05 Jan Explain why every American

HIST222 Week 2 Forum

Choose one of the below for your main post. Respond to at least one student who answered a different question from you. The answers should come from your textbook, the lectures, videos, and the research you conducted in the APUS Library. Your best two responses will be graded.

This 1899 photograph of students at the Hampton Institute in Virginia was taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston. It is from Artstor.org.

1.) In Plessy versus Ferguson, what were the arguments for “separate but equal” legislation? What were the arguments against this legislation? What is a dissent? What are the implications of Harlan’s dissent? What is Harlan’s fundamental objection to the decision? What is Harlan’s view of legal distinctions based on racial considerations? What does he feel will be the consequences of this decision? What does the Court say is the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff’s argument? Give three examples during this time in which state legislation sustained separation. Make sure you read about the Plessy case.

2.) Explain: Legislation “is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation.” What effect did Plessy versus Fergusonhave? Make sure you read about the Plessy case.

3.) How and why had blacks, particularly in the South, been subjected to second-class citizenship by 1900? Why were Jim Crow laws predominantly in the South? How did Jim Crow happen? Make sure you read about the Plessy case.

4.) Analyze how African Americans were challenging white supremacy before World War I. Make sure you read about the Plessy case.

HIST222 Week 3 Forum

The analysis for your debate posts should come from your textbook, the lectures, videos, and the research you conducted in the APUS Library.

Yet another photography by Frances Benjamin Johnston, but of George Washington Carver at the Tuskegee Institute in 1906. This comes from artstor.org.

Debate Instructions:You have been divided into two groups. Group A will support Booker T. Washington’s position. Group B will support W. E. B. Du Bois’s position. To participate in the debate, you need to research both positions. The required work will help you. Who will you be in the debate? Your character does not have to be an actual historical figure. You can be, for example, a domestic servant or a sharecropper. Just make sure that you ground your analysis in academic sources and you demonstrate you have done all the required work by integrating it into your debate positions. Stay in character for your responses because each response is part of the debating.Group

A: Your last name begins with A-M.Group

B: Your last name begins with N-Z.

HIST222 Week 4 Forum

Choose one of the below for your main post. Respond to at least one student who answered a different question from you. The answers should come from your textbook, the book of primary source documents, the assigned website, the lecture, videos, and the research you conducted in the APUS Library. Respond as many times as you wish. Your two best responses will be graded.

1. What did the New Deal do for Blacks? Even though there were no significant gains made in civil rights during the 1930s, there seemed to be an optimistic view among the black community. African-Americans were able to find help in the 1930s through the hope they viewed in the Roosevelt administration, their inclusion within the CIO, and the Popular Front. What did each of these offer the African-American community? The black press said that the National Recovery Administration (NRA) actually stood for “Negro Run Around” or “Negroes Ruined Again.” Why did they write this? What examples can you find that support or refute these slogans?

2. How did James Baldwin compare the African-American experience to the Algerian experience in France? Why did Baldwin go to France?

3. Historians recognize the importance of model figures. In the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s which African Americans were model figures to African Americans? How did they influence white Americans to see African Americans differently?

HIST222 Week 5 Forum

Choose one of the below for your main post. Respond to at least one student who answered a different question from you. Respond as many times as you wish. Your best two responses will be graded. The answers should come from your textbook, the lectures, videos, and the research you conducted in the APUS Library.

Women welders, 1943; from artstor.org.

1.) What effect did the World War II wartime experience have on African Americans? Did their experiences help or hinder the progress toward equality in America? How were they treated during World War II? Did the government take any steps to ease discrimination against African Americans in war industries?

2.) How did the war change African American attitudes towards their status in American society? How did it change their aspirations?

3.) How did the rhetoric of World War II bring the contradiction between the principle of equal freedom and the actual status of blacks to the forefront of national life? One black woman said about the war that it was Hitler that got blacks out of the white folks’ kitchen. How did they “move out of the kitchen” and what forces were behind those achievements?

4.)How did the Double V campaign spark a civil rights movement?How successful was the Double V campaign?

5.) Did World War II redraw the boundaries of American citizenship? Compare the experiences of blacks during World War I and during World War II.

