Lost on topic ideas

[jocorac]

Currently, I am in the process of looking for some topic ideas that I could possibly do for my dissertation. I don't need to have a concrete answer right now, but I will need something by my second semester due to a research class that is required (we have to have a small idea of what we want to research in order to complete assignments for the class). My topic has to be somewhat public history based due to the program that I attend. I am looking into Jim Crow,  the Civil Rights Movement,  or Black Power eras as places to research. I did my master's thesis on my hometown's Civil Rights Movement and although I loved that topic, there is not enough information available to expand that into a dissertation. If you know of any articles and/or books that could be helpful in creating a list, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm also open to anything related in the 20th Century US and/or African American History that you may have heard of. 

[psstein]

What about expanding your MA thesis to a statewide level, or selecting a few major cities (e.g. Durham, Raleigh, Wilmington, etc.)?

 

[jocorac]

Wilmington has been done mostly. I’m learning that Raleigh and Durham do not have anything written on them about ther movements. I think the reason I am hesitant about doing Durham is because I felt like many people had already wrote on it but by my attending school, that’s how I knew the information. 

It is a possibility that I will consider though. Thank you! 

[KTJ]

I think these are pretty common reads, but I'd recommend At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle L. McGuire, Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson, and Making Whiteness by Grace Elizabeth Hale. At the Dark End focuses on the Civil Rights movement through the lens of black women and sexual violence. Blood Done Sign is sort of a memoir, but Tyson is a historian and ties his experience of growing up in the South in the 60s to larger movements. Making Whiteness gets into the creation of Jim Crow and segregation, and a good way to think about the culture of segregation.

I haven't read it, but Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City may be helpful. From what I understand it uses music as a way to trace/examine how White/Black/Creole/Mexican culture all interacted in the city and complicated the dichotomy of white/black. 

[jocorac]

7 hours ago, KTJ said:

I think these are pretty common reads, but I'd recommend At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle L. McGuire, Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson, and Making Whiteness by Grace Elizabeth Hale. At the Dark End focuses on the Civil Rights movement through the lens of black women and sexual violence. Blood Done Sign is sort of a memoir, but Tyson is a historian and ties his experience of growing up in the South in the 60s to larger movements. Making Whiteness gets into the creation of Jim Crow and segregation, and a good way to think about the culture of segregation.

I haven't read it, but Houston Bound: Culture and Color in a Jim Crow City may be helpful. From what I understand it uses music as a way to trace/examine how White/Black/Creole/Mexican culture all interacted in the city and complicated the dichotomy of white/black. 

I've read both McGuire and Tyson and love them both. I'll be looking at McGuire again for my class in the fall. Haven't looked at Hale though so I will check that one out! Thank you for the suggestions! Will for sure look into these two!