Purpose Stratification by race remains a stubbornly persistent feature of American cities a full 50 years after the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed most forms of housing discrimination, including...

Purpose

Stratification by race remains a stubbornly persistent feature of American cities a full 50 years after the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed most forms of housing discrimination, including government-sanctioned racial redlining. As the authors of a recent Washington Post study argue, although many communities have diversified in recent decades, most Americans live next door to neighbors of the same race. Explore the interactive map in their study to uncover how the demographics of the communities that you examined in Part I of the assignment have changed since 1990:https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/segregation-us-cities/(Links to an external site.)

In Part I of this assignment, your goal was to determine if the impact of racial redlining could be traced to the present be comparing HOLC area descriptions with recent demographic information from corresponding neighborhoods. But federal housing policies, including redlining, are only one ingredient in housing inequalities and segregation. Numerous other factors contribute to housing patterns, from the social experiences of specific communities, to the impact of political movements, to economic development of specific neighborhoods.

In Part II, you will identify and outline a research topic that you feel helps to further explain the demographic changes that you identified in one or both of the selected communities from Part I. You will not be writing a formal paper, but rather a “proposal” or “prospectus” for possible further research. Connect the demographic changes in your selected areas to one of the following topics in recent American urban history:

Social dynamics

• Asian American experience (Japanese internment, post-1965 immigration patterns, and/or the “Model Minority” stereotype)
• African American experience (Post-WWII Great Migration, civil rights and Black Power movements, ’65 Watts and ’92 LA Riots, struggles of the black middle class, and/or criminal justice disparities)
• Latino experience (Bracero Program, Chicano movement, Central American migration, and the politics of undocumented immigration)
• “Whitening” of European immigrants, such as Italians, Jews, Eastern Europeans, etc.
• “White flight” to the suburbs

Structural issues

• Urban renewal projects, such as highway construction
• Employment discrimination and affirmative action programs
• “Gentrification” of low income neighborhoods
• School segregation/inequalities in education
• The expansion of higher education
• Deindustrialization and the loss of manufacturing jobs
• Pollution and urban environmental hazards
• Technology and social change

Content Knowledge:We will investigate and understand how structural issues and social dynamics, beyond institutionalized discrimination, help to explain the historical roots of demographic patterns in present-day greater Los Angeles.

Analytical Skills:We will learn to locate, identify, and examine a variety of secondary sources, including newspaper / magazine articles, encyclopedia entries, academic journal articles, and scholarly books.

Writing Skills:We will annotate sources by highlighting main ideas and compose an introduction to our research topic with a clear thesis statement.

Beyond the Classroom:We will investigate the ways in which a variety of historical forces shape the world around us and learn how to craft historical arguments using original research.

Tasks

1. What to do:Review your findings in Part I of the assignment and determine which of the suggested research topics best connects to the demographic trends that you uncovered.
2. What to do:Locate the following types of sources focused on your research topic by searching the El Camino College Library catalog and online databases [see the library guide prepared by our Embedded Librarian, Mary McMillan for help locating sources:https://libguides.elcamino.edu/history102_teal(Links to an external site.)]:
   • 2 newspaper / magazine articles
   • 2 encyclopedia reference entries
   • 1 academic journal article
   • 1 scholarly book
3. What to do:Annotate each of your sources with a 4-5 sentence description of the central arguments in the source and at least 1 sentence explaining why the source is relevant to your project.
4. What to do:Write a brief XXXXXXXXXXword introduction explaining the importance of your research topic in explaining demographic changes in your neighborhood(s).
5. What to do:Compose a thesis statement that answers the following question:Which best explains demographic patterns in your neighborhood(s), legacies of redlining (as explored in Part I) or your selected research topic? Why and how do you know?

Criteria

• Did you reflecton your findings in Part I?
• Did you identifythe research topic that best explains the demographic patterns in your neighborhood(s)?
• Did you locateat least 2 newspaper / magazine articles, 2 encyclopedia reference entries, 1 academic journal article, 1 scholarly book using the El Camino College Library catalog and online databases?
• Did you annotateeach of your sources with a 4-5 sentence description of the central arguments in the source and at least 1 sentence explaining why the source is relevant to your project?
• Did you summarizescholars’ main arguments in a short XXXXXXXXXXword introduction to your research topic?
• Did you composea thesis statement that explains whether or not your selected research topic or institutionalized discrimination (as explored in Part I) best explains the demographic shifts in your neighborhood(s)? Did you explain how you know this?
• Did you supportyour thesis statement with summarized evidence from your sources?
• Did you citeyour sources using Chicago style?:http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html(Links to an external site.)