When considering the evolution of the African American Civil Rights movement, 1963 looms large in
historical study and memory. In 1963, the Birmingham campaign (and the state violence wrought
upon it) captured national and international attention, and a quarter of a million people marched on
Washington D.C. and listened to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. The wider
struggle for civil liberties extended beyond the Civil Rights Movement, even while it remained
inspired by and crucially intertwined with it. From housewives inspired by the publication of Betty
Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique to white evangelicals protesting the secularization of public
education, 1963 was a year in which the struggle for civil liberties manifested in new forms and
adopted new rhetorics. As such, the year of 1963 demonstrates how broader changes in the
political, intellectual, media, and cinematic landscape provided a variety of societal groups with new
ways to interact with the civil rights story and to reimagine themselves as part of it.
This edited volume engages with and interrogates the historical concept of the calendar year,
capturing the breadth of diverse historical actors whose ideals and actions were inspired by and
interwoven with the Civil Rights Movement. The kaleidoscopic nature of 1963 – with interconnected
shifts at a micro and macro level – indicates the distorting and transforming impact of the year on
American life. This strict chronological focus, combined with a thematic breadth of papers, offers a
range of new perspectives on a crucial year for the Civil Rights Movement. However, it also
encourages students and scholars to reflect on the purpose, significance, and potential limitations of
the calendar year as a category of analysis in history.
We are seeking chapter proposals that interact with the concept of 1963 as a ‘watershed year’ in
the struggle for civil liberties. Whilst we will consider papers from a broad spectrum of topics, we
particularly encourage papers that address gaps in the current plan for the volume. These include,
but are not limited to:
• Students and student activism
• Women’s history and the history of feminism
• Cultural forms and their relationships to civil rights, including literature and literary figures
Chapter proposal submission:
Please contact the volume editors, Uta Balbier (uta.balbier@history.ox.ac.uk), Emily Brady
(emily.brady@rai.ox.ac.uk), and Megan Hunt (megan.hunt@ed.ac.uk) by March 1, 2024, if you are
interested in submitting a proposal for the volume.
Please include a proposal of 300-500 words, alongside a short biography (max. 300 words).
Deadline for abstract submission: March 15, 2024
Further information: We intend to conduct a workshop for authors which will take place in
September 2024 (in person or online depending on funding) to workshop draft chapters and to work
jointly towards a cohesive volume.
Subject Fields
History, American History, American Studies, Film and Film History, Literature, Black Studies, Gender
Studies.