Better Day Coming

Chapter 1 & 2

What different kinds of violence did African Americans experience in the South in the decades after the end of the Civil War? How was violence connected to political issues? What political function did violence serve? How did this violence also shape society and daily life for African Americans?

Chapters 3 & 4

Compare the ideas of WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington. Be sure to address their different personal backgrounds and their different perspectives on Reconstruction, education, and political activism.

Chapter 5

How did the Great War change life for African Americans? What changed for blacks and what did not between 1914 and 1920? Would you say this was a period of progress or defeat? Why?

Chapter 6

Though most remember Garvey as advocating the return of blacks to Africa, we see here that his ideas were much more complex. What ideas about blacks and Africa did Garvey seek to change? Why did he think the establisment of a "free and independent Africa" would help black Americans? In what ways did his ideas differ with those of the NAACP?

Chapter 7
In the 1930s "radical" groups began to challenge the NAACP's position as the political voice of African Americans. What kinds of criticism were launched at the NAACP? What ideas, strategies, and tactics differentiated activism in the 1930s from the NAACP's approach? Why did some African Americans find communism so appealing?

Chapter 9
"World War II seemed to change everything" including life for African Americans and their quest for civil rights. What do you think are the most important gains for African Americans in this period? What setbacks and defeats for African Americans continued to slow racial progress in this period? Was president Roosevelt part of the problem or part of the solution, in your opinion?

alternative question for Chapter 9 -- you can do this one or the one above

In this chapter we learn more about the extent of and limits to FDR's contribution to civil rights. In what ways did FDR expand rights for blacks and further the goal of racial equality? What are some examples of his failures in supporting civil rights? How does the author explain these failures?

Chapter 10
How did the cold war and the "Red Scare" hurt the civil rights movement and how did it assist the cause of racial equality? How did the NAACP react to pressure from anti-communist activists? What happened to WEB Dubois in this period?

Chapter 11
What role did religion play in the Civil Rights movement? How did the Christian church shape MLK's ideology? How did it provide logistical support for the movement? How the church influence the model of leadership employed by King and the SCLC?

Chapter 12
NO essay question for this chapter

Chapter 13
What was the "Mississippi Freedom Summer"? Why did some civil rights activists think Northern college students could help break the stalemate in Mississippi? Why did some activists oppose the presence of these students? How did Johnson respond to the murder of Schwerner, Goodman, and Cheney?

Chapter 14
What kinds of discrimination did African Americans face in the North? What ideas and beliefs charcterised "black nationalists" and members of the Black Power Movement (including Malcolm X). How did they differ from the ideas of Martin Luther King?