PaperDue

Essay Topic Hub

African
Essays

5,689+ paper examples, study guides & outlines

5,689 papers

UG & Grad levels

Free to browse

What is African?

The study of African and African American experience spans a wide range of academic disciplines, including history, sociology, literature, theology, political science, and public health. Courses in world studies, ethnic studies, and American history regularly ask students to examine how race, identity, and systemic inequality have shaped communities over time. The topic carries intellectual weight because it demands engagement with both historical forces—such as the lasting effects of slavery—and contemporary social realities affecting Black communities in America and beyond.

The papers archived under this topic approach the subject from several distinct angles. Historical analysis appears prominently, particularly tracing African American life from 1865 to the present, including examinations of institutions like the Black Church and Black entertainment and sports organizations. Literary analysis features as well, with attention to works such as Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson" and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Other papers take a policy-oriented or comparative approach, weighing topics like the New Deal against later economic stimulus plans, or investigating how health organizations affect minority communities. Sociological case studies examine single Black mothers and poverty, adult literacy, and perceptions of policing.

A strong essay on this topic begins with a specific, arguable thesis rather than a broad statement about race in America. Evidence drawn from historical records, primary texts, policy data, or sociological research tends to carry the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating African American experience as monolithic—successful essays recognize diversity within communities and ground their claims in concrete, well-defined contexts.

5,689 papers

Sort by:

Research Paper Doctorate

The looming insolvency of Social Security and proposed reform initiatives

Doing nothing to fix our Social Security system will cost us, as well as our children and grandchildren, an estimated $10.4 trillion, according to the Social Security Trustees. The longer we wait to take action, the…

Paper Doctorate

Uncertain vision in Oedipus the King and Othello

Within the realm of tragedy, the result of not being able to differentiate between what is real and what is not, sometimes referred to as "uncertain vision," is often death, or worse. Two stories, originating in two very different times, are Sophocles' "Oedipus the King" and William Shakespeare's "Othello," and while both share the common literature devise "uncertain vision," there is a distinct difference in the underlying cause of the uncertain vision of the main characters. One story uses uncertain vision that is brought about by fate, while the other's uncertain vision comes from the deception and plotting of an evil human being.

Paper Undergraduate

Racial violence and apathy in Amiri Baraka's "Dutchman"

"The Dutchman", a play written by Amiri Baraka, an African American writer who was a strong supporter of the Black Nationalism movement in the 1960s, is a parody of the way people or race – and ethnicity – is treated in America. Prejudice is thought to be non-existent, but it is alive and well practiced in a covert manner with implicit rather than explicit prejudice occurring. When explicit prejudice does occur, bystanders prefer to look away and ignore the spectacle making them immune to its occurrence. This is what happened on the train between Lula and Clay where Lula eventually kills Clay and is moving onto her next prey, but the other passengers pretend to be immune to the spectacle.

Paper High School

Marginalization and self-invention in Hurston and Franklin's autobiographies

This paper features a collection of short responses, some fictional, to American literature short stories and poems. Some of the authors discussed include Zora Neale Hurston, Benjamin Franklin, and Arthur Miller. The concepts of race, honesty, and identity formation are paramount in these authors' writings.

Research Paper Undergraduate

Equal opportunity policies in British educational governance for protected groups

¶ … equal opportunity policies specifically related to ethnicity, gender or disability under the current british governmental educational policy or proposal

Paper Undergraduate

Women's underrepresentation in U.S. federal and state government

The recent Presidential election was historically noteworthy not only because it marked the first election of an African-American to the highest office in the country (and arguably the world), but also because of some…

Paper Undergraduate

Rip Van Winkle awakens to modern American political and social changes

One of the first things RIP did after awakening was get the newspaper. There were a lot fewer available and some that used to be very well-known are no longer in existence, according to the vendor1.

Research Paper Doctorate

Multiculturalism and Korean immigration to America

This paper explores many issues of culture, race and the concept of multiculturalism within the context of the American melting pot. These issues of culture and especially multiculturalism warrant analysis as they…

Frederick Douglass's slave narratives as abolitionist propaganda

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself appeared in May 1845. William Lloyd Garrisonwrote the preface; Wendell Phillipswrote an introductory letter. Douglass's stark rendering of his torturous slave experiences, however, was the smash. By 1848, eleven thousand copies had been published in the United States; French and German translations had appeared; and in England, it had already experienced nine editions. Ecstatic praise for Douglass's eloquent and touching narrative was widespread. "The book, as a whole, judged as a mere work of art, would widen the fame of Bunyan or Defoe," wrote the Lynn Pioneer reviewer. This reviewer added: "It is the most thrilling work which the American press has ever issued -- and the most important. If it does not open the eyes of this people, they must be petrified into eternal sleep." A British reviewer marveled at Douglass, "a fugitive slave, as but yesterday, escaped from a bondage that doomed him to ignorance and degradation, [who] now stands up and rebukes oppression with a dignity and a fervor scarcely less glowing than that which Paul addressed to Agrippa."

Paper Doctorate

Armand's hidden knowledge of his mixed race heritage in "Desiree's baby"

Kate Chopin's short story "Desiree's baby" puts across misunderstanding as it presents the protagonist, Armand Aubigny, being caught in a web of confusions influencing him to abandon his wife and child.

← Prev 1 2 3 … 268 569 Next →