Assignment
Answer ONE of the following essay questions. The suggested length is 4-5 pages approximately 1200-1500 words. The essay should be typed and double-spaced.
Documentation of sources and quotations can be done in parenthetical format.
1. Write an essay that discusses the MAJOR themes and interpretations related to civil rights and the African-American freedom struggle in Adam Fairclough's Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890-2000 (Chapters 1-11). Beyond the detailed narrative, what in this book is worth remembering and pondering?
2. Write an essay that discusses the "racial reform" philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois during the period 1880-1915. What do their distinctive perspectives on the nature of Jim Crow and racism tell us about the challenges and opportunities facing black Americans during these years? What do you think about the viability of the strategies for change developed by Washington and Du Bois?
3. Write an essay that discusses the career of Thurgood Marshall and his leadership of the NAACP legal campaigns against racial segregation and discrimination during the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s? To what extent did the NAACP's tactics and strategies evolve or change during these years? In your opinion, did Marshall and his colleagues make any major mistakes in terms of pace or emphasis? Should they have adopted a more militant tone, or perhaps a more multifaceted approach?
4. Write an essay that discusses the impact of World War II and the Brown decisions of 1954 and 1955 on the evolution of the American civil rights movement. Which "event," in your view, played the biggest role in bringing about the national civil rights movement and freedom struggles of the late 1950s and early1960s? Do you see any close connections between these two events that suggest an ongoing and interrelated process of change?