Social Justice Research Papers
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Instructions: Write a 5 page (1000 words) research paper on one of the following
organizations:
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American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement
The Anti-Defamation League
National Woman’s Party
You must answer the following questions:
A) Why was the organization founded? What were the problems the organization
was trying to overcome? This section provides the historical context.
B) When was the organization founded? Who formed the organization? What
kinds of people became involved?
C) What specific things did it do to fight racism and prejudice early on?
D) What made it ultimately successful and allowed it to continue to this day?
E) What can we learn from this organization about community organizing and
movements of people for social justice?
Writing a Strong Thesis
• Sum up what your paper is about.
• Provide an organized roadmap for the reader:
– List the topics of each section in the order you
write about them.
– Mention supporting examples without going into
detail.
– Have a transition sentence at the end…
Strong Thesis Tips
• Stick to your style and be consistent:
– Decide if you are going to use the first person or “we” or “this study/paper”
for example.
• Posing the central question:
– To what extent did the experiences of the 1920s shape…? This study
explores/hopes to answer/answers/is guided by this essential question…
• Active verbs:
– Seeking to understand…
– Analyzing…
– Examining…
• Try to avoid being passive.
– Don’t use passive voice
– Lively prose use varied sentence structure (a short sentence followed by a
longer one, or at least not all the same length).
Example Phrases
• “The 1920s was a time of cultural conflict. Attacks on people’s civil
liberties seemed to betray the very values the United States has sought to
embody. By examining the formation of the [insert organization here],
however, we can see how community efforts for social and political
change empowered people to fight against injustice and to build what has
become a successful and lasting organization….”
• “Beginning with the historical context, we can see just what the [insert
organization here] was up against…”
• “Turning then to analyze the early efforts of the [insert organization here]
during the decade of the 1920s…”
• “Seeking better to understand the reasons for historical successes, we can
usefully draw out some of the reasons this organization was able to
continue on…”
• “All history informs the present. Thus, we can usefully apply what we have
learned about the [insert organization here] to issues in contemporary
America…”
Taking notes when researching
• Always write the book or article
and the page number so you
can cite your sources!
• Think of which section in your
paper the information you are
reading can fall into:
– Does the information tell you about
how the organization was formed?
– Can it be a specific example of how
the organization was successful? (a
court case, etc.)
– Does it tell you about the structure
of the organization? Or where they
got the money?
Using notes and quotes:
Paraphrasing
• QUOTE: “A race riot in
Springfield Illinois,
prompted the formation
of the National
Association for the
Advancement of
Colored People in 1910.
Whites dominated the
leadership of the
organization early on…”
(Zinn, p.348)
 WRITING IN PAPER: The
NAACP was formed in
response to racial
violence. Although it
was formed to fight for
the rights of African
Americans, historian
Howard Zinn reports
that it was mostly white
people in charge of the
organization early on.
Using notes and quotes:
Analyzing Direct Quotes
 QUOTE: “The impossibility of
the black person’s ever being
considered equal in white
America was the theme of
the nationalist movement
led in the 1920s by Marcus
Garvey. He preached black
pride, racial separation, and
a return to Africa, which to
him was the only hope for
black unity and survival. But
Garvey’s movement,
inspiring as it was to some
blacks, could not make much
headway against the
powerful white supremacy
currents of the postwar
decades.” (Zinn, p.382)
 PAPER: Historian Howard
Zinn sums up the main
elements of Garvey’s
movement: Black pride and
separation from white
society (the “back to Africa”
movement). But Zinn is
rather pessimistic in writing
that it “did not make much
headway.” It is true that
racism and a white power
structure were very hard to
fight against, but Garvey’s
movement did more than
just send people back to
Africa. It inspired people.
Inspiration, however, is
difficult to measure in terms
of “headway.”
THESIS: opening telling reader main ideas in paper in order you address them (suggestion: write this last)
1. FIRST BODY SECTION: describe the historical context (suggestion: use your comprehension check).
A) When (1920s)
B) What (cultural conflict)
C) Supporting examples:
i. KKK (nativism)
ii. Palmer Raids
iii. Immigration quotas
2. SECOND BODY SECTION: your organization.
A) When and by whom was it started? What kinds of people were involved?
B) What specific things did it do to fight racism and prejudice early on?
i. Specific example (maybe court case)
ii. Specific example (protest)
iii. Specific example (education)
3. THIRD BODY SECTION: what made it ultimately successful?
A) This organization started in the 1920s, but continued to fight for people’s rights throughout the
20th century.
B) Specific examples (what things did the organization
do? Winning court cases, etc.)
4. FOURTH BODY SECTION: what can we learn about community organizing and movements of people for
social change?
A) Discuss the things the organization had going for them
B) How could you apply those things to an issue you care about?
COCLUSION: sum up the main points and point to the future…
Writing the First Section
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Use your comprehension checks.
There was a surge of racism and anti-immigrant attitudes and policies in the 1920s. The Great
Migration after the Civil War had brought millions of African Americans to cities in the Northern
states. International immigration brought millions of people from Europe throughout the end of the
19th century, and the transportation revolution and increased industrialization added to the growth
of cities. Ethnic neighborhoods developed in major cities, but also new cultural conflicts over what
it meant to be “American” in a nation entirely made of immigrants (coming from other countries at
one point or another in this nation’s past). Conflict over jobs fueled racial tensions, but divisions
between rich and poor were particularly striking as billionaires controlled the majority of the
nation’s wealth and the class of exploited industrial workers continued to grow. Some people tried
to claim they were more American because of the color of their skin or in virtue of the fact that
they were born in the U.S. These “nativist” attitudes were also easily aligned with the white
supremacist doctrine of the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK was revived during the 1920s, and they
committed terrible crimes. The worst was a public display of torture called lynching….
Immigration also spiked after the First World War. The influx of Eastern European immigrants raised
fears that “radicals” or “socialists” would try to overthrow the government. Maybe, as Howard Zinn
suggests, it was because they strengthened the unions and workers started to ban together and
present a “socialist challenge” (Zinn, pp.381-2). Congress passed immigration quotas…
Section Two:
Its all about the examples…
ACLU
NAACP
ADL
GARVEY (UNIA)
1. “Report on the
Illegal Actions of
the U.S.
Department of
Justice” 1925.
2. Scopes Trial
1925.
3. Gitlow vs. Now
York 1925
4. Whitney vs.
California 1927
5. Brown vs. Board
(1954)
6. Loving vs.
Virginia (1967)
1. Pink Falkland
case.
2. 1915 Birth of a
Nation protest
3. 1920 conference
in Atlanta.
4. 1922 ad
campaign in
newspapers against
lynching.
5. Newspaper
called the Crises.
1. Leo Frank case
1915.
2. 1920s challenge
to Henry Ford.
3. Sigmund
Livingston’s
pamphlets: The
Protocols; The
Dearborn
Independent; The
Poison Pen, etc.
1. Conventions.
2. The “Negro
World” newspaper.
3. Black Star Line.
4. Liberian
Construction Loans
project
5. Supporting Black
owned businesses
Conclusion:
Let’s End This Thing Already (jk)
• Restate thesis in slightly different words.
• Remind reader of major findings (one or two
examples you analyzed)
• Point to the future
– Directions for further research
– How the lessons learned can be applied in the
modern world.
Example Phrases:
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“Although the racism and discrimination of the 1920s exemplified in the actions of
the KKK or the Palmer Raids presented tremendous challenges, the NAACP worked
not only to fight for the rights of African Americans but to pressure the United
States to fulfill the promise of a ‘more perfect union’…”
“The ACLU may have lost the Scopes Trial in 1925, but the members did not loose
hope and continued to fight to protect people’s civil liberties, especially where
violations of the Constitution were concerned…”
“While the ADL began fighting anti-Semitism and religious intolerance, members
quickly recognized important interconnections with other forms of injustice and
oppression and their mission as well as their activism expanded its scope. We do
not typically speak of being “defamed” in contemporary America, but the fight
against discrimination is still very much alive!”
“It may seem ironic at first that the leader of the famed movement for African
American empowerment supported segregation. As has become clear, however,
the beliefs of Marcus Garvey could not be further from the ignorant attitudes of
bigoted or white supremacist supporters of Jim Crow and other forms of racial
segregation in the United States…”
Focus Questions
Using the arguments from the 1920s as well as
your own opinions and experiences…
 What are the differences between boys and
girls?
 Where do those differences come from?
 Are men and women equal today?
 Why have women only been allowed to vote for
the past 88 years when most men got the right
to vote when this country was founded (1776)?