Cameron Center

Section A
1. Michael Klarman writes: “At first glance the history of American race relations appears to be one of slow, but inevitable progress” (4). Explain what he means here, and why he thinks that is a misconception.

2. Why does Klarman focus so heavily on legal matters and legal history?

Section B
3. What accounts for the turn to racialized slavery in the late 17th century?

4. Klarman indicates that in the late 18th slavery faced a number of legal and cultural obstacles. Why was this era one of openness with regard to the slavery question? How did debates play out in the writing of the Constitution?

5. According to Klarman, “The escalating controversy over fugitive slave renditions illustrates how a nation that was half slave and half free was torn asunder by sectional differences involving slavery” (27). In specific terms, how did this set of events come about?

Section C
6. Many historians have pinpointed the 1830s as a time when public opinion underwent a major change on the issue of slavery. Why? What factors helped reshape Americans’ views of blacks and slavery in this age?

7. Why were the rights of African Americans being chipped away in the decades leading up to the Civil War? Provide examples.

Set 2: Answer one from each section

Section A
1. Why has the question of whether the Civil War was or was not fought over the issue of slavery drawn so much debate?

2. What was the Emancipation Proclamation intended to do?

3. Describe some of the conflicts that the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments generated. What made this so controversial?

4. Why did Reconstruction collapse? What were the consequences, long and short term of that collapse?

Section B
5. What role did the Supreme Court play in ending Reconstruction?

6. Were the racial arguments made against the Chinese in the West similar to those made against blacks in the South?

7. By the 1890s, states Klarman, Republican racial policy changed (82). How so and why?

8. What does the case of Ed Johnson tell us about public opinion and the justice system in the early 1900s? (89-91)

9. Describe the racial views of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. In what sense did their views influence policy?

Section C
10. Summarize the 1919 incident that took place in Phillips County, Arkansas (111-113). What does it illustrate?

11. “By the late 1930s,” argues Klarman, “racial attitudes and practices in the South were becoming slightly more progressive” (116). Explain how they were becoming so.

12. Klarman observes that litigation provided blacks with one of their few reasons for optimism before World War II. How and why was that?

13. Why was “World War II a watershed in the history of American race relations”? (131)

14. Was race a significant factor when it came to the final decision to imprison Japanese Americans during World War II?

Section D
15. How does Mark Smith argue that Americans "sensed" race?

16. Why does Smith think it is important for historians to write about race and the senses?

Set 3: Answer one question from each section

Section A: W. E. B. Du Bois

1. Why did W. E. B. Du Bois start this chapter with the question: “How does it feel to be a race problem?” (7)

2. How did Du Bois become conscious of race as a young man? What did that knowledge teach him?

3. What did Du Bois mean by writing “The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife. . . .” (9)

4. In Du Bois’s view, how had African Americans fared since slavery?

Section B: Ted Gup, “Southern Discomfort”

5. Describe how officials at Duke University and the U. S. Naval Academy responded to the possibility of Drue King and Lucien Alexis coming to their campuses.

6. What did King and Alexis think of the matter and how did the lacrosse coach and the head of the Glee Club respond?

7. To make a point about racial assumptions of the era, Ted Gup describes the work of Harvard anthropologist Ernest Hooten. What were Hooten’s views?

8. What was the reaction of Harvard students, alumni, and faculty to the two incidents in the South?

9. Describe Gup’s concluding observations about the changes that have taken place since 1941.

Section C: “Prologue,” Eyes on the Prize Reader

10. In the prologue to Eyes on the Prize Vincent Harding discusses the ways African Americans have fought for full citizenship. According to Harding, this struggle was not limited to the years after World War II. Hence, he argues “we see the fullest meaning of the post-1945 years as we dig deeper” (3). Why is it important for us to look all the way back to the period following the Civil War? Why is this earlier history relevant to the story of civil rights?

11. How did figures like Ida B. Wells and Marcus Garvey battle race prejudice in America?

12. Why was the early 20th century such a low point for race relations in the U.S.? What factors made life so difficult for the millions of blacks then living in America?

13. How did WWI and WWII change the lives of black men and women across the country? How did both wars serve as catalysts for change?

