**American Studies Assignment Prompt**
**Task:**
1. Choose a topic within American Studies that interests you and pose a question to explore. For this assignment, the question is: *How did jazz music contribute to the Civil Rights Movement and reflect its broader struggles for justice?*
2. Write a 2-page response that includes:
– Your **main claim**, which answers the question.
– **Sub-claims** that support your main claim.
– The **grounds** (evidence) for your argument.
3. Conduct research using academic sources, compiling the following:
– 4 books
– 4 peer-reviewed journal articles
– 4 archival or primary sources (e.g., from digital archives, library collections).
*Note: Internet sources are allowed only if they come from archives, libraries, or have a .edu or .gov domain.*
4. Incorporate at least 2 books, 2 journal articles, and 2 archival materials in your written response.
**Example Citations:**
– Cruse, Harold. *The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual.* New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1967.
– “Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement,” *The Journal of African American History*, vol. 54, no. 3, 1969, pp. 215-233.
**Deliverables:**
– A 2-page paper answering the research question.
– An annotated bibliography that includes 4 books, 4 journals, and 4 archival/primary sources.
– Ensure all work adheres to academic standards and uses credible sources.
– Here are a list of digital archives you may use for the paper.
DIGITAL ARCHIVES
Digital Collections and Archives Tufts University
DuBois Central University of Mass
University of Miami Online Archives
Digital Collections Beinecke Library, Yale University
Yale University Library Digital Collections
University of California Los Angeles Digital Collection
University of California Berkely Digital Collections
University of California San Diego Digital Collections
DuBois Central University of Massachussets:
FBI Electronic Reading Room (Freedom of Information act)
CIA Electronic Reading Room
Smithsonian Library Digital Collections
Smithsonian-National Museum of American History online:
Melungeon Discovery Group:
Melungeon.org:
Black Film Research online
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts:
New York Public Library:
Cleveland Digital Public Library
Detroit Public Library
.
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Chicago Renaissance Digital Archives
Chicago Public Library
Center for Black Music Research- Columbia College
Slavery in New York Exhibit
African American Digital Initiatives Howard University:
Library of Congress American Memory:
Documenting the American South UNC Chapel Hill:
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture:
The African Burial Ground Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture:
Center for Black Music Research:
Separate Cinema:
American Art from Howard University:
Duke Digital Collections:
Yale Beinecke Library DigitalCollections:
