Instruction:
I. General Info
Your paper should be double spaced and roughly five pages long. All papers should include your name, the name of the class, and the due date at the top left-hand corner. The title of your paper should be centered two lines below the due date.
A digital copy of your paper (a .pdf file) must be uploaded to Canvas.
Outside research is NOT a component of this assignment, so DO NOT incorporate outside sources into your essay.
A List of Works Cited is NOT required for this assignment.
Required Texts:
1. Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcom X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s
2. The American Yawp
You must incorporate—by way of direct quotations and parenthetical citations— a minimum of four primary sources from Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcom X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s.
You must also incorporate at least one quotation from a primary or secondary source in each paragraph of the essay, not including the conclusion. It is permissible—and, in some cases, probably necessary—to integrate more than one quotation in some paragraphs. In this case, be sure that the majority of such paragraphs are comprised of your words rather than quotations from your sources.
NOTE ABOUT PRIMARY SOURCES: The primary sources are the short excerpts of works by MLK and Malcolm X found in Chapters 2, 3, 4 of “Part Two” of Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcom X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. “Part One” of the book is the introduction. The introduction is a secondary source—a historical overview and portrait of MLK and Malcom X written by the editor of the book, David Howard-Pitney.
II. Organizing Your Paper
The Civil Rights Movement of the mid-twentieth century is chalk full of iconic figures. However, without question the most iconic figure of the Civil Rights Movement is Martin Luther King, Jr. Numerous schools, streets, and buildings around the nation are named after MLK. Likewise, King’s birthday, January 15, has been observed as a federal holiday since 1986.
Dr. King emerged as the leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the South during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the peaceful protest against segregation in Montgomery, Alabama that began when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. However, between the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956 and King’s assassination in 1968, the Civil Rights Movement underwent considerable change.
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Despite being the most influential African American leader during the fifties and sixties, King was not the only voice calling for social justice. During the 1960s, Malcolm X, a fiery activist initially associated with the Nation of Islam, emerged as one of several other leaders of what might be called the broader Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
King and Malcom had very different visions of African Americans and their place in America. Their different— and in some ways, competing—worldviews can be traced back to the differences in their life experiences. King and Malcom’s boyhoods and adult lives could not have been more different. Consequently, they had very different ideas about how to combat racism and the socio-economic inequalities that defined the lives of many African Americans across the postwar United States.
Thus, understanding the relationship between MLK and Malcom X provides a way to understand two interrelated issues: (1) the different—but sometimes also similar—ideas of MLK and Malcolm X; and (2) how Malcolm X and other black leaders forced King to adjust some of his ideas over time.
Your essay should include each of the following:
1. Coherent, structured, and well-organized writing at both the paragraph and sentence levels;
2. A clear argument (i.e. thesis statement)—laid out in the introductory paragraph(s)—that explains why
MLK and Malcom X held different ideas about civil rights and approached civil rights in different, and
sometimes competing, ways;
3. Description and analysis of MLK and Malcom X’s main ideas regarding civil rights and Black
liberation;
4. Contextual information regarding the Civil Rights Movement and the distinct roles played by MLK and
Malcolm X within the movement;
5. Quotations—with corresponding citations—from a minimum of four separate primary sources found
in the course textbook, Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcom X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s
and 1960s.
6. At least one quotation in each paragraph, not including the conclusion.
Grading: An A paper will illustrate all of the above requirements. A B paper will illustrate most of the above requirements. A C paper will illustrate some of the above requirements. A D paper will illustrate a lack of understanding of the topic and/or lack a majority of the above requirements. An F will be given to incomplete and/or off-topic essays.
III. Writing Your Paper
The purpose of this assignment is to narrate the development of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s by focusing on the key ideas of MLK and Malcolm X.
There are multiple ways to organize your essay. How you assemble your narrative and arrange your evidence is up to you.
However, as we have emphasized all term, your essay should include each of the following elements of writing:
1. Description (exposition): This is one of the most basic and important forms of writing. Before you can analyze a person, place, event, or idea, you must adequately describe that person, place, event, or idea.
▪ Be sure to properly describe each of the sources you utilize in your paper. ▪ Mention the title, author, and date of each source.
▪ What is the main topic and argument of the source?
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▪ Focus only on those parts of your sources that are most relevant to your argument (i.e. thesis statement).
▪ Additionally, if you mention an historical event (see the section below on context), be sure to properly describe that event by providing basic information (i.e. the who, what, where, when) about the event.
2. Context (explication): You MUST situate the lives and ideas of MLK and Malcolm X in their historical context. This means you need to consider not only MLK and Malcolm X’s personal biographies, but the major historical events that affected them and/or they shaped. Put another way, your paper must discuss MLK and Malcolm X’s ideas in relation to specific historical events during the 1950s and 1960s.
▪ Where was King born and raised? What was his family life like?
▪ Where was Malcolm X born and raised? What was his family life like?
▪ What were the major events of the Civil Rights Movement—and what roles did MLK and Malcolm have
in those events?
▪ What issues did MLK and Malcolm X disagree on, and when and where did their disagreement translate
into different forms of action?
3. Analysis (argument): Use your primary and secondary sources to assess and analyze MLK and Malcolm X’s ideas. In other words, use your sources—especially the quotations from your sources—to develop your argument or thesis.
▪ Do your quotations help you answer the central question of the prompt?
▪ Have you identified the most relevant passages from your sources? PLEASE NOTE: All three tasks—description, context, analysis—are interrelated. DO NOT organize your essay into separate sections focusing on description, context, analysis. Description, context, analysis
Think of description, context, analysis as tools—tools you’ll use to build your house not as