History 143 Assignment Guide, January 27-29, 2009

Reading: Wheeler and Becker, Discovering the American Past, 27-56

Background information: After reading this assignment, you should know the following:

1. What was the “New South”? (We’ll begin class with this question.)

2. Who stood to benefit the most from the New South? The least?

3. What were the problems and challenges facing African Americans in the 1890s?

Discussion: In class, you should be able to provide detailed answers to these questions:

1. How did each of the authors propose to solve the problems and challenges noted above?

Wells:

Washington:

Turner:

DuBois:

Harper:

2. What sort of similarities do you see in the plans?

3. What sort of differences do you see between the plans?

4. Which plan had the best chance of success and why? Answer this question from one of the following viewpoints: black sharecropper with a family; sharecropper’s wife; white mayor of a small Southern town; black carpenter living in Memphis; white Southern landowner; white sharecropper with a family.