6.) Franklin D. Roosevelt said that to be an American has always been a “matter of mind and heart,” and “never . . . a matter of race or ancestry.” Was this true for African Americans? How did the language of freedom and democracy help open doors of opportunity for African Americans? What obstacles remained for full success?

7.) Eric Foner wrote, “the language with which World War II was fought helped to lay the foundation for postwar ideals of human rights that extend to all mankind.” Do you agree with the statement as it pertains to African Americans? For African Americans, during World War II and the postwar era, what freedoms were extended or contracted?

HIST222 Week 6 Forum

Your arguments should come from your textbook, the lectures, videos, interactive exercise, and the research you conducted in the APUS Library.

1947 protest march by NAACP youth members at Texas State University; from artstor.org.

Debate instructions:

You have been divided into two groups. Group A will support SNCC and what evolved into the Black Power movement. Group B will support the SCLC (Martin Luther King, Jr.’s movement). To participate in the debate, you need to research both positions. The required work will help you. Who will you be in this debate? What character will you pick? It does not have to be an actual historical figure. You can be, for example, a white SNCC worker, or a Black Panther working in the breakfast program. Stay in character for your responses because each response is part of the debating.

The initial post will be at least 300 words. You are then required to continue the debate by posting responses to the arguments of the opposing group. At least two responses must be at least 200 words.Respond as many times as you wish. Your two best responses will be graded.Do not make assumptions. Instead, assume the historical role of someone who lived in the United States during this period. Whatever you write should be in character. Be creative!Remember that everything you argue, although in character, must be grounded in academic research and must demonstrate you have done the required work.

Group A: Your last name begins with the letter N-Z.

Group B: Your last name begins with the letter A-M.

HIST222 Week 7 Forum

Choose one of the below for your main post. Respond to at least one student who answered a different question from you. The answers should come from your textbook, the book of primary source documents, the assigned website, the lecture, videos, and the research you conducted in the APUS Library. Respond as many times as you wish. Your two best responses will be graded.

1.) Taking into consideration the history you have learned this term, why is poverty so persistent among African Americans?

2.) Think about the Hip-Hop culture and how it has gone mainstream. What is its importance for black culture, and how is it another example of sports and the arts breaking down racial barriers? Why is it in sports and the arts that this happens and not in, for example, science or religion?

3.) Examine why the Civil Rights Movement stalled by the mid-1970’s. By the end of the 1980’s, how successful had it been? Were the desired freedoms won? What methods had it employed to best effect? Which strategies were most effective, and why? How did activism change? By 2005, what changes had taken place for African Americans? In this analysis, remember that African Americans are not a monolithic bloc. What divisions existed within the African American community by 2005?

4.) Examine in the 1980’s and later the entry of African Americans in Congress. Did it change the face of government? Did it change anything more substantially?

5.) Analyze the problem of “driving while black” and the incarceration of African Americans.

6.) How did Ronald Reagan’s presidency change the economic reality for African Americans?

HIST222 Week 8 Forum

A new movement has started since the early 2000s, where some political groups are trying to remove American history from our children’s school curriculum and textbooks, specifically slave history. However, these groups also do not want to cover segregation or civil rights. By removing the history that we have just covered in these last eight weeks, the African American communities are denied their connections to American History. Recently, African Americans have created movements such as “Black Lives Matter” to counteract these other groups. Many tie slave history to the development of segregation and racism that has spread throughout our country. A Historical Trauma has affected generations of African Americans because of what their ancestors had to endure just to survive in this country. This distrust has developed towards different groups, agencies and organizations. For those who are not affected, trying to understand what it means to be an African American in the United States showcases the need for this history to be taught in all schools and to every American.

Your final forum is to prepare a speech that would explain to all of America why African American History from after Reconstruction to the present should be taught.

Explain why every American should know African American history. You will be expected to use specific facts, events and people that you have learned from this course.

These facts, events, and people must come from your required work this term and from research in the library or from the course bibliography.

In your speech, demonstrate the breadth of knowledge you have gained from this work. Do not forget to use in text citations because you will be using multiple sources.

This post must be at least 500 words.