John Hope Franklin index

Bobby Deschenes Proposes:

I have decided to look at the topic of race riots in America. Franklin's life was affected by the Tulsa riots, and it made me think of other times in American history when riots affected the country. I wil not focus only on riots concerning race, but also immigration, and any other kind of prejudice.

Daniel McDonough Proposes:

I have been going back and forth between several research proposals for my term paper. I became very interested in the comparison between all-white and all-black schools during Franklins early childhood. When Franklin makes reference to the values and lessons that he witnessed from his secondary teachers I was intrigued at just how different these two institutions really were. Besides the obvious, the courses offered were drastically disimiliar and the resources and extracurriular activities available to all-black schools were dated and of poor quality. With this paper I would like to explore the variety of educational approaches from the teachers and administrators of both Booker T. Washington and nearby Central High School as a gateway into the larger picture of social mobility among black students at the turn of the 20th century.

Tom Bushell Proposes:

I'm interested in doing some research on the history of African Americans in the military. I don't really have a preference for one branch over another, so my specific research focus can be pretty flexible and fit around the other people working with the military.

I've done a little research on the Tuskegee Airmen in the past and found it all pretty interesting, so I'd definitely be willing to make the Air Force my primary focus if we end up dividing things along those lines.

If we were to split it up chronologically, I'd like to focus on their roles in (or exclusion from) World War II. I'm also taking an American Revolutionary History course right now, and I've been learning a bit about blacks' roles in the war for independence. I'd be fine with choosing that period as a backup if someone else is really leaning towards WWII.

Molly Johnson Proposes:

Throughout John Hope Franklin's autobiography he speaks a lot about racial stereotypes throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. I would like to focus my paper on racial stereotypes and where the origins of those sterotypes. More specifically I would like to make a connection between the eugenics movement and racial stereotypes in the 20th century. The majority of my research will be based on book research on the eugenics movement, the theories that were derived from the movement and how these theories connect to the racial stereotypes of the 20th century. I also would like to focus part of the paper on events that were a product of the eugenics movement and racial stereotypes such as sterilization.

I think this topic will be easy to develop and articluate. There is also an abundance of information that will make the research portion of the paper pretty straight forward.

Michelle Santos Proposes:

For the topic of my paper I want to focus in on women in the African American society during the time from slavery up to when and how they got rights in the US. I am not really sure in specific what area I want to research or what would be an area that would not be too broad.

I started looking up some information and I am very interested in the relationships between slave owners and the women slaves and how many of them had realtionship and children together. Also, I was thinking about how white women got rights and had an entire suffrage movement, I want to research what steps African American women needed to take to get their own rights.

Andrew Ilvento Proposes:

I am leaning in the direction of exploring the Topic of the life of Africian-Americans during the Great Depression. I think the John Hope was in a very unqiue situation during this time, by being lucky enough to able to attend college during this time and I want to explore the more "typical" aspects of life for most African-Americans during this time period.