African American History

African American History

1. Question (State your question in the past tense): How did Black artists, writers, and musicians use art, music, history and literature to reshape the representations of black people and demand social justice?

2. Summary (Explain why you need the answer to your question in 5 sentences): (1) A lot of African- American history teaches us how black people were mistreated and viewed. (2) It is important for us to also understand how African-Americans wanted to be viewed, and the different ways they tried to achieve positive representation as well as achieve social justice. (3) Many of us are aware of the huge impact that Americans of African have had on the art, music, literature and historical narrative in the United States. (4) However, we usually don’t focus on the aspect of it that had political, social and global implications and impacts in shaping and portraying the African-American culture. (5) With this knowledge, we can compare and contrast the ways in which the different media outlets were used by African-Americans then and how they are used now; how they impacted us as a culture then, and how they impact us now; and then we can determine if we are using them today in a way that positively represents us as a culture or that does the opposite.

3. Outline: (Show how you will organize the ideas in your paper)

· Introductory statement to include voices of African-American cultural historians, literary figures, and musicians (i.e.) to establish a context for the discussion.

· Introduce historians, literary figures and musicians like Miles Davis, Sylviane Diouf, Amiri Baraka, Native Deen and Audre Lorde and how they used their art forms to explain, define or challenge the direction of African-American culture and demand social justice.

· Compare and contrast each voice above in their efforts to convey meaning to the subject.

· Provide a thoughtful conclusion

4. Sources (What sources will you use):

Achebe Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Penguin Books, 1993

Angelou, Maya I. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Bantum, Doubleday. Dell Publishing Group. 1983.

Baraka, Amiri. Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music. University of California Press. 2009.

Diouf, Sylviane. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in America. New York University Press. 2013

Gonzalez. Anson. Merry Go Round, Collected Poems, Crossroads of Dream (2003), Chela Quest

(2005), In my Own Words, In my Own Journal (2007), Proseleela (2007), Tabiz