African American Struggle for Freedom and Civil Rights from 1960-1990

READ ALL OF THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO COMPLETE THE MINI-ESSAY!

For this assignment, you may ONLY use the following:

1. The Give Me Liberty! textbook
2. The American Perspectives e-reader (you will be required to incorporate at least ONE primary source from American Perspectives)
3. My lectures and your notes on those lectures
4. Any other reading or other supplemental materials provided in the course

You may NOT refer to or use ANY outside sources, including (but not limited to) other books, websites, YouTube videos, and online study/cheating resources such as Course Hero, Chegg, and Quizlet. Even if properly cited, the use of ANY outside source will result in an automatic ZERO on the assignment! You have more than enough materials to complete this assignment without the assistance of any outside resources.

The syllabus academic honesty policy will be enforced on this assignment. Your assignment will be run through Turnitin, which will catch most instances of plagiarism. In addition, I am extremely vigilant about checking the usual places students go to get information (such as Chegg). If you are caught plagiarizing any part of this assignment or engaging in any other form of academic dishonesty (which includes sharing work with other students), you will receive a ZERO on the assignment with NO opportunity for a redo. You will also be reported to HCC for academic dishonesty via the Maxient system, and college-level disciplinary action may follow. There are NO exceptions to this policy. Plagiarism also includes “accidental” plagiarism (such as paraphrasing the textbook or one of my lectures too closely), so be VERY careful if you paraphrase a source! All parts of the essay must be COMPLETELY YOUR OWN WRITING—it is not enough to just change a few words here and there to “make it your own,” and citing your source is not an excuse for plagiarizing from that source. Please also be aware that I will be vigilant about making sure that assignments were not written with the assistance of AI (such as ChatGPT or Grammarly). If I have reason to suspect the work is not your own, you will be required to sit for an oral interview about your assignment, and you will have to pass the interview to my complete satisfaction before I grade your assignment. If you do not pass the oral interview, the assignment will receive a zero.

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS:

At the end of this document, you will find TWO forms, each with a different mini-essay prompt. You must choose ONE to complete (one form will be left blank). When you submit your assignment, you will submit this entire document, including the blank form. Each mini-essay will consist of the following parts. In order to earn the most points, make sure you complete each of the following parts to the specifications listed below:

Argument (50 points): Your argument must directly respond to the essay prompt. It must be AT LEAST two sentences and NO MORE than four sentences in length, and it must be a direct answer to the question posed by the essay prompt. This is an argument-driven mini-essay, so the goal of the rest of the mini-essay is to prove your argument using the evidence. In order to earn the maximum number of points, you must follow through and PROVE YOUR ARGUMENT in the remainder of the mini-essay. If you do not prove your argument sufficiently, you will not earn the full points in this section.

Support (150 points): In order to support your argument, you must write FOUR paragraphs consisting of AT LEAST eight sentences each (you may write more than that). Each paragraph must do two things: (1) define one of the required key terms in as much detail as possible and (2) explain clearly how that key term supports your argument. This will require you to THINK CRITICALLY. Each paragraph will be worth 37.5 points, for a total of 150 points for the support section. In order to earn the maximum number of points, you should include as much detail about the term as you can, in addition to explaining very clearly and in as much detail as possible how it supports your argument.

In this section, EACH PARAGRAPH must be fully cited to let me know where you got the information. In order to cite your source, use parenthetical citations at the end of the sentence you are citing. Your parenthetical citation must include the title of the source, as well as the page number (if applicable). For example, if you use page 100 from Give Me Liberty, your parenthetical citation should be (Give Me Liberty, p. 100). If you use one of my lectures as a source, no page number is required. Instead, your parenthetical citation should be (“Title of Lecture”). Make sure you fully cite each paraph of your support section. IMPORTANT: If your assignment does not have citations, you will receive an AUTOMATIC ZERO for the entire assignment. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions about citations.

Primary Source Evidence (50 points): The final part of the mini-essay is the primary source evidence section. In order to complete this section, you must choose ONE of the primary sources that I have assigned from American Perspectives. The goal of this section is to use one of the primary sources to further support your argument, so choose the primary source wisely. You must write ONE paragraph consisting of AT LEAST eight sentences (you may write more). In order to earn the maximum number of points, you must summarize the source, in addition to explaining very clearly how the source supports your argument. If you have difficulty explaining how the source supports your argument, you should select another source. IMPORTANT: If you use an American Perspectives source that I DID NOT assign, you will receive an automatic ZERO for this section of the assignment. You are only allowed to use the sources that I have assigned, which you can find in both the course calendar and the unit modules on Canvas. Parenthetical citations are also required for this part of the assignment, using the same format as above. For example, if you use page 248 from “Albert Beveridge Defends U.S. Imperialism,” your parenthetical citation should be (“Albert Beveridge Defends U.S. Imperialism,” p. 248).