Week Five: Research of Final Topic
After completing my preliminary research, I have eliminated two possible topics for my final project, I have decided to look more in to segregation and then eventually integration in schools in Washington DC. Just in my preliminary research I found an ample amount of information on this topic. I will continue my research on this topic by looking through the website I found ran by the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. This website offered a substantial amount of information on this one topic, such as supreme court cases and information on schools before and after integration. After that I would continue my research on the site for the Library of Congress. This site offers primary and secondary sources from pictures, to books, to newspaper articles. From this site I can really learn what the conditions were like at the time from first hand accounts. Also I can learn what scholars think of segregation now focusing primarily in the nation’s capital. Finally I will conclude my extensive research by logging on to George Mason University libraries’ home page and then search the database “American: History and Life.” Then I will complete a boolean search for topics such as segregation and schools and Washington DC. This will also provide me with primary and secondary sources. The primary sources will give me insight on what was actually occurring within the capital at the time. The secondary sources will show what scholars believe happened, as well as how segregation has effected the nation capital’s schools today.
1 Comment
You have a broad research plan, and that’s good. Now it’s time to define exactly what it is you’re researching. Desegregation of schools in the city is a huge topic and it covers a long time period. What’s your question then? Are you interested in the legal battle? Are you interested in any of the leaders in the battle? In the laws? In how desegregation played out in a particular school or neighborhood?
After you decide what might be particularly interesting to you, you’ll still want to narrow, narrow, narrow your question.
I was curious that you’d start at the Museum of American Art. If there is a piece of artwork there that relates to your topic, you could very easily use that as the focus of your inquiry. What does one particular piece of art tell you about the topic of desegregation? How does it interpret segregation/desegregation? What points of view does it bring in. What is the context, the history ofr the painting itself? What was the artist trying to say? That’s a great close reading of a primary source that leads to secondary sources and gives you an fine historical research project.