Boston busing crisis primary sources

Module 6 Short Response

1) Using the active reading strategies you were introduced to in this learning block, critically analyze one of your secondary sources for your historical analysis essay. Those active reading strategies include:

· Ask yourself pre-reading questions, such as: What will be the subject of this reading? What do I hope to learn from this reading?

· Take notes while reading

· Make connections to other texts you have read

Module 6 Short Responses – Question 1

Which source will you analyze using active reading strategies? Include the name of the article, the author, the publication, the date, and where you found it.

Read your chosen source using the active reading strategies you learned on the previous page. Then, summarize the overall meaning and content of the reading. Write your summary below. Your summary should be at least one paragraph long.

2) The desegregation of Boston's public schools was a major historical event that was the product of many different historical forces and events. In turn, it gave rise to many other important events. The following questions ask you to consider the Boston busing experience in relation to some of those historical forces and events. Be sure to respond to each question in 2-3 complete sentences, using proper grammar.

Module 6 Short Responses – Question 2

What events or historical forces contributed to the Boston busing crisis of the mid-1970s? Name at least three, and briefly explain why you think each one was a contributory cause of the Boston busing crisis.

3) Module 6 Short Responses – Question 3 Name three specific consequences of the Boston busing crisis.

4) Module 6 Short Responses

Think about the evidence from your research that you have found to support your thesis for your historical analysis essay. What were the causes and consequences of the event that is the topic of your historical event analysis? What historical evidence supports your analysis? Be sure to respond to the question in one paragraph, using proper grammar.

Module 6 Short Responses – Question 4

Describe one cause of the event you have chosen for your historical analysis (keeping in mind that there are many), and explain one piece of evidence from your research that you will use to support this assertion. Describe one consequence of the event, and explain one piece of evidence from your research that you will use to support this assertion.

5) Based on your reading in the webtext, select and respond to one of the following thesis statements. Your response should be two to three paragraphs long and should include your position on the issue. Cite at least three specific pieces of historical evidence.

1. In the long run, busing helped Boston because it desegregated the school system, provided equal educational opportunity for minority students, and set the stage for racial healing and an improved racial climate in the twenty-first century.

OR

2. In the long run, busing hurt Boston because it led to violent racial strife, contributed to white flight, and damaged the quality of the public school system.

HIS 200 Historical Analysis Essay Progress Check 2 Guidelines and Rubric

Overview: Throughout Modules Five and Six, you have been guided through beginning your Project 2: Historical Analysis Essay assignment, which you will continue to work on in Modules Seven and Eight and formally submit for completion at the end of Module Eight of the course. This progress check assignment provides you with an important opportunity to get valuable instructor feedback on the progress you are making and to ensure you are on the right track for your later submission.

Prompt: Modules Five and Six have introduced you to how historians approach assessing historical evidence to refine their thesis statement and message. By now you should have enough evidence compiled from your research to begin writing your historical analysis essay. You will begin working on the essay piece by piece. In Module Six: Analyzing History, continued, learning block 6-4 (page 1) in the webtext, you will work on drafting the body of your essay. Return to your submission for Progress Check 1 and draft three body paragraphs that explore the causes, course, and consequences of your chosen historical event and use evidence from primary and secondary sources to support your thesis.

Specifically, in this assignment, you will submit the following elements of your Project 2: Historical Analysis Essay for review by your instructor:

In Module Six: Analyzing History, continued, learning block 6-4 (page 1) in the webtext, you worked toward the following elements:

II. Body: You will use this section of your essay to provide further detail about your historical event while supporting the claim you made in your thesis statement. Make sure to cite your sources. Specifically, you should:

A. Describe the causes of the historical event. In other words, what were the underlying factors that led to the historical event? Were there any immediate causes that precipitated the event?

B. Illustrate the course of your historical event. In other words, tell the story or narrative of your event. Who were the important participants? What did they do? Why? How do the perspectives of the key participants differ?

C. Describe the immediate and long-term consequences of the historical event for American society. In other words, how did the event impact American society?

D. Discuss the historical evidence that supports your conclusions about the impact of the event on American society. Support your response with specific examples from your sources.

Please note that the numbering included above directly aligns with the numbering of these elements as they are presented in the Project 2 Guidelines and

Rubric. You will ultimately also need to include a conclusion and reference list and make sure you communicate your essay’s overall message in your final historical analysis essay, but you do not need to do so in this submission. You will be prompted to build upon this progress check submission to prepare your final historical analysis essay for submission in Module Eight.

Rubric

Guidelines for Submission: The Historical Analysis Essay Progress Check 2 must be submitted as a 1- to 3-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing,

12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. Follow the formatting of the example included in Module Six: Analyzing History, continued, learning.

SAMPLE WRITING PLAN

Jane Doe

HIS 200: Applied History

Southern New Hampshire University

May 16, 2016

Draft Submission: Integrating the Movie Industry

In 1988 Eddie Murphy, the African-American comedian and actor, presented the Oscar for Best Picture at the 60th Academy Awards—but not before chiding the assembled Hollywood movers and shakers about the lack of diversity in Oscar's past. As this video of Murphy's speech shows (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNAePAAYPrc ), when he was first approached about presenting the award his initial reaction was "I'm not going, because they haven't recognized black people in the motion picture industry" (Murphy, 1988). Fast forward 28 years, and the same complaints were heard about the lack of African-American representation among 2016's Oscar nominees. But the continuing argument about the underrepresentation of African-Americans in Hollywood misses a crucial point. Despite years of often-fiery debate over the lack of diversity in Oscar nominations and alleged racism on the part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, history shows that when it comes to dealing with racial themes and issues, the movie industry is motivated primarily by economic concerns. As the African-American Oscar winner Morgan Freeman once noted, "I don't think Hollywood is racist; I think Hollywood lives and dies on greed" (Miller, 2016).

There can be little doubt that the movie industry, as an economic institution, has long lacked diversity. While the proportion of African-American actors cast in movie and television roles has in recent years roughly mirrored the African-American share of the nation's population (12.2 percent)—this figure has in fact fluctuated in a narrow range from 13 percent to 15 percent over the last 15 years (SAG/Aftra, 2009)— the proportion of blacks in influential non-acting roles has been much lower. Recent statistics show that only 5 percent of the writers in the film sector of the Writers Guild of America (West) were African-Americans. And for movie directors in the Directors Guild of American, the comparable figure was just 3.6 percent (Historical data show that the proportion of African-American writers and directors was even lower in past years.) (WGAW, 2014; DGA, 2015). The number of African-American producers (aside from actors and directors who establish their own production companies) is difficult to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that it is quite small. (Lee, 2014). Taken together, these statistics clearly show that, among the people who directly influence the content of the movies and the types of roles that will be available to black actors, African-Americans have been significantly underrepresented.

It is unclear what impact, if any, this underrepresentation has had on Hollywood's artistic choices. But the historical record is very clear when it comes to another point: from its earliest days, the content that Hollywood created—"the movies" themselves—has typically reflected only what its audiences have been willing to pay for. At the beginning of the 20th century, before the Great Migration that drew millions of African-Americans out of the rural South, the potential African-American audience for Hollywood movies was extremely small (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011; American FactFinder, 2015), and the fledgling movie industry accordingly produced virtually no content for that audience. At the same time, overtly racist attitudes were common among many American whites, particularly in the South, and the movie industry catered to that potential audience with overtly racist films such as D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation. As the potential audience for films about African-Americans began to grow, small independent producers began to make "race films" aimed specifically at African-American audiences; these films did not receive wide distribution because the major Hollywood studios, which owned thousands of movie theaters across the country, declined to show them. It was only after the Supreme Court ruled that the studios would have to give up their ownership of theaters—forcing them to compete for the theaters' business and for a share of the growing African-American market—that Hollywood began to incorporate more African-American characters into mainstream films. (Leab, 1975). This major change in movie content came about in direct response to changing market forces.

Other forces also influenced changes in Hollywood's approach to African-American characters and themes, but most were rooted in economics, not ethics. One major factor: the outlawing of segregated public facilities during the civil rights era meant the end of "blacks only" theaters, which in turn helped put an end to "race films" and forced the studios to find ways to appeal to African-American audiences. (Caddoo, 2014). At the same time, the Civil Rights Movement itself generated increased public sympathy for the cause of African-American rights; this in turn boosted the marketability of films with African-American actors such as Sidney Poitier, or those that dealt with themes of racial tolerance, such as Lilies of the Field or To Kill a Mockingbird (Bristor et al., 1995). Again, what America saw on the silver screen was a reflection of Hollywood's bottom line.