Maureen D’Ascanio



Maureen D’Ascanio

ILS 512 Spring 2008

Assignment 3

Multiple Viewpoints Paper

Racism is an ever present danger in contemporary American society. The 1950’s and 1960’s were a turbulent time in American history marked by violent acts of racism against African Americans: lynchings, church burnings, the emergence of hate groups, and the denial of basic liberties such as voting, equal education and political representation. Although demanded by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, equality for African Americans was not practiced. From peaceful protests to violent uprisings, the call for equality for Americans of all races was heard across America. It is important that all public libraries and high school media centers maintain a collection of Young Adult resources in different formats which depicts multiple viewpoints towards racism and segregation in order to produce an educated population that values the civil rights of all Americans.

I have compiled a bibliography of historical and contemporary literature and audiovisual materials, non-fiction, fiction, and biographical, to present multiple viewpoints of the factors underlying the current of racism in America during the mid-twentieth century. The Constitutional Amendments and their explanation are provided to support court decisions which called for an increase in protection for all citizens as they attempted to exercise their rights. I have grouped the resources within the bibliography according to genre.

I. Historical Non-Fiction

4 Little Girls, an HBO documentary film in association with 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks Production [DVD videorecording]; Spike Lee (dir. and prod.). New York: HBO Video, 1998. The racially-motivated bombing of a black Baptist Church in 1963 takes the lives of four young girls and fuels the nation’s outrage over racism.

Boyd, Herb. We Shall Overcome. Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, Inc. 2004. A historical account of the civil rights movement and the position of African Americans in America in the latter half of the twentieth century. Includes two audio discs featuring narratives by African Americans and civic leaders.

Cushman, Robert F. Leading Constitutional Decisions (16th ed.). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1982. A review of cases based on Constitutional law including the right to equal protection of the laws.

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement [DVD videorecording]. A Presentation of WGBH Boston; a production of Blackside, Inc. Jon Else (prod.). Alexandria, VA: PBS Video, 2006. Volumes 1-3 tell the story of America’s civil rights years from 1954 to 1965.

Foner, Eric. The Story of American Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. The story of American freedom told through a history of accomplishments and failures throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Freedman, Russell. Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. New York: Holiday House, 2006. A historical account of the events surrounding the Montgomery bus boycott and the end of segregation on buses. Good choice

McWhorter, Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The climactic battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. Journalist Diane McWhorter weaves together police and FBI documents, interviews with black activists and former Klansmen, and personal memories in a narrative of the racially motiviated events that occurred in Birmingham in 1963.

Patterson, Charles. The Civil Rights Movement. New York: Facts on File, 1995. One of the Social Reform Movements series chronicling the Civil Rights movement and African Americans efforts to achieve equal rights throughout the twentieth century.

Prendergast, Tom; Prendergast, Sara and John Sousanis. Constitutional Amendments: From Freedom of Speech to Flag Burning (vol. 2). New York: UXL, An imprint of the Gale Group, 2001. A description of the application of the ninth through seventeenth amendments to the U. S. Constitution.

Vernell, Margorie. Leaders of Black Civil Rights. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000. Discusses seven leaders of the civil rights movement, including Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

II. Biographies

Frady, Marshall. Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 2002. A biography of the leader of black civil rights.

Little, Malcolm. Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1964. An autobiographical account of Black Muslims in America. Introduction by Alex Haley.

Mack-Williams, Kibibi. Malcolm X. Vero Beach: Rourke Publications, Inc. 1993. A biography presenting the life, philosophy, assassination, and legacy of the African American leader who advocated black nationalism.

Siebold, Thomas, ed. Martin Luther King Jr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000. A People Who Made History series book discussing the civil rights movement in America by one of its leaders.

III. Historical Fiction: White Teens View of Racism

Crowe, Chris. Mississippi Trial, 1955. New York: Penguin Group, 2002. A white sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago in 1955.

McDonald, Joyce. Devil on My Heels. New York: Delacorte Press, 2004. A contemporary view of racism towards African American orange pickers in 1959 by the white daughter of a prosperous Florida Orange Grower.

IV. Contemporary Fiction: Teen Views of Racism

Blackman, Marjorie. Knife Edge. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2007. A young pregnant girl fears for the life of her mixed-race baby reflects contemporary views of racism, prejudice and race relations.

Krech, Bob. Rebound. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2006. Determined to make the varsity basketball team, a seventeen-year-old Polish boy finds his efforts hindered by the racism in his town.

Volponi, Paul. Black and White. New York: Viking, 2005. Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.

Volponi, Paul. Rooftop. New York: Viking, 2006. Race relations are strained when a seventeen-year-old black urban youth, working to earn his GED and kick his drug habit, witnesses police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on the rooftop of a New York City housing project.

You’ve done a great job with this. A

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