History Essay on Immigrants

Please answer the question that appears below.  In developing your essays, be sure to draw upon and cite the course readings (as appropriate) and lectures and use specific historical evidence and examples to back up your discussion and argument.  Students may find it useful to review the founding documents of the United States (in particular, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights (amendments 1-10) in preparing your answer.  For students in need of a stronger grounding in the historical narrative, please consult a good history text book in preparation for the exam.
 
The incorporation of immigrants, some Americans have argued, has loomed (and continues to loom) as America’s greatest social challenge from the mid-nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century. But the problem of immigration, it might be contended, has deflected attention away from our country’s more fundamental–one might say “classic”–problem: what Frederick Douglass, referring to racial discrimination against African Americans, called the problem of the color-line.   Critically discuss the latter contention, drawing concretely upon our course readings and lectures, your own research and thinking, and our class discussions.  Consider the way the color-line (or “color-lines” involving “race”) have operated.
 
Please confine your response to a maximum of three double-spaced pages.  Please save your essay in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format and submit your essay via Canvas by noon, Friday, Dec. 17. Grading will be based upon organization, clarity, completeness, thinking, writing, and content.  Late submission of completed midterms will not be accepted, but students will be eligible for a make-up exam.  Students may take only one make-up exam in this course.