Section D: “Awakenings”

14. How do the writers in the Chicago Defender respond to the brutal murder of Emitt Till? Why did this event receive extensive coverage in the nation's black press?

15. Why did Montgomery, Alabama's black community mount a city-wide bus boycott in 1955? There had been earlier boycotts, New Orleans, for instance, but Montgomery gained nationwide attention. Why? Be specific in your answer.

16. How did the white journalist Joe Azbell react to the Holt Street Baptist meeting? How might his reaction have been different from that of the black participants?

Section A
Chapter Two: Fighting Back

1. In 1954 the Supreme Court decided that its Brown v. Board decision could not be based solely on a comparison of black and white schools. Rather, the court looked at "the effect of segregation itself on public education" (70). Why did it take this stance? Why not compare white and black schools to measure the degree of equality?

2. According to the psychologist Kenneth Clark, how do children learn about race? Why was this relevant to the Brown v. Board of Education decision?

3. What did Judge Tom Brady have to say about the role of African Americans in US history? Why was this important to his argument? Why did Brady argue that the Supreme Court had no right to mandate desegregation?

4. Looking at the selection by Daisy Bates, who was to blame for the crisis at Little Rock's Central High? Why?

5. After reading the "Roundtable Discussion" (pgs 105-109) why do you suppose race prejudice existed among teens in Little Rock, Arkansas?

Section B
Chapter Three: Ain't Scared of Your Jails

6. Why did Robert F. Williams reject the nonviolent strategy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference? Who made a stronger case here, Williams or King?

7. What strategy did Franklin McCain and those who joined in on the sit-ins use? On what did they base this strategy? Why did this movement attract northern whites like Ted Dienstfrey?

8. What was the purpose of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee? Why was a white southerner such as Robert Zellner attracted to SNCC?

9. What happened to William Mahoney as a result of his participation in the freedom rides through the South? According to southern courts, why were Mahoney and other freedom riders guilty?

Section C
Jane Dailey, “Sex, Segregation, and the Sacred after Brown,” Journal of American
History (June 2004) (CP)

10. Jane Dailey writes that, “American historians have subscribed to King’s version of the sacred history of the civil rights movement” (120). Why does she find that to be problematic?

11. How did segregationists and race-conscious individuals read race through the lens of the Bible?

12. In what ways, according to Dailey, did sex and segregation assume “cosmological significance” for Christians?

13. Why did the Brown decision in 1954 stir religious and racial controversy?

14. How does Dailey use the Selma-to-Montgomery march of 1965 to shed light on these issues?

Section D
David Chappell, “A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Faith, Liberalism, and the Death of Jim Crow,” The Journal of the Historical Society (Spring 2003) (CP).

15. What is the “stone of hope” and how does David Chappell use that metaphor to make a larger argument?

16. Describe the relationship of secular liberalism to religion. Explain how William James, John Dewey, and Gunnar Myrdal grappled with religion.

17. Why does Chappell think that the civil rights movement was motivated less by liberalism than by a specific Christian outlook? How does one see this in the life of King and Bayard Rustin?

18. From page 148 forward Chappell argues that segregationists had weak or no religious arguments at all. Dailey contradicts that. How can scholars determine the importance of religion to segregationist views?

Set 5: Answer one question from each section

Section A
Chapter Four: No Easy Walk

1. What grievances did the Albany movement put to the Albany City Commission in January of 1962? Why?

2. What role did songs and singing play for Bernice Reagon? She stated that once she joined in the civil rights struggle "all the words sounded differently" (145). What did she mean by that?

3. According to the "Letter from Albany Merchant Leonard Gilberg," what effect did the boycott in that city have on local businesses?

Section B

4. In "Letter from Birmingham Jail" Martin Luther King addressed Birmingham's white clergymen who opposed civil rights demonstrations. How did King respond to his accusers, who called him an "outsider"? What was MLK's reaction to those whites, including local ministers, who advised blacks to "wait" and accept gradual change? Does JKF seem to agree or disagree with King on this last point?

5. After reading the original speech which was to be delivered at the March on Washington, what criticism did John Lewis level against the Kennedy administration? Do you think it was best that this selection was omitted from the final draft?

Section C
Chapter Five: Mississippi: Is this America?

