In Chapter 2, five African-American spokespersons (Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, Henry McNeal Turner, W.E.B. Dubois, and Frances Harper) offer different solutions to the problems of African Americans in post-Civil War America. Your task in the DBQ is to evaluate these alternatives. What solution did each spokesperson offer? What were the strengths and weaknesses of each argument? Which alternative provides, in your opinion, the most practical and most likely to be successful alternative?

On the Course Menu to the left, in the section for Course Information, is a folder on How to Write History. Contained in that folder are several short articles and charts that provide guidelines for writing historical essays, including document-based essays. You should begin by reading each of these; they will help you organize your essay. Then turn to Discovering the American Past and read the background essay, the method of analysis, and questions to consider in Chapter 2. Finally, read each of the documents by the five authors.