AP United States History Scoring Guidelines Document Based Question

UNITED STATES HISTORY

(Suggested writing time45 minutes)

Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of Document A-H and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. High scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and draw outside knowledge of the period. I. Assess the validity of this statement: The era of the Roaring Twenties was a period of upward mobility for minority groups in American society from 1919-1930. DOCUMENT A Source: Johnson, William H. Harlem Renaissance - Jitterbugs.

Document B Source: Sanger, Margaret. "The Case for Birth Control." 1923. Everywhere we look, we see poverty and large families going hand in hand. We see hordes of children whose parents cannot feed, clothe, or educate even one half of the number born to them. We see sick, harassed, broken mothers whose health and nerves cannot bear the strain of further child-bearing. We see fathers growing despondent and desperate, because their labor cannot bring the necessary wage to keep their growing families. At present, for the poor mother, there is only one alternative to the necessity of bearing children year after year, regardless of her health, of the welfare of the children she already has, and of the income of the family. This alternative is abortion, which is so common as to be almost universal, especially where there are rigid laws against imparting information for the prevention of conception.

Document C Source: Newspaper clip created by a black American, Kansas city, The Call, Jan. 12th 1923.
Three hundred years of slavery did not drive all slaves into abject submission, nor will continued oppression kill out our determination to sell life dearly, even down in Florida. . . . Man created in Gods image will always choose to die face to the fore whenever it is sufficiently clear that he may not live in peace. . . . We cannot establish rights by fighting. But how under Heaven can we urge our people to die like sheep. . . . How can we ask them to be cowards? We cry aloud for mercy and the answer is the torch! We call for justice and are answered by the yells of the mob! Maybe it is the will of Providence that we shall be spared the worst working out of hate, but we fear it is not to be!

Document D Source: Coolidge, Calvin. "State of Union Address." 6 Dec. 1923. American institutions rest solely on good citizenship. They were created by people who had a background of self-government. New arrivals should be limited to our capacity to absorb them into the ranks of good citizenship. America must be kept American. For this purpose, it is necessary to continue a policy of restricted immigration. It would be well to make such immigration of a selective nature with some inspection at the source, and based either on a prior census or upon the record of naturalization. Either method would insure the admission of those with the largest capacity and best intention of becoming citizens. I am convinced that our present economic and social conditions warrant a limitation of those to be admitted. We should find additional safety in a law requiring the immediate registration of all aliens. Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America.

Document E Source: "The Steam Roller." Resources for History Teachers. 1919.

Document F

Source: Burleson, Hattie. "'Sadie's Servant Room Blues.'" Jazz song. 1920. This here job dont pay me much, They give me just what they think Im worth. Im going to change my mind, Yeah, change my mind. 'Cause I keep the servant room blues all the time. I receive my company in the rear, Here these folks dont want to see them here. Im going to change my mind, Yeah, change my mind. 'Cause I keep the servant room blues all the time. Im going to change this little new room for a nice big flat, Goin' to let my friends know where Im living at. Im going to change my mind, Yeah, change my mind. 'Cause I keep the servant room blues all the time. They have a party at noon, a party at night, The midnight parties dont ever break up right. Im going to change my mind, Yeah, change my mind. 'Cause I keep the servant room blues all the time.

Document G Source: Article clip out of The Twenties in Contemporary Commentary, Walter Lionel George, 1921. I have been equally surprised by the conquests made in business by American women. It is rather a shock to a European to meet a pretty girl of twenty-seven, to hear that she is employed in a drug corporation, and then to discover that she is a director. A shock to find a woman running a lawyers office entailing annual expenses of seven or eight thousand dollars, and making a living. It is a surprise to find the American stenographer earning four times as much as her European sister. All those shocks, however, arise out of particular instances, and, though I agree that the American woman has made herself a good position, when I go through a business reference book I find that not one in a hundred of the leading names is the name of a woman. In America man still rules; all you can say is that he does not rule women so harshly as he does in Europe.

Document H Source: Duke Ellington - Jazz Legend. Bio True Story.

http://www.biography.com/people/duke-ellington-9286338/videos/duke-ellington-jazz-legend19572291978