabus for guided historical investigation. You will also be able to interact with the professor teaching the course. The courses provide comprehensive examinations of multiple topics related to race, culture, and politics in America. Each course will be recorded and available for one month following the final lecture.
Vision Conversations: We seek to put you in contact with visionary change makers who work to create a just and inclusive democracy. These conversations will leave you inspired to create change. The audience is encouraged to interact with the speaker through questions and comments. We have welcomed past changemakers such as Nikole Hannah-Jones, Dr. Clint Smith, and Dr. Harry Edwards.
Banned Book Club: The Banned Books Club meets monthly to discuss banned or challenged literature–from modern works like How the Word is Passed to classics such as The House on Mango Street. The Banned Books Club events are facilitated by the Educators for Democracy team.
Educators for Democracy Quarterly Teach-Ins: We feature five educators from across the country each quarter who will deliver thirty-minute lectures on some aspect of American democracy. Each educator is an Institute for Common Power Educator Ambassador, which means they have traveled with us on a Truth & Purpose Leaning Tour. The lectures will have a heavy focus on history and work to connect the past to the present as they encourage people to engage in work that focuses on social and voting justice.
Truth and Purpose Learning Experience: Our Truth & Purpose Learning Tours are profound, guided experiences through the South that will imbue you with a heightened level of compassion and respect for history makers and inspire you to help create a future defined by integrity, equity, and democracy.
Diversity Series with University of Washington Department of Medicine: We are pleased and excited to partner with the UW Department of Medicine to bring a lecture series, free to the public, that features medical professionals and others who are working to disrupt, expose, and dismantle racial bias in medicine.
January - June 2025
Institute Course
DR. YOHURU WILLIAMS
“We the People: The Long Struggle for Democracy”
Jan. 8, 15, 22 5 pm - 6:30 pm PST / 8 pm - 9:30 pm EST
This course will delve into the complex tapestry of social, economic, and political ramifications resulting from pivotal Supreme Court decisions. From the notorious Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which upheld racial segregation, to the transformative Brown v. Board of Education (1954), striking down state-sponsored segregation in public schools, participants will analyze how these decisions reverberated through American society. Special emphasis will be placed on landmark cases such as Shelby County v. Holder (2013), which dismantled key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, exploring its profound impact on the political landscape, and voting rights. The course concludes with an examination of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), probing the contemporary intersection of race and higher education.
Distinguished University Chair, St. Thomas University
Institute Course
DR. TERRY ANNE SCOTT
“Slavery in America: Inconceivable Struggle and Profound Resistance”
Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26 5 pm - 6:30 pm PST / 8 pm - 9:30 pm EST
In this Institute course, Dr. Terry Anne Scott will survey the struggles and accomplishments of people of African descent in the United States during the institution of slavery. While some attention will be paid to African origins, the three sessions in this series will analyze the historical path from importation through the Civil War and the process of freedom. Through a largely, but not exclusively, chronological approach, Dr. Scott will emphasize how African Americans have worked to determine the trajectory of their own lives and worked to resist and persevere. Areas of exploration will include, but are not limited to, the following: the construction of racial identity and alterity, the slave family and community, the domestic slave trade, resistance, and the process of freedom.
Director, Institute for Common Power
Vision Conversation
DR. ERIC FONER
“Creating a Just and Inclusive Democracy”
Feb. 18 at 4 pm PST / 7 pm EST
Renowned historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University and foremost scholar on Reconstruction, will be in conversation with award-winning historian Dr. Terry Anne Scott, Director of the Institute for Common Power. Join them as they discuss Dr. Foner's paradigmatic work and how we create a just and inclusive democracy. According to Dr. Foner's website, his “publications have concentrated on the intersections of intellectual, political and social history, and the history of American race relations. His books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.”
Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University
Quarterly Teach-In
VARIOUS EDUCATORS
“Educators for Democracy- Quarterly Teach-In”
Feb. 16 - 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm PST
Each quarter, the Institute features five educators from across the country who will deliver thirty minute lectures on some aspect of American democracy. Each educator is an Institute for Common Power Educator Ambassador, which means they have traveled with us on a Truth & Purpose Learning Tour. They are part of our community and understand the power of how education leads to action. The lectures will have a heavy focus on history and will work to connect the past to the present as they encourage people to engage in work that focuses on social and voting justice.
Institute Lecture
DR. KEISHA N. BLAIN
Professor of Africana Studies and History, Brown University
“Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement”
Mar. 5 - 1:00 pm PST / 4:00 pm EST
While mainstream historical narratives tend to focus on the political work of prominent men such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, Black women played instrumental roles in shaping the Civil Rights Movement. These women were community organizers and leaders, sustaining the movement as it grew from local communities into a national struggle. Black women, such as Ella Baker, Diana Nash, Jo Ann Robinson, and Fannie Lou Hamer, were central to the movement’s success. In this lecture, Dr. Blain highlights the significance of Black women’s political activism during the 1950s and 1960s and brings to light some of the challenges they encountered as women organizing in predominantly male-dominated spaces.
Vision Conversation
VANN R. NEWKIRK, II
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
“Race and the Climate Crisis”
Mar. 12 - 5:00 pm PST / 8:00 pm EST
Vann R. Newkirk, II is a senior editor at the Atlantic and the host and co-creator of narrative podcasts including Floodlines, which received a Peabody award. Newkirk is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow and was a 2020 James Beard award finalist. He was also an Institute for Common Power Selma Scholar-in-Residence.
