North American Society

In his 1963 “Letter from Birmingham City Jail, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. argued that his citizenship as a Christian demanded his presence in the city. Indeed, since Africans came to the new world in 1619, they have discussed robustly the privileges and obligations that are inherent to blacks as members of North American society. And today, the study of “Power, Citizenship and the State” is a keen component of the field of Africans Studies. Using major theorists and scholarly works that have shaped the conceptual and practical foundations of citizenship and the state, write a cogent, content-driven essay that addresses the following overarching questions:

1. What is the history of blacks search for power and citizenship in the United States? What are the specific arguments and claims of five to ten major theorists or scholars who are writing in the area of citizenship? Identify some of the earliest writers and speakers who addressed such issues? What did they say? And how?

2. Discuss how the five to ten major theorists and/or scholars define citizenship and explain why their arguments helped talk blacks into citizenship in North America. Take this stance if you agree with the proposition. If you deny the proposition, then make a compelling argument in this vein and support it as elaborately as you can.

3. Finally, you should discuss the conditions and various responses to social, political and economic predicaments that confronted, or still confront, black Americans search for citizenship. What remains to be done? Why, how, and with what effect?