What significant historical and political events does Common reference?
- Slavery – specifically the civil war between north and south USA
- Jim crow laws and how they changed / developed through to the laws being abolished.
- The transition from slavery to the Jim Crow laws and how white Americans reasserted their dominance over newly free black slaves.
What modern social and cultural movements will impact the reading of this text?
- Civil rights movement – more specifically, the black lives matter campaign.
- Mass incarceration.