6. Of Bob Moses' time spent registering blacks to vote in Mississippi, he stated that "we knew some of the obstacles we would have to face." What were these and how did they impede SNCC's goals?

7. What did getting involved in the civil rights movement mean for an African American woman from Mississippi such as Fannie Lou Hamer? Were SNCC activists asking locals to sacrifice too much?

Section D

8. Sally Belfrage, a white student, described the many internal tensions which arose in SNCC during "Freedom Summer," 1964. What were some of these tensions? How did they complicate the organization's work?

9. Why did the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City not seat the members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party?

10. What were the results of the SNCC delegation's travels to Africa? Why did Malcolm X draw parallels between the struggle for civil rights in America and Africa?

Set 6 or 2-3 page review: If you will be turning in 1.5-2 page discussion set, answer two questions from section A and two from section B. If you intend to turn in your longer, 2-3 page review, answer question one or two in section C. For more on Moody, see this University of Mississippi site on her life and work. The following are selected from LSU professor Marc Becker's questions on the book. See this writing guide for more details on style etc.

Section A

1. What were Anne Moody's most important early childhood experiences? What was her family life like, and what were her family responsibilities? What sort of hardships did she have to endure?

2. Describe Anne's (Essie Mae's) early contacts with whites. How did she learn that African Americans and whites were different? How did she explain those differences?

3. Describe Anne's relationships with Linda Jean and with Mrs. Burke. Why did Mrs. Burke want Anne to work for her? What were the reasons for the increasing tension between Anne and Mrs. Burke?

4. Why did Anne become critical of Blacks about the time she reached the age of fifteen? Did Anne act differently toward whites than did most Blacks in rural Mississippi?

Section B

5. How did Anne's brief stays in Baton Rouge and New Orleans affect her? Were African Americans treated differently in these cities?

6. Describe Anne's work with the SNCC voter registration project, Why was it so hard for her and her co-workers to achieve their goals? Why were many Blacks reluctant to register? What dangers did she face while carrying on this work?

7. Describe Anne's participation in the sit-ins in Woolworth 's. How did she reach the conclusion that Mississippi whites were sick?

8. Why was Anne doubtful at the end of the book about whether it would be possible to overcome racial prejudice and discrimination?

Section C: Review assignment

1. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Supreme Court decisions and federal legislation provided important gains for the civil rights movement. How effective were these judicial and legislative actions in changing race relations in Anne Moody's Mississippi?

2. This book is an autobiography of Anne Moody coming of age racially. How and what did she learn about the social significance of race? What personal characteristics were the most responsible for the way she responded? Why did she respond differently from those around her (her peers, her mother and other adults)?

Set 7: Answer two questions from part A and one question from part B

Section A: "Bridge to Freedom (1965)"

1. Writing of Selma, Alabama, Bernard Lafayette recalled that he "saw a whole city change" (211). What drew locals into the cause at Selma?

2. In 1965 San Francisco-based journalist George B. Leonard wrote that "America's conscience has been sleeping, but it is waking up" (217). What did Leonard mean by that remark?

3. Judging from James Forman's account of the Selma protest, what were some of the clashes which occurred between members of SNCC and the leadership of the SCLC?

4. Was there good reason for Martin Luther King's optimism in his speech "Our God is Marching On!". Why or why not?

Section B: "We the People: The Struggle Continues"

5. According to Vincent Harding, how had the black freedom struggle changed by 1968? What forces altered the movement?

6. Read the series of questions Harding poses on page 242. What do these tell us about the changed movement? What do such questions reveal?

Studyguide for the midterm exam

Section A: The time Has Come (1964-66)

1. What was the chief argument of Malcolm X's speech, "Message to the Grass Roots"? What was Malcolm's opinion of individuals such as Martin Luther King and executive secretary of the NAACP, Roy Wilkins?

2. What did Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton mean when they called for a counter to the "economic dependence" that impeded political organization in Lowndes County, AL? (268)

3. According to the Lowndes County Freedom Organization pamphlet (269-272), why should rural African Americans in Alabama care about politics?

Section B

4. John Hulett offered an account of the origins of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in a 1966 speech in Los Angeles (273-278). How did this represent a turning point in black political mobilization?

