You should incorporate any relevant readings that have been assigned so far, but I also encourage you to use outside sources.

Please use a standard format for your paper, such as MLA or Turabian style. The text of your paper should be at least 2500 words in length (not including the Works Cited page), written in a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Garamond, size 12, with 1-inch margins. I expect in-text citations for any information that is not common knowledge as well as quotations. Provide a “Works Cited” page. Number your pages.

You should incorporate any relevant readings that have been assigned so far, but I also encourage you to use outside sources. Cite any source you use, and if you use the internet, only use reputable, professional websites. When in doubt, email me. I expect in-text citations for any information that isn’t common knowledge as well as for quotations. I strongly urge you to use peer-reviewed sources instead of websites. A good database you can access via UML library online is JSTOR, which has all of the major history journals.

These are big topics. You can narrow one of these questions down, or you can write about broad trends: it’s up to you. 

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Discuss what changed for African Americans between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement.

2. Choose four African Americans–one from the 1600s, one from the 1700s, one from the 1800s, and one from the 1900s–and compare/contrast their lives. At least one figure should be a woman. Possible topics: how each experienced racism, how each resisted oppression, how each helped build a community, and/or how each experienced family life.

3. Describe how the definition of race has changed from the 1600s to the 1900s in the United States. You should provide specific examples from each century in that time period.

4. Choose an aspect of African-American culture (like sports, music, visual art, etc) and describe its evolution between the 1600s and 1900s. Examples from the 1600s-1700s will be scarce or non-existent, but do try to cover the origins/earliest known examples of whichever aspect you choose.

5. What role has religion played in African-American communities between the 1600s and 1900s? To what extent has religion been essential to black activism?

6. The historian Ira Berlin has suggested that African-American history can be viewed as a series of migrations with newly arrived individuals helping to create and transform the meaning of being African American (see: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-changing-definition-of-african-american-4905887/). Discuss the validity of this concept between 1600s-2000s. Provide specific examples across this time period in your discussion.

 **Need help narrowing down a topic or finding sources? Contact me. I’m delighted to help.