U. S. History Research Paper - 2015
Each year, 8th grade U. S. History students write a research paper. This year, you will be researching a 20 th century
American leader or revolutionary. Your first task, then, is to choose a topic. Read a number of sources (books, Internet
sources, articles, etc.) about the topic you might want to research. Then, hand in a log of facts you learned about your
topic. This will not yet revolve around a thesis. Please follow the rubric. Finish with two to three sentences in your best
writing, explaining why you want to research this topic. Finally, attach one printed Internet article that is an informative
source on your topic; it should not be simply biographical. A choice of subjects is listed below.
Ansel Adams - photographer
Virginia Apgar – advocate of newborn health and care
Edwin Armstrong – developer of the modern radio
Louis Armstrong – jazz musician
Stephen Bechtel – builder of pipelines, airports, power plants, bridges, dams, etc.
Leonard Bernstein – composer and conductor
Mary McLeod Bethune – African-American educator
Otis Boykin – inventor of the pacemaker and guided missiles
Leo Burnett – advertising pioneer
Chester Carlson – xerox technology
Willis Carrier – developer of air conditioning
Rachel Carson – environmentalist and conservationist
Cesar Chavez – labor leader, spokesman for migrant workers
Charles Drew – blood plasma, blood bank system
W. E. B. Dubois – NAACP, African American rights
Amelia Earhart – pioneer of flight
T. S. Eliot – poet
Duke Ellington – jazz musician
Phil Farnsworth – inventor of the television
F. Scott Fitzgerald - author
Henry Ford – mass production of the automobile
George Gershwin - composer
Robert Goddard – rockets, liquid fuel
Katharine Graham – newspaperwoman/Washington Post President during Watergate
Martha Graham – innovator of modern dance
Edwin Hubble – pioneer in astronomy
Langston Hughes – African American poet
Helen Keller – blind, deaf, and partially mute, a humanitarian and advocate
The Kellogg Brothers (John and William) – pioneers in preserved foods
John F. Kennedy – U.S. President initiating the modern era
Gary Kildall – PC software
Martin Luther King, Jr. – champion of equal rights for African Americans
Edwin Land – Polaroid photography
John L. Lewis – giant of the labor movement
Charles Lindbergh – pioneer of flight
George Marshall – plan to rebuild Europe following World War II
Thurgood Marshall – African-American Supreme Court justice and equal rights advocate
Malcolm McLean – containerized shipping
Margaret Mead – cultural anthropologist
Pauli Murray – African-American women’s rights advocate, lawyer, poet, etc.
Edward R. Murrow – radio broadcaster and rights advocate
Eugene O’Neill – playwright
Jesse Owens – black athlete
Charlie Parker – jazz musician
Rosa Parks – civil rights advocate
Alice Paul – fought to get the 19th Amendment for women’s right to vote adopted
Elvis Presley – rock n’ roll revolutionary
Jeannette Rankin – first woman in Congress, pacifist
Ronald Reagan – U.S. President during the Cold War
Walter Reed – research into the causes of yellow fever
Jackie Robinson – black athlete
Norman Rockwell – artist who typified American life
Eleanor Roosevelt – wife of FDR and a champion for the common man and human rights
Franklin Delano Roosevelt – U.S. President during the Great Depression and World War II
Theodore Roosevelt – U.S. President, environmentalist, expansionist, builder of America
Jonas Salk – developed the polio vaccine
W. Eugene Smith - photographer
James Watson – DNA
Sam Watson – low-cost, big-business stores
Woodrow Wilson – U.S. President during World War I
Frank Lloyd Wright – architect
Orville and Wilbur Wright – airplane
There are many possibilities, though ultimately, your choice must be approved. When selecting a topic, keep these few
hints in mind.

Do not select someone else’s favorite person: not your parents’ or mine or a friend’s. Choose the person you
want to research, since you are the one who will spend the next weeks with your topic. Do not choose someone
simply because you have heard of him or her, or because a great deal of information exists. Rather, pick a topic
that truly interests you.

Remember...no matter what your topic may be, the process of writing a paper will be the same.

Read widely about your person, surf the Internet, and give your topic careful thought. That way, when you have
made your selection, it will be a topic that will hold your interest and enthusiasm throughout the project.

Select a topic for which there is adequate information. Wonderful topics can be found on the Internet, but some
of them do not offer enough information. You will be required to use a book as one of your sources, so keep that
in mind as well.

If you don’t like your initial choice, change it . . . but do this as soon as possible. The longer you wait to switch
topics, the less time you’ll have to work on your paper.