5. Describe the origins of the ideology of "black power" as illustrated by Cleveland Sellers and Robert Terrell.

6. Do you agree with Stokely Carmichael's statement on page 285: "the furor over 'black power' reveals how deep racism runs and the great fear which is attached to it"? (285)

Section C: Two Societies (1965-1968)

7. After reading "A Proposal by the SCLC" and the "Interview with Linda Bryant," how did Chicago pose new problems and challenges for civil rights workers? What did Linda Bryant say were the major differences between the Southern and Northern struggles?

8. The official Lyndon Johnson-commissioned report, "Profiles of Disorder. . . Detroit," offered a detailed account of what went wrong in Detroit. What did the report suggest made the situation so volatile? Why did violence escalate so rapidly?

9. Roger Wilkins, an African-American official from the Justice Department, traveled to Detroit, Michigan in the summer of 1967 to assess and help stop the violence in that city. In Wilkins' account, what factors worsened the situation in Detroit? What could have been done differently?

Section D: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., interview with Eldridge Cleaver, Frontline: The Two Nations of Black America, February 1998 (CP)

10. How did Cleaver and members of the Black Panther Party (BPP) respond to the assassination of Martin Luther King?

11. Did Cleaver think the civil rights movement was a success?

12. How does Cleaver think America would have been different had the BPP been more influential?

13. Does it Cleaver think African Americans were better off during the era of segregation?

1. How did Robert F. Williams’ family and social milieu contribute to his early understanding of race?

2. How does historian Timothy Tyson contend that World War II politicized blacks in the American South? How did southern whites respond to this politicization?

3. Why did Robert F. Williams originally organize “armed self reliance” in the black community in 1957?

4. Recounting “the kissing case,” Timothy Tyson states that “Rarely has an event so small opened a window so large onto the life of a place and people” (Tyson 93). Describe what Tyson means by this statement.

5. What was the American public’s reaction to Williams’ 1959 defiance of white supremacy? How did the nation and the media respond to his call for “armed self reliance”? How did the NAACP react to his statements?

6. How did Williams go about promoting his ideas in the pages of The Crusader? What influence did his publication have on black communities?

7. Describe Williams’ relationship with Fidel Castro.

8. What sorts of criticisms did Williams level against Martin Luther King, Jr.?

9. What events led up to Williams’ exodus to Cuba in 1961?

10. What was the purpose of Robert F. Williams “Radio Free Dixie” program?

Section A
1. Why did the Harding College official write to the prospective black student? What argument did this official make? How might the Bible have been used for one side or the other?

2. Describe the demands made by the Black National Economic Conference. What do these demands reflect?

3. What kind of opinion did the creators of the “Black Manifesto” have of the federal government?

Section B
4. What did the editors of “Christianity Today” think about the National Black Economic Development Conference’s “Black Manifesto”?

5. Historian Donald Dayton reveals some of the tensions that existed among conservative evangelicals in the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. What does he mean by the phrase “failure of evangelical conscience”? What was a failure? Do you agree with his assessment?

6. Could similar arguments be made about evangelicalism in other eras of American history?

Section C
7. What does Randall Balmer mean when he uses the term Religious Right?

8. What are the “strange bedfellows” he refers to in chapter 1?

9. How does Balmer use the term “selective literalism”?

10. Unpack this statement: “Political movements and politicians who seek to cloak themselves in the mantle of religious legitimacy invariably fall prey to self-righteousness, intolerance, and fanaticism” (33).

*1. Charles Marsh writes: “This book tells the story of how Christian faith gave rise to and sustained the civil rights movement and its vision of beloved community” (2). That is a story, Marsh notes, that has remained largely untold. Does a deeper appreciation and understanding of religion change how civil rights history is written? Use Marsh’s book as an example.

*2. According to Charles Marsh, how did the idea and practice of “beloved community” shape the civil rights movement?

3. How is the civil rights movement, in Marsh’s words, a “theological drama”? (6)

4. “The spring of 1954,” argues Marsh, “is a study of surprising contrasts” (13). Explain.

5. Marsh focuses on Martin Luther King Jr.’s slowly developing interest in social protest and civil rights activism. Describe that process. What affect would black leaders like Vernon Johns have on King.

6. with reference to Koinonia Farm, what does Marsh mean by the term “faith-based socialism”? (52)

7. How did Clarence Jordan’s childhood and his growing awareness of race compare to the experiences of Anne Moody or Lillian Smith?

8. What kind of opposition did the Koinonians encounter in rural Georgia?

9. How does Marsh contend that “SNCC’s founding mothers and fathers were very often radical Christians . . .”? (89)

10. Why does SNCC’s collapse, for Marsh, highlight a “retreat from this theological experiment”? (90)

11. Marsh discusses the late sixties as time in which, as Joan Didion remarked, “the center was not holding” (30). How does Marsh think that Os Guinness and Francis Schaeffer failed to meet the challenges of the era.

12. Marsh states that “white racism in America did not end with the collapse of legal segregation in the South. . .” (146) How does the life and work of John Perkins shed light on that observation?

13. Describe how Perkins’ Christian faith informed his social activism.

14. What influence did Perkins have on other Christian activists?

Set 10: Answer one question from each section.

Section A
Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader, 500-548

1. Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton combined pleas for community aid and welfare with forceful black nationalism. What ideologies did Hampton incorporate into his speech?

2. Why was Akua Njere (Deborah Johnson) attracted to the Blank Panther party and to Hampton in particular? What sort of activities did Njere and other Panthers participate in? In the end, why did Njere break with the party?

3. What were the findings of the 1973 Commission of Inquiry report (517-528)? What police activities do the authors of the report imply were criminal? According to this commission, what was the nature of the death of 21-year-old Fred Hampton. Why did the police act in the fashion in which they did?

Section B
4. Why did the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover expend so much energy and resources on infiltrating and disrupting Black Panther Party cells? How did the FBI try to disrupt the BPP?

5. What drew Angela Davis into the prisoners’ rights movement? Why did Davis fight for the Soledad Brothers? According to Davis, how were prisoners subject to discrimination? Do you agree with the arguments Davis makes about racial injustice in the American prison system? Why or why not?

Section C
Ronald P. Formisano, selection from Boston Against Busing: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s (1991) (CP)

6. “In profound ways,” argues Ronald Formisano, “the antibusers were heirs of the protesters of the 1960s, even as they reacted against them and their values” (138) How was that so?

7. Describe some of the tactics ROAR members used. To what extent were these effective.

8. What roles did women play in the antibusing movement? Did their participation challenge traditional values?

Section D

Section A
Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader, 591-609, 651-55

1. After reading pages 591-96 in the Eyes on the Prize Reader, discuss some of the critical issues that dominated the civil rights movement in the 1970s. How did these compare to the key issues of the previous two decades?

2. What were the NAACP’s demands concerning Boston’s public school system? What suggestions did the NAACP’s representatives make to the School Board Committee? How did the NAACP propose to end de facto segregation?

3. Describe the conditions of the Boston public school at which Jonathan Kozol taught. Why was it difficult for teachers to speak out about the school’s many troubles? Was this school unique?

Section B
4. How did Nell Irvin Painter respond to the comments made by the white man seated next to her at a public lecture? In Painter’s account, what was the “stigma of affirmative action”?

5. Stanford professor and conservative black commentator Shelby Steele writes of the complexities of race in modern America in “The Age of White Guilt.” Describe what Steele means by the term “the age of white guilt”? As a child, what were Steele’s experiences of race?

6. What does Steele find most troubling about affirmative action today? Why does Steele use Cornel West as an example? Do you agree or disagree with his general analysis? Why?

Section C
James McPherson, “Deconstructing Affirmative Action.”

7. Why does Princeton University historian James McPherson argue that “the outcome of this case will have profound implications for historians”? Why does McPherson say that “there is more than one side to the affirmative action puzzle”? How did he and his peers benefit from a different sort of “affirmative action”?

Daniel Golden, “Many Colleges Bend Rules to Admit Rich Applicants”

8. Daniel Golden won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories he wrote on college admissions. What are “development admits”? How do college and university admissions officials justify these? What do critics of the policy say about it?

For more on recent affirmative action scholarship, see Michael Bérubé, “And Justice for All,” The Nation (January 24, 2005)