Assignment:
W.E.B. Dubois predicted that “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line -- the relation of the darker to the lighter races . . .” You will research the late nineteenth and early twentieth century world in terms of how "race" worked and what it meant in the lives of Americans in terms of who had power and who had freedom.

Sources: Use at least three secondary sources and two primary sources. Honors work will go above and beyond the minimal requirement. There are books on reserve in the library to be used in this project. Since all History 10 students are writing this paper, you may not take these reserved books out of the library. Removing these books without authorization or hiding them in the library will be considered an act of academic dishonesty and will involve a point deduction on your own paper. Your paper must be an argumentative essay so you need sources that are argumentative. While you may use encyclopedia-type sources for background, your best sources are well researched analytical pieces. These will be books or scholarly articles. Exercises in class will help you idenify the advantages and limitations of certain types of sources. The librarian and your teacher will help you find the most useful electronic sources. There will be plenty of class time devoted to research. However, you are expected to work on your research and paper as homework every night. Papers are graded with the expectation that you devoted this time to mastering your subject.

Length: 1000-1500 words--(4-5 typed pages, double-spaced) While your paper may exceed the 1500 word limit slightly, a significantly longer paper will result in a lower not a higher grade. This assignment is to synthesize what you have learned into a short, argumentative essay. Background on your subject should be limited. Turn in your final paper in a folder that includes this signed assignment sheet, all of your notes, and drafts.

Citations: Be sure to have a works cited page. Use MLA in-text citations. Ms. Sallee's webpage has samples of MLA style text citations, bibliographic entries, and a guide to avoiding plagiarism.. The library also has resources on line and MLA guides. One of your best sources for how to cite, paraphrase, and avoid plagiarism is Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference, which is in our bookstore and required by some of our English teachers.. Be very careful to put quoted material in quotes as you take notes. It will also help you paraphrase effectively if you don't look at the text you are summarizing when you put it in your own words. Paraphrased material still has to be cited.

Suggested form: Thesis paragraph with attention-grabber, background paragraph with a focus on how your particualr topic fits into the larger context, three-five suppporting paragraphs, conclusion.

Possible Research Questions:

As you read, you will need to develop questions to guide your research.   Initial questions may be about your general interests and very broad, but after a couple of days of reading, you will need to refine your questions to help you limit the scope of your research and better define your topic.  You might start, for instance, with a rather broad question such as what was the impact of segregation on black children?   As you research, however, you need a way to make your topic more manageable with a narrower research question such as:  What did the psychological studies presented to the Supreme Court in "Brown v. Board Education" show about the impact of segregation on children?  Topic:  racist stereotypes  -  Research question:  Why is the "mammy" stereotype so offensive? or What mainstream white interests were served by the creation of the racist "mammy" caricature?

Additional examples:

1.  Topic:  Plessy v. Ferguson     -   Research question:   Who were the white men who took Homer Plessy's side in his fight against segregation, and what made them different from the majority of whites who supported the segregation law.
2. Topic:   Eugenics   - Research question:   How did fears of “race suicide” impact birth control politics?
3. Topic: Asian Americans in the Age of Jim Crow  -  Research question:   Why did the federal government pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act?  
4. Topic: lynching - Research question: How did the anti-lynching campaign publicize its findings?
5. Topic: Reform - Research question: What were the earliest successes of the NAACP, and how did they show blacks and whites working together?
6. Topic: Race riots - Research question: Why was the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 a turning point for many African American leaders?
7. Topic: Segregation and Asians - Research question: Was San Francisco's Chinatown a result of forced segregation or a self-selected "ethnic island"?
8. Topic: Jim Crow and Mexican Americans in Texas - Research Question: Why was "Hernandez v. Texas" a turning point in civil rights for Mexican Americans?
9. Topic: Ida B. Wells - Research question: How did her race get in the way of her being the kind of woman she wanted to be?
   
10. Topic: Pan Africanism - Research question: What was the Liberia project, and what did it say about a struggle for identity?
11. Topic: Civil Rights - research question Why was the Scottsboro Case a turning point in the struggle for civil rights?
12. Topic: Populism: What efforts did this third party make to overcome the "colorline" and why did class-based politics fail?
13. Topic: Sports: Who or what made the integration of baseball possible?
14. Topic: Immigration: Did the immigrant workers in Carnegie's steel mills improve their situation with class-based organizing or race-based politics?
15. Topic: "passing": What was this and what were the costs of this ticket into the "white" world?
16. Topic: Race rebels - What made it possible for some Americans to overcome racial boundaries to form friendships, romantic relationships, working relationships etc. . . .
17. Topic: Ku Klux Klan - Who was in it and how did it get away with murder?
18. Topic: The Blues -- How was music an effort to subvert racism? Did it work?

Taking notes: Since you cannot check books out of the library, it is important that you take notes on your sources during class time. Bring to class notebook paper or notecards. You will be required to turn in all of your notes, xerox copies of sources, outlines, and rough drafts with your final draft. These will be used to evaluate your methodology and research skills. You must use the library time efficiently and productively to do this project well. Using the Internet: Any source found on the internet must be specifically approved by your teacher before you start writing or doing research. BEWARE!!! THERE IS A LOT OF JUNK ON THE INTERNET. Begin by doing research in the reserve stacks BEFORE going on-line. You may NOT USE Wikipedia as a source. You may look at it as a resource to locate sources. The databases that the library subscribes to provide some of the best electronic sources.

Schedule: You get credit for meeting these deadlines, plus it will keep you on track. Topics due with at least 2 sources in correct bibliographic form on Monday, April 23; Assessment of your best two sources, note check due on 4/27, and research questions(Show notes for at least 40 pages of reading. No credit if you have not included page numbers.). Draft of thesis paragraph with your research question at the top and 2 support paragraphs with citations due 5/4 via email. All students must have an individual conference by the end of 5/11. Meeting during class counts. Final paper due 5/14. Any extensions need to be arranged by 5/11. Extensions need to be requested in person or by phone.