History and Significance of Race in America
An Op-Ed is an opinion piece that aims to persuasively express an opinion about an issue. You will take a stance on an event or policy from the history of race in America, writing from the perspective of a historical actor at the time.
This assignment includes two components:
(1) A 300-word explanation of the context of the issue that you are writing about that includes key information that a reader in the past would know about the issue. You must explicitly state when the Op-Ed would appear and who the author would be (either in making up a plausible biography or in choosing a real historical figure.
(2) A 600-800 word Op-Ed that:
a. Takes a clear stance on an issue relative to our course topic.
b. Makes this argument from the perspective of a person in the past.
Outlines of basic Op-Ed structures:
https://www.theopedproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=80
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X-EcdZMFRYJwN8Fj6fCvYquOGvnmweECaeVl4ycnMD4/edit?hl=en_US
https://journalistsresource.org/tip-sheets/writing/how-to-write-an-op-ed-or-column
Models of Op-Eds by historians:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-frydl/donald-trump-and-the-know_b_8314110.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/opinion/playing-the-violence-card.html?_r=0
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/how-the-constitution-was-indeed-pro-slavery/406288/
The only sources you should use are the course texts, your lecture notes, and you have to use at least two articles from the Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society find by searching for the Encyclopedia) and/or Proquest Historical Newspapers.