Jim Crow Essay/Topic Sentences
Objectives
Every essay has a certain “job” to do. The job of this essay assignment is to answer the question, how did Jim
Crow Laws affect the lives of Americans? You can answer this question by showing how Jim Crow Laws affected
particular individuals. That’s why you did a research chart on two different people and their stories.
The next activities will give you a thesis statement, plus the topic sentences you will need for each paragraph in
your essay. After that, you just have to add details from your research chart and Bingo: you have all the parts of an
essay that will do its job.
Activities
1. What effect did Jim Crow Laws actually have on Americans in their daily lives and how do you
know?
(What’s your “final answer” to this question? Did you learn more about the effects from historical
documents or from the personal narratives? Your answer becomes the thesis statement for the essay! Use
it as the last sentence in your Introduction paragraph):
2. In what ways are the backgrounds (identity) of the two individuals similar and different?
(Your answer to this question will become the topic sentence of the first body paragraph in your essay! To
answer, put a check in front of the ways they are similar and an X in front of the ways they are different:
__Age (at time of story) __Race __Gender __Age __Region/State __Family Bkgrnd/Economic Class
Now you’re ready to fill in the blanks on the topic sentence of your first Body paragraph :
The background of the two narrators is similar in terms of _______, _______, and _______
but different in terms of _______, _______, and ________.
(NOTE: There may be more blanks or fewer blanks or none at all for the two stories you are comparing.
Modify the sentence to fit your research:)
3. In what way ways are their two stories similar and different?
(This will become the topic sentence of your 2nd body paragraph. Go through the same process to answer
this question. Put a check or an X in front of the following terms then create your topic sentence
__Time of story (WHEN)
__Place/Setting (WHERE)
__People/characters involved (WHO)
__Chain of events (WHAT) __Cause of problem/conflict (WHY)
The stories told by the two individuals are similar in terms of _______, _____, and ____ but
different in terms of ________, _______, and ________.
(NOTE: Modify the sentence to fit your research:)
4. In what ways was the effect (impact) of the experience similar and different for these two persons?
(The answer to this will become the topic sentence of the 3rd body paragraph. Use the following subtopics
to describe similarities and differences in the impact on their individual lives:
At the time of the story: __physical imact
__emotional impact __psychological impact
Later in life:
__change in attitude __change in behavior __change of profession
Other changes:
__change of location __lessons learned
__other:
The impact of these experiences on the two narrators was similar in terms of ___,
___, and ___ but different in terms of ___, ___ and ___.
(Note: Modify the sentence to fit your research:)
5. So What…?!? What’s the significance of these two individual stories and the whole Jim Crow era?!
(“So what?!” is always a question you can use to write a concluding paragraph on any essay topic. Tell
why the whole topic is important to other people, why it matters to you now and why it should matter to
your reader. Make sure others care about your topic, too.)
P.S. Here’s what the outline of your point-by-point compare/contrast essay will look like:
Introductory Paragraph
Attention getter
Background history on Jim Crow—detail sentences
Thesis statement
I. 1st Body Paragraph—Similarities and Differences Identity
Topic Sentence
Person #1
Person #2
II. 2nd Body Paragraph—Experience
Topic Sentence
Story #1
Story #2
III. 3rd Body Paragraph—Impact
Topic sentence
Person #1
Person #2
Concluding Paragraph
Summary of important similarities and differences
Significance of topic