Prompt (Choose One):
- Evaluate the federal response in the 1940 to 1960s to rural poverty. Explain racial disparities in the social welfare programs from the New Deal and the Great Society reform era.
- The NAACP championed legal struggles against discrimination in the era of segregation from its founding in 1909, through it’s victory at the Supreme Court in Brown v Board, and further. How did civil rights activism in local communities and legal work by the NAACP at the federal level work to overcome racist discrimination in education, employment, housing, and criminal justice?
- What are the legacies and impact of racial segregation after the passage of the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts?
Format:
1200 words
Double space
12-point font
Standard written English
One-inch margins
Chicago style footnote citations. Do not cite in MLA style.
Content:
Your paper must have a main idea/thesis/argument. It cannot be a summary of the reading. Your thesis must answer the prompt.
Your paper must be carefully edited. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling count.
Cultivate your own voice/style. You will be writing a lot of papers in college, so find your voice. This means papers by different students on the same prompt should be distinct. It does not mean the papers are about you. Do not write about yourself and do not use a conversational tone or self-references.
You must demonstrate understanding and familiarity with Week 13-16 course readings: Alan Brinkley’s Unfinished Nation, Ch 27-31 and Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove, Ch 12-22. If you do not use both texts your paper will not pass.
These are reading response essays, not research papers. There should be no other source material beyond Brinkley’s Unfinished Nation and King’s Devil in the Grove; do not summarize content you have read on the internet. Use only Unfinished Nation and Devil in the Grove.
Any paper with no citations is an F paper.
Grading:
Meet the format requirements
Have thoughtful content including a clear answer to the prompt
Write clearly and edit your work
“A” papers do these three tasks strongly, “B” papers may be weak in one area, “C” papers may be weak in two areas, “D” papers may be weak in three areas, etc.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the theft of words or ideas from another writer and dishonestly passing them off as your own. Any plagiarism- even a few sentences or a single paragraph- will result in a ZERO on the paper. Do not be tempted to submit work you did not create. Two episodes of plagiarism in the course will result in an F in the course and a referral to HCC’s academic disciplinary review committee via Maxient.