In conversation with Dr. Terry Anne Scott and Dr. David Domke from the Institute for Common Power, Mr. Newkirk will be discussing his latest book project, Children of the Flood (Random House), a chronicle of Black communities fighting for survival in the climate crisis.
BANNED BOOKS CLUB
Hosted by: Luke Michener, Carmen Cruz, and Ivory L. Kennedy, Jr.
Mar. 3, Apr. 7, May 5, June 2 5 pm - 6:30 pm PST / 8 pm - 9:30 pm EST
The Institute for Common Power, the educational branch of Common Power, is inviting you to join our Banned Books Club. According to a PEN America report, the 2023-2024 school year recorded the highest instances of book bans and highest number of unique titles banned on record – over 4,000 unique titles were removed in over 10,000 instances of book bans. The Institute believes in the enduring power of books to provoke thought, challenge norms, and broaden perspectives. During our monthly meetings of the Banned Books Club (June - March) we will discuss race, identity, and freedom of expression as the club dives into the societal issues these books illuminate, facilitated by the Educators for Democracy Team.
Institute Course
DR. HASAN KWAME JEFFRIES
“
The U.S. Civil Rights Movement”
Apr. 2, 9, 16 5 pm PST / 8 pm EST
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s transformed America. It ended legalized racial segregation, extended the franchise to Black southerners, and created unprecedented job, business, and housing opportunities for Black northerners. But it also left a great deal undone. This course explains the origin, evolution, and outcomes of the Civil Rights Movement. In approach, it looks at the movement from the bottom-up and the inside-out, aiming to make clear how everyday Black people made America a fairer and more just - if still imperfect - society.
Professor of History, The Ohio State University
Learning Tour
TRUTH + PURPOSE LEARNING TOUR
Dr. Terry Anne Scott and Dr. David Domke
April 3 - April 8, 2025
Join Institute Director Dr. Terry Anne Scott, CP senior leader and Professor David Domke, and other CP staff in an investment in CP's foundational principles of mindset, mojo, mobilization with a trip to Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham AL. These are not vacations; they are challenging, growing, intentional deep dives into historical and contemporary realities of race and voting justice, realities that are foundational to the work of Common Power. The goal, always, is to move from education to action. The places we visit will allow us to examine the long history of people of African descent in this country, with specific emphasis on the modern American Civil Rights Movement.
Institute Course
DR. ELLEN WU
“The Surprising History of Asian Americans and Racial Justice”
May 8, 15, 22 5 pm - 6:30 pm PST / 8 pm - 9:30 pm EST
Lecture #1 ("Diversity") explores how the "minority rights" revolution of the 20th century, sparked by the Black Freedom Movement, widened to encompass Asian Americans.
Lecture #2 ("Data") deep-dives into the strange status of Asian Americans as an "overrepresented" (rather than "underrepresented") minority group.
Lecture #3 ("Democracy") overviews the little-known but increasingly consequential impact of Asian American political engagement.
Associate Professor of History and Associate Director of the
College Arts and Humanities Institute at IU Bloomington
Learning Tour
TRUTH + PURPOSE LEARNING TOUR
Dr. Terry Anne Scott and Dr. David Domke
May 15 - May 20, 2025
Join Institute Director Dr. Terry Anne Scott, CP senior leader and Professor David Domke, and other CP staff in an investment in CP's foundational principles of mindset, mojo, mobilization with a trip to Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham AL. These are not vacations; they are challenging, growing, intentional deep dives into historical and contemporary realities of race and voting justice, realities that are foundational to the work of Common Power. The goal, always, is to move from education to action. The places we visit will allow us to examine the long history of people of African descent in this country, with specific emphasis on the modern American Civil Rights Movement.
Institute Course
DR. MEREDITH BAGLEY
“From Selma to Stonewall”
June 9, 16, 23 4 pm PST / 7 pm EST
This lecture series surveys the tensions and solidarity points between the struggles for African American Civil Rights and LGBTQ+ Rights. We will examine queer-identified figures within the Civil Rights movement - after laying a working foundation for LGBTQ+ terminology - before moving forward to the ways the two movements overlap, inform, and occasionally exist in tension. Through a largely, but not exclusively, chronological approach, this four-part series will examine Black Lesbian Feminism, the Stonewall Riots, Marriage Equality, and the current crisis over gender-affirming health care.
Associate Professor of Communication Studies. University of Alabama
Institute Lecture
DR. TERRY ANNE SCOTT
Director, Institute for Common Power
“The Origins and Legacy of Juneteenth”
June 18 - 5 - 6 pm PST / 8 - 9 pm EST
Join Institute for Common Power Director Dr. Terry Anne Scott as she examines the history of Juneteenth and discusses its legacy. Dr. Terry Anne Scott is an award-winning historian, author, and speaker. She is the Director of the Institute for Common Power, an educational 501(c)3 branch of Common Power that catalyzes people to action through experiential learning opportunities such as workshops, lectures, courses, learning tours, national educational events. Dr. Scott is a former Professor of African American History and Chair of the Department of History at Hood College. She has also taught at the University of Washington and the University of Maryland. Dr. Scott is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Sports History and a member of the Editorial Staff for the Journal of American History.