As we move into the 1960s, the documents below will serve as an introduction to your
final week of readings. These documents provide a snapshot into another time, when many thought a
U.S. revolution was just on the horizon. Each in their own way, these documents give us a glimpse
into the tumultuous mid-to-late 1960s. By dissecting these documents, we can analyze the thoughts,
ideas, and debates that permeated U.S. Black internationalist circles during the height of the Cold
War. Pay special attention to the language and verbiage of the authors, and how their words, phrases,
and concepts inform their interpretation of the world. Read the questions first, and then read the
documents. Finally, respond to each question. Each question should be answered with at least one
well-constructed, substantive paragraph. More may be needed.
1) It is important to know something about the author of any document/source you read.
BEFORE reading the documents, do a little bit of background reading on each of the authors.
a. Give a brief (2-3 sentences) introductory comment on each of these individuals – what
is most important to know about them?
b. Give a brief (2-3 sentence) summary of each document’s content, in your own words.
2) Read the documents. Reflect on WHO the audience is for each author/document. Sometimes
it is obvious, but other times you must think a bit about who the intended audience is. What
purpose/function do these documents serve for the author? Who are they writing them to?
Why are they writing them at all?
3) Think about these primary source documents holistically. Consider how they might fit in with
the rest of the readings for the first two days of week four. What do these sources tell us about
the times and lives of the people writing and reading them? What was the mood of the era?
Think “big picture” here. Support that big picture analysis with evidence from the documents.
4) How were the various authors engaging with the rest of the world? What kind of
“transnational” history do you see unfolding? How and why is this sort of transnational history
impactful on U.S. history? Give direct examples.
5) What are the most important or interesting things you learned from these documents? What
questions do you have after reading them? What perspectives might we be missing?
6) Juxtapose these documents with our own world. Would we see documents like this written
today? How and why are these documents the same or different than those produced today?
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