Reference no: EM133764049

Assignment: Primary Source Annotation & Analysis Activity

Overview

In this activity, you are presented with the opportunity to understand segregation, the Great Migration, 20th-century resilience, and unity efforts within Black communities. As you follow the steps below and explore each source, complete annotations on the Primary Source Annotations and Analysis Activity Worksheet. Download Primary Source Annotations and Analysis Activity Worksheet. You will also submit a 3-4 page summary as outlined in the following steps along with the annotations in the worksheet.

Step I: Research Segregation Laws

Using the archives curated by Blackpast, explore Black Codes from Mississippi, Texas, or Ohio. As you review the legal segregation imposed on African Americans, consider why these laws were passed and enacted in these states during the years immediately after Reconstruction. Read the language carefully and consider the intent and purpose of these legal restrictions.

Step II: Review Primary Sources

Review the following three sets of primary sources relate to the Great Migration.

First, carefully review documents from the Jacob Lawrence Migration Series, One-Way Ticket (1941). You will find that this collection offers various artistic representations and personal expressions about the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North.

Next, review photographs from a Marion Palfi's perspective as an immigrant to America in the Freedom Must Be Lived: 1940-1978 Exhibition. Links to an external site. Her work as a German immigrant and self-described "social research photographer" produced an important visual document of 20th-century American injustice. As a German immigrant to the United States during World War II, Palfi arrived in Los Angeles to find a reality far from the myth of the American Dream. Outraged at the economic, racial, and social inequalities she encountered, she spent more than 30 years traveling throughout the United States documenting various communities to expose the links between racism and poverty.

Finally, you will analyze quantitative data presented in the Visualizing the Great Migration interactive data set compiled using U.S. Census Bureau data.

Step III: Experience the Culture with Photographs and Music

View curated photographs from The Great Migration-1916-1930. Links to an external site. Select any photograph to see a larger view. While viewing the images consider the photographer's perspective, the intended purpose of the photo, and the subjects' locations and expressions.

Listen and watch Our Language Ken Burns Jazz (segments 1 - 3) Links to an external site. from famous African American musicians. There is a brief segment also included on Benny Goodman playing the clarinet. Watch and listen in on each musician's performance in the video montage. Consider who the audiences of such performances would be and how jazz evolved from its Southern roots.

Step IV: Complete the Module Primary Source Annotations and Analysis Activity Worksheet

After carefully reviewing and critically analyzing each primary source. Write an annotation on the Primary Source Annotations and Analysis Activity Worksheet Download Primary Source Annotations and Analysis Activity Worksheet for each of the 5 different types of sources.

Then, in the same document, develop a Primary Source Analysis Essay addressing the following question:

To what extent had African Americans attained the "American Dream" by the early twentieth century?