A 6-8 page essay plus bibliography. (CHOOSE ONE OF THE Following TOPICS)
Please cite all the materials you consult in your bibliography. YOU MUST DEVELOP AN ORIGINAL ARGUMENT that you sustain throughout the paper. At the top of your essay (just under the title) please state your argument. Then begin the essay bringing the argument back into the opening paragraph.
1. Compare and contrast the careers of Ira Aldridge, Bert Williams and Paul Robeson as major performers in African-American theater history. What conclusions can you draw about conditions for black actors? How did conditions change and/or remain the same over the timeframe spanned by these actors’ careers?
• Herbert Marshall, Ira Aldridge: Negro Tragedian
• Mary Malone, Actor in Exile: The Life of Ira Aldridge
• Northwestern Special Collection on Ira Aldridge
• Eric Ledell Smith, Bert Williams : A Biography of the Pioneer Black Comedian
• Mabel Rowland, Bert Williams, Son of Laughter
• Ann Charters, Nobody: The Story of Bert Williams
• Martin Duberman, Paul Robeson: A Biography
• Burnham Holmes, Paul Robeson: A Voice of Struggle
• Patricia McKissack, et al, Paul Robeson: A Voice to Remember
2. Using research on the birth control practices at the turn of the century, discuss the socio-political implications of the play They That Sit in Darkness.
• See writings on Margaret Sanger
• Linda Gordon, Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right
• Jessie M. Rodrique, “Black Community and the Birth Control Movement†in Darlene Clark Hine, Wilma King, and Linda Reed, eds. “We Specialize in the Wholly Impossibleâ€: A Reader in Black Women’s History (Carlson Publishing, 1995).
• Birth Control Review
• Black Newspapers: articles, editorials, advertisements
3. Using research on the Cult of True Womanhood, provide a detailed close reading of the character Rachel.
• Judith Stephens, “Gender Ideology and Dramatic Convention in Progressive Era Plays, 1890-1920†in Sue Ellen Case, ed., Performing Feminisms
• Linda Perkins, “The Impact of the ‘Cult of True Womanhood’ on the Education of Black Women†in Hine, ed., Black Women in American History, vol. 1-4.
4. Using research on the Great Migration, analyze the choices made by each of the characters in ‘Cruiter, Rachel, or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
• Kenneth Kusmer, ed., From Reconstruction to the Great Migration, 1877-1917
• Kenneth Kusmer, ed., The Great Migration and After, 1917-1930
• Grossman, The Land of Hope
• Chicago Defender articles of the time
5. Using research on the practice of lynching in the United States, analyze Blue-Eyed Black Boy and/or A Sunday Morning in the South
• Beverly Washington Jones, ed., of v 13: The Life and Writings of Mary Eliza Church Terrell 1863-1954 part of series Hine, ed., Black Women in America
• Mildred Thompson, ed., v15: Ida B. Wells-Barnett: An Exploratory Study of an American Black Woman, 1893-1930 part of series Hine, ed., Black Women in America
• Ralph Ginzburg, 100 Years of Lynchings
• Norton Moses, Lynching and Vigilantism in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies and Indexes in American History, No 34)
• Dewight D. Murphey, Lynching: History and Analysis
6. Research a lesser-known early African American performing artist and analyze his/her contributions in light of one or two of the themes we’ve been discussing in class.
• Henry T. Sampson. The Ghost Walks: A Chronological History of Blacks in Show Business, 1865-1910.
• Henry T. Sampson. Blacks in Blackface : A Source Book on Early Black Musical Shows
• Black newspapers (Crisis, Opportunity, Messenger, etc)
7. Do a close reading of any of the plays in the book Black Theater USA that we have not read for class. Analyze the play in terms of one or two of the concepts we’ve been discussing in class (religions, gender roles, the Tragic Mulatto, etc).
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