Midterm Examination 2
POLS 317/LSJ 331: The Politics of Race & Ethnicity in the United States
Professor Kirstine Taylor
Due Monday, May 23rd at midnight (11:59pm)
INSTRUCTIONS. Read the instructions carefully. Especially the following information:
This exam is open book and open notes. Absolutely no plagiarism or co-authoring of
exams.
Deadline: Monday, May 23rd at midnight. To ensure fairness between students, exams
turned in between midnight and noon on May 24th will receive a 1.0 deduction; exams
received after that will not be accepted.
How to turn in your exam: Upload your exam to the Canvas website under
“Assignments.” Please follow any additional instructions your TA gives you regarding
submission.
Exam formatting: Answers to all questions must be typed and submitted in a single
document. Your choice of single-, 1.5- or double-spaced. Font should be Times New
Roman or similar. Your choice of Word or PDF.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON GRADING: Full points will be awarded for short answers and
essay responses that are complete (answering all parts of the question), that demonstrate a
rich (rather than surface) understanding of the concept under discussion, and that make
good use of examples. Remember to use examples and explain their import for what you
are saying!
GOOD LUCK!
IDENTIFICATION. Answer all SEVEN (7) questions. Worth 2 points each, or 14 points
total.
1. “Get Back Your Rights!” is an example of what concept in Daniel HoSang’s
Racial Propositions?
2. Name the author of this quote: “You don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t
have a turn-your-cheek revolution. There’s no such thing as a nonviolent
revolution … A revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence.
Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.”
3. Which Supreme Court case legalized the doctrine of “separate but equal”?
4. Fill in the blank: _____________ was a prominent anti-lynching activist in at the
turn of the twentieth century.
5. Name the author of this quote: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion
that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the
White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is
more devoted to order than to justice, who prefers a negative peace which is the
absence of tension to a positive peace with is the presence of justice.”
6. Which Supreme Court case provided for desegregation of schools “with all
deliberate speed”?
7. The political button below relates to the battle over which ballot initiative in
California?
SHORT ANSWERS. Answer THREE (3) out of the following questions. Worth 12
points each, or 36 points total. Target length: one paragraph (5-7 sentences each).
1. According to Grace Elizabeth Hale, spectacle lynchings in the Jim Crow South
“brutally conjured a collective, all-powerful whiteness even as they made the
color line seem modern, civilized, and sane … Racial violence was modern.”
According to Hale, in what respect were spectacle lynchings “modern” affairs in
the Jim Crow South?
2. Explain legal scholar Derrick Bell’s concept of “interest convergence.” According
to Bell, why did such factors as the Cold War and the return of black veterans
from WWII play central roles in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the
doctrine of “separate but equal” in Brown v. Board of Education?
3. Grace Elizabeth Hale shows that southern newspapers tended to describe the
white attendees of spectacle lynchings as “orderly crowds” rather than violent
“mobs.” One Atlanta newspaper, for instance, described the whites at Sam Hose’s
lynching as behaving “as thoroughly and as orderly as though nothing unusual
was involved.” How did Martin Luther King, Jr. seek to overturn this longdominant opinion of “whiteness as order”? Focus your answer on one of the
options below:
a. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963)
b. Martin Luther King’s organizing strategy in the Civil Rights Movement
4. In Racial Propositions, Daniel HoSang argues that racial liberalism often protects
and advances “political whiteness” in the post-civil rights era. What is political
whiteness and, according to HoSang, how did ballot initiative campaigns solidify
it in California? Focus your answer on one of the options below:
a.
b.
c.
d.
California Realtors (pro-Proposition 14,1964)
CAP 14 (anti-Proposition 14, 1964)
Save Our State (pro-Proposition 187, 1994)
Taxpayers Against 187 (anti-Proposition 187, 1994)
5. According to Daniel HoSang in Racial Propositions, how did mainstream ballot
initiative movements tend to sideline or even vilify the political efforts of people
of color in California? How did the language of “racial liberalism” play a role in
this outcome? Focus your answer on one of the following campaigns:
a. Proposition 14 (1964)
b. Proposition 187 (1994)
ESSAY. Answer ONE (1) of the following essay prompts. Worth 50 points. Target
length: 3-4 substantive paragraphs. Make use of examples!
Essay Topic 1
In her 1892 speech, “Lynch Law in America,” Ida B. Wells outlines the dangers of the
unequal application of law with regard to African Americans. She says: “With all the
powers of government in control; with all laws made by white men, administered by
white judges, jurors, prosecuting attorneys, and sheriffs; with every office of the
executive department filled by white men no excuse can be offered for exchanging the
orderly administration of justice for barbarous lynchings and ‘unwritten laws.’”
What role has law – and/or breaking the law – played in movements for racial equality?
In your assessment of the long civil rights movement, has law largely aided efforts for
racial equality, hindered those efforts, or had a contradictory effect? Use robust examples
from the course material to support your claims, and be sure to define any concepts you
use in your response.
In your assessment, incorporate three (3) readings from the list below. (You may draw
from additional materials, but I encourage you to not spread yourself too thinly. Think
“dig deep” rather than “reference everything.”) Please note: “law” and “breaking the law”
in this question can mean several things, including Supreme Court cases, ballot
propositions, Jim Crow laws, civil rights demonstrations, revolution, etc.
LIST – choose three
Ida B. Wells, “Lynch Law in America”
Grace Elizabeth Hale, “Deadly Amusements”
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots”
Derrick Bell, “The Interest-Convergence Dilemma”
Daniel HoSang, Racial Propositions
Essay Topic 2
In the 2015-2016 academic year, many students at the University of Washington and
around the country have been active in bringing to light injustices pertaining to racial
discrimination, police violence, and anti-immigrant sentiment. You are a campaign
strategist and have been tasked with creating a blueprint for a modern civil rights
movement. Using your knowledge of the long civil rights movement, discuss how various
campaigns of the past can provide helpful insight for your efforts today. Include in your
assessment what recommendations your blueprint will include, and what challenges you
foresee that might compromise your efforts. Use robust historical examples from the
course material to support your claims, and be sure to define any concepts you use in
your response.
In your assessment, incorporate three (3) readings from the list below. (You may draw
from additional materials, but I encourage you to not spread yourself too thinly. Think
“dig deep” rather than “reference everything.”) Finally, you may either write your essay
as a memo to your campaign superiors, or as a formal essay that engages the same set of
concerns.
LIST – choose three
Ida B. Wells, “Lynch Law in America”
Grace Elizabeth Hale, “Deadly Amusements”
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots”
Derrick Bell, “The Interest-Convergence Dilemma”
Daniel HoSang, Racial Propositions
EXTRA CREDIT. Worth up to 5 points.
Choose any one song from our class playlist, available and recently updated on the
Canvas website, and explain what kind of ‘racial project’ you think it is. But: do not
repeat the song you did last time for extra credit.