AASP DISC
Select ONE (1) of the following questions to answer. Make sure to incorporate evidence from this week’s readings to support your argument:
1. Texts and documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement often focus on the post-World War II era as a starting point. But these activities neglect or obscure a much longer tradition of civil rights activism within the African American community. How do this week’s readings on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) challenge a 1950s start date to the movement often found in traditional narratives? Discuss at least three (3) ways in which the NAACP fought for civil rights in the era prior to World War II. Why is it important to include this early history of the movement?
2. The Great Migration, which began during the opening decades of the 20th century, marked a huge shift in African American life and culture. When examining migration, it is helpful to think of the push and pull factors that motivate someone to move. Push factors are those things that force a person to move from a certain location either voluntarily or involuntarily. Meanwhile, pull factors are those things that draw a migrant to a specific location. Looking at the readings for this week, what were at least two (2) push factors and two (2) pull factors (at least 4 in total) that were part of the Great Migration? Draw specific examples of push and pull factors from this week’s readings, including items found within the timeline covering the period from 1900 to 1935. Last, do you think these push and pull factors still apply today when looking at the reasons for black migration and immigration?
You must start a thread before you can read and reply to other threads
FEEDBACK FROM PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS
Thank you for your participation. Below you will find a few comments that will help with improving your posts and raising your scores in the future:
1. Make sure that you are using course readings first before consulting outside sources. These readings are required reading by all students in the course and the weekly discussion questions offer you the opportunity to display your comprehension of these readings.
2. Good engagement with your peers, but continue to work on expanding those posts using the tips provided during Week 1.
3. Be careful of making generalizations that are not supported by evidence and that are in fact inaccurate. A number of these generalizations can be found in your posts. For example, you note in one of your posts that “[b]lack people were poorer than the whites.” This could be true in some places at some times, but this was not necessarily true at all times, particularly in the earliest days of settlement when indentured servants, black and white, worked alongside each other and occupied similar a social/class status in society.
Continue to work on expanding your peer responses. Also, work on including multiple sources in your Initial Post. Your post this week relied heavily on one source and thus seemed underdeveloped.
Your task for each week’s discussion is to read all required resources. You must then respond to ONE of the questions below. This is called your INITIAL POST. Click the blue Start a New Thread button to post your response. Your Initial Post is worth 30 points and should be 250 words in length, which is equal to about 1 page of double-spaced writing in Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman 12 point font in a Word document.
You must then read your classmates’ responses. After you have read their responses, you must respond to TWO of your classmates by _____ each week at 11:59 pm ET. These are called your PEER RESPONSES. Each Peer Response is worth 10 points and should be 100 words in length, which is equal to about 0.4 page of double-spaced writing in Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman 12 point font in a Word document.
To recap, each weekly discussion is worth 50 points (30 for your initial post and 10 each for your peer responses). Please make sure to follow the scoring rubric. You will find a copy of the scoring rubric in the syllabus.
Week Four
Print
Photograph of Maggie Lena Walker. In 1903, Walker became the first Black woman to found a bank, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia. Walker learned financial and business acumen when she joined the Independent Order of St. Luke as a 14-year-old girl, an all-Black voluntary association begun in Baltimore after the Civil War. The late 19th-early 20th century period is full of examples of African Americans attempting to create their own institutions.
Introduction:
Week 4 of this course turns towards the early 20th century. This time period is a fascinating one to cover due to the rapid expansion of new organizations and cultural developments in African American life. Over a span of three decades, major organizations such as the National Association for Colored Women’s Clubs (1896), the National Negro Business League (1900), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909), the National Urban League (1910), the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1914), the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (1925), and the National Council of Negro Women (1935) were created and flourished. These organizations were national in scope and worked on civil rights, social welfare, business, labor rights, and community organizing issues. They helped to provide an important foundation and network for African Americans in the decades to come.
At the same time, African Americans began migrating in large numbers from former slave plantations to urban areas in the South, Northeast, Midwest, and West Coast. The migration was spurred in part by the threat of racial violence, but the promise of jobs that paid better wages and the possibility of owning land drew them away as well. By the 1920s and 1930s, this migration led to the development of new Black communities in cities such as New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Detroit. It also led to what Howard University professor Alain Locke called the New Negro Movement in which hundreds of plays, literature, artwork, music, fashion and other creative forms of expression were produced. The most visible manifestation of this movement was known as the Harlem Renaissance, but it should be noted that cities such as Chicago and Washington, DC experienced their own “Negro Renaissance” cultures.
This week’s resources provide a broad introduction to some of these themes. Your instructor will advise you as to which resources are required for this week. Please note that the description of the course resources in some places may refer to “your paper.” This is not applicable in this course unless your instructor specifically states otherwise.
• African-American History Timeline
Link
• Ferris State University: Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia
Link
• NPR: Great Migration: The Africa-American Exodus North
Link
• The Niagara Movement and the NAACP: Growing Legal and Social Power
Link
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): 100 Years of History
Link
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: The Crisis Magazine
Link
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: Birth of a Nation and Black Protest
Link
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: Charles Hamilton Houston
Link
• The Harlem Renaissance – 1919-1940
Link
• Harlem Renaissance
Link
• Plays and Opera: Mixing White and Black Cultures and Caricatures
External Learning Tool
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AASP DISC
Select ONE (1) of the following questions to answer. Make sure to incorporate evidence from this week’s readings to support your argument:
1. Texts and documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement often focus on the post-World War II era as a starting point. But these activities neglect or obscure a much longer tradition of civil rights activism within the African American community. How do this week’s readings on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) challenge a 1950s start date to the movement often found in traditional narratives? Discuss at least three (3) ways in which the NAACP fought for civil rights in the era prior to World War II. Why is it important to include this early history of
