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Like many other sites, this site defends childhood abuse, saying that it does not ALWAYS create pyschotic monsters. However, often, childhood abuse is a lead cause. In addition, the site discusses the roles of father and mother in raising careless killers rather than children

This is a great site for primary sources.

Dealing with speculations regarding the insanity of the killers, this site personalizes Smith as a rather unmasculine, almost soft person. All his past experiences, abuses, and hatred welled up inside him, and when he killed Herb, it was as though he was taking his anger out against the world. Insanity theme

This is an interesting perspective on the killings, placing the murder on a fit of "romantic jealousy". It also provides a theory on the sexual orientation of smith and hitchcock...

This compilation is based around the book Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings, and co-produced and annotated by that volume's editor, Robert G. O'Meally. The idea is to assemble various pieces of music with some connection to Ellison or his writings, with the specific threads -- a direct comment Ellison might have made on a track, for instance, or a song that's referred to in one of his stories -- explained in O'Meally's notes.

This is a track listing of an album composed of tracks that influenced Ellison in his work. An aspiring musician who went to school to study it, Ellison also grew close with many famous musicians in Harlem. These artists, including Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were an essential part of a thriving social scene in Harlem while Ellison wrote invisible man. The last track is a recording of Ellison's 1964 address at the Library of Congress. He speaks about "blind men on corners" and the blacks who pretend to be part of a successful white society, people whom Malcolm X spoke so strongly against years later.

This discusses the importance of education in strengthening one's rights and realizing freedom from poverty. This connects to how Malcolm X and IM are increasingly able to exercise rights and control, as they become more educated. 

This sums up Douglass's ideology and is useful in explaining his impact on IM, and how his ideology changes as Douglass becomes his new hero.

Ellison's difficulty, one cause of all the cuts, is that matter of self-definition. At a time when many blacks, especially the young, are denying all influences of American culture, Ellison, as always, doggedly affirms his identity as a Negro-American, a product of the blending of both cultures "I don't recognize any white culture," he says. "I recognize no American culture which is not the partial creation of black people. I recognize no American style in literature, in dance, in music, even in assembly-line processes, which does not bear the mark of the American Negro." Unlike Malcolm, he blends American and African. Like Malcolm, however, he sees that black people have a much larger influence on American life than given credit for.

"He is aided by a surprisingly good library in jail, of which Malcolm X takes full advantage. As well, he takes correspondence courses in a variety of subjects-even Latin"

This site provides detailed descriptions of characters and themes from Malcolm X. This is from the self discovery through education theme.

This is the complete text of Malcolm X's The Ballot or the Bullet speech. The speech sums up Macolm's view of white America. He attacks the political system, the draft, and the fact that blacks are not truly American while newly naturalized immigrants are Americans. He further uses