Paper due dates: draft due 3/10 (final draft 3/24)
Paper length: 3-4 double-spaced, typed pages
Grade: 22 points of your final grade (Any plagiarism, even partial, will result in F grade for this assignment plus 5 points penalty).
Goal: using audiovisual sources to evaluate historical events.
Assignment: Watch the YouTube audio-video of “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday (link below) and write a review essay in which you discuss the song in relation to what you have learned on segregation and lynching in Chapter 17.
Assignment step by step:
Get familiar with the song; in addition to watching the video, read carefully the lyric written by Abel Meeropol and the suggested articles below;
If you want, find more information about Billie Holiday and/or Abel Meeropol;
Read carefully “The Segregated South” in Chapter 17 of the textbook (p. 514-528);
In about 3-4 pages:
Describe briefly the lyric, summarizing its main points and/or themes;
Provide some information about the origins of the song and/or Billie Holiday;
Explain the overall significance of the song and how it relates to what we are studying (i.e.: What does it suggest about black life in the South? What conditions did African Americans face? How does the song help you to better understand race relations in the US? Is the song still relevant today? );
Conclude by making some personal reflections (i.e.: what struck you about the song, what kind of questions it raised for you, what you have learned from it).
Make sure to cite your sources including the YouTube link.
Make sure to follow my guidelines on format, structure, and general writing.
Submit an electronic copy of your final paper to SafeAssign on Blackboard.
Suggested sources:
Nasaw, David.“Show- Stopper.” New York Times, May 21, 2000
https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/05/21/reviews/000521.21nasawt.html
Markolick, David. Review of Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/margolick-fruit.html
Philipps, Caryl. “Blood at the Root.” The Guardian, August 18, 2007
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/aug/18/jazz.urban
Daniels, Peter. “Strange Fruit: the Story of a song,” February 8, 2002, World Socialist Website
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2002/02/frut-f08.html
Robertson, Campbell, “History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names,” New York Times, February 10, 2015 A11
Documentary: Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice (PBS, 1989) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEu_-MAHoLU
https://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit
