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Uncivil Disobedienceexamines the roles violence and terrorism have played in the exercise of democratic ideals in America. Jennet Kirkpatrick explores how crowds, rallying behind the principle of popular sovereignty and desiring to make law conform to justice, can disdain law and engage in violence. She exposes the hazards of democracy that arise when citizens seek to control government directly, and demonstrates the importance of laws and institutions as limitations on the will of the people. Kirkpatrick looks at some of the most explosive instances of uncivil disobedience in American history: the contemporary militia movement, Southern lynch mobs, frontier vigilantism, and militant abolitionism. She argues that the groups behind these violent episodes are often motivated by admirable democratic ideas of popular power and autonomy. Kirkpatrick shows how, in this respect, they are not so unlike the much-admired adherents of nonviolent civil disobedience, yet she reveals how those who engage in violent disobedience use these admirable democratic principles as a justification for terrorism and killing. She uses a \"bottom-up\" analysis of events to explain how this transformation takes place, paying close attention to what members of these groups do and how they think about the relationship between citizens and the law. Uncivil Disobediencecalls for a new vision of liberal democracy where the rule of the people and the rule of law are recognized as fundamental ideals, and where neither is triumphant or transcendent.

In Exporting American Dreams, Mary Dudziak recounts with poignancy and power the untold story of Thurgood Marshall's journey to Africa. His experience in Keyna was emotional as well as intellectual, and during it he developed ties of friendship with, among others, Tom Mboya and Jomo Kenyatta. Marshall served as advisor to the Kenyans, who needed to demonstrate to both Great Britain and to the world that they would treat minority races (whites and Asians) fairly once Africans took power. He crafted a bill of rights, aiding constitutional negotiations that enabled peaceful regime change, rather than violent resistance. Kenya's first attempt at democracy faltered, but Marshall's African journey remained a cherished memory of a time and a place when all things seemed possible.

In May 1961 the Congress of Racial Equality sought to challenge the segregation of interstate travel on public transport and sent forth activists, both black and white, and many of them students, on a bus journey through the South, where they were received with violence that law enforcers refused to tame.

\"Freedom Riders\" (which premieres on PBS stations Monday night) begins as a thorough portrait of the first group of men and women - mostly young, both black and white - who signed up in May 1961 to board two Greyhound and Trailways buses on routes from Washington to New Orleans that would take them through the deepest South.

Despite the carnage, when the rides ended in December that year, these people had won \"the first unambiguous victory\" of the civil rights movement of the '60s, says Raymond Arsenault, author of \"Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice,\" who is a valued voice in the program.

The second week in May 2001 marks \"the 40th anniversary of the 'Freedom Rides,' a seminal event in the civil rights movement that helped focus the nation's attention on discrimination and violence against blacks in the South\" (DAILY CAMERA). Meet some people who participated in the first Freedom Rides and find out how they will commemorate this anniversary. Facts about the Civil Rights movement and segregation in America's South are presented.

\"In May 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality launched the Freedom Rides as a way challenge segregation on interstate buses and bus facilities like waiting rooms and dining counters. Groups of Black and white activists, many college students, would board Greyhound or Trailways buses and travel across the segregated South to test the law. The Freedom Rides lasted for seven months.\" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) Learn more about the Freedom Riders and how people protested against segregation.

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