Book: Gretchen Sorin, Driving While Black: African American Travel and the
Road to Civil Rights (New York: Liveright/Norton, 2020).
Prompt:
Early in her work Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil
Rights, Gretchen Sorin outlines the critical role of the automobile for African Americans during
the twentieth century. In particular, she argues that the automobile provided a “new freedom”
for African Americans during a time when so many were denied a sense of agency.
Using the monograph and other relevant course materials, assess the utility of the
automobile to African Americans in the years from the Great Depression and the post-war Civil
Rights Revolution. In formulating your argument, please consider the broader context of the
time and the place of race (and tensions over race) within the United States. What were some of
the dangers that people of color faced during this time, and how did the automobile provide an
opportunity to combat such perils? What was the relationship between the automobile and the
Civil Rights Movement? What was the meaning of the automobile for mobility and agency in
the twentieth century? In your essay, you do not have to answer all of these questions directly—
instead, use them to guide your thinking about the role of the automobile in African-American
life.
Your essay must present a clear thesis in its introductory paragraph, after which you must
cite at least three concrete examples from the book to support your argument. Contextualize
these examples by drawing from broader thematic materials from our class. No outside sources
should be usedEarly in her work Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil
Rights, Gretchen Sorin outlines the critical role of the automobile for African Americans during
the twentieth century. In particular, she argues that the automobile provided a “new freedom”
for African Americans during a time when so many were denied a sense of agency.
Using the monograph and other relevant course materials, assess the utility of the
automobile to African Americans in the years from the Great Depression and the post-war Civil
Rights Revolution. In formulating your argument, please consider the broader context of the
time and the place of race (and tensions over race) within the United States. What were some of
the dangers that people of color faced during this time, and how did the automobile provide an
opportunity to combat such perils? What was the relationship between the automobile and the
Civil Rights Movement? What was the meaning of the automobile for mobility and agency in
the twentieth century? In your essay, you do not have to answer all of these questions directly—
instead, use them to guide your thinking about the role of the automobile in African-American
life.
Your essay must present a clear thesis in its introductory paragraph, after which you must
cite at least three concrete examples from the book to support your argument. Contextualize
these examples by drawing from broader thematic materials from our class. No outside sources
should be used