Completing your document Analysis Paper

The beauty of the past is that it is entirely constructed. All that we know and desire to know is passed down to us through memory and the perception of memory. For people of African descent in the early United States, remembering was essential to maintaining a sense of community and culture.

Hence, African American studies scholars often mine through various forms of memory preservation in order to better understand the ways early African American people defined themselves and those around them.

Central to this process is contextualizing the sources before you. For academics, this means working to place the pieces of the past squarely within the context of their respective cultures, languages, and moments in time. This is what you will do in your document analysis paper.

Using a primary source of your choice from the documents section in your textbook - these are the blue pages at the end of each chapter. You will write a brief essay, of three to four pages, that assesses the source, given its time period. You will think about what it offers to the student and scholar of African American culture and life, and what it neglects to mention. No additional sources are required for this assignment, but you may use context from your textbook if you so choose. Use the guidelines below to help you complete this assignment.

Here is a basic structure to follow:

1. Begin with the context of the document you chose, providing only information that will later assist you in explaining why the document is important. This should be no longer than a paragraph.

2. Next, offer a brief (one paragraph) summary of the document that touches on each of its main points.

Here you want to weave the points of this document into the context. (i.e. If an author, speaker, or artist used biblical imagery to emphasize a point, you would point out that this was common in his/her time, and that it was especially important to convincing an American audiences that something was valid.) Your goal in this section of the paper is to answer this question: how does this source fit into its time period?

3. Once you have briefly summarized your document, and placed in within its context, move on to your general analysis of these main points. Here you should work to consider the following questions?

Does this document reflect the historical and cultural context in which it was set? Is it ahead of its time in tone, argument or conclusion?

What does it tell us about early African American life in the United States?

What are some of the things that puzzle you about the reading? Are there things you feel were missing in it?

4. As you end your paper, avoid restating everything you wrote prior to the conclusion. Here you should say something larger and think about the source you chose in continuity. Consider the following questions:

How does this document help us to understand the ways that African American culture developed during the twentieth century?

In what ways does it shed light on early African American identity constructions? (In other
words, how does this help us to see how African American people began to shape the meanings of their racial, national, gendered, religious, and individual identities?)

You essay should be typed, double-spaced, in Times New Roman font and must be 1200-1400 words long (approximately 3- 4 pages long).

Resource :

The transformation of the Southern Civil Rights Movement
Triumphs and tragedies in the Early Years,1951-1956