Midterm Quiz

African American History, Since 1945 | Midterm | Study Sheet

Instructions: On Friday, three questions will appear on the blog at 9:30 (one randomly selected from each group). We will not meet in class.  You will have 90 minutes to compose your answers and submit them by email. The test is open book and open note. I estimate it will take you about 20 minutes to compose a good answer for each question, assuming you’ve done some preparation in advance (outlines, thesis statements, ideas about examples). You should draw upon any materials from class (lecture, films, and readings) up to April 27. Unlike math or chemistry, there are no “wrong” answers in history.  But there are better and worse answers.  By design, these questions invite many possibilities.  Your answers do not need to be comprehensive, but they should be relevant and clearly tied to topics we have discussed in class.  Above all, I am looking for thoughtful, informed answers that demonstrate your knowledge of the material. Your answers should have a clear main point (a thesis, if you will) and use evidence to substantiate your ideas. Outside research is not necessary.  Google will not help you.  Indeed, it may even mislead you.  Stick to your lecture notes and assigned readings from class.

Group 1

1. In the middle of the 20th century, African Americans flocked to metropolitan areas.  What effect did that have upon black culture and politics?
2. One might read the closing of Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem, We Real Cool, to be an illustration of the fatalism and pessimism among some black youth in the years after 1945.  Why might they feel this way?
3. In the early 1960s, some African Americans began to adopt increasingly confrontational and direct tactics.  Why?
4. After two decades of legal challenges, protest, and violence, what had changed by 1965?

Group 2

1. For black Mississippians like Anne Moody, how might we compare or contrast life in Centreville to that of Jackson?
2. According to Anne Moody, how did NAACP and SNCC build a sense of solidarity and energy with the civil rights community?
3. How does the following excerpt from King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail describe the situation in the early 1960s:  You may well ask, "Why direct action, why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. I just referred to the creation of tension as a part of the work of the nonviolent resister. This may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth.”
4. At the close of Coming of Age in Mississippi, what is Moody’s outlook for the possibility for change?  How is her outlook informed by her experience of coming of age in Mississippi?

Group 3

What does the following image demonstrate about African American history since 1945?  Please do not merely describe the image.  Think broadly about how this image connects broader trends or stands in for larger concepts.  Caveat: You are welcome to search for these images, but make sure your analysis is relevant for our class.

Striking veteran at Bowman Dairy                Juke Joint

Lunch Counter Sit-In, Woolworths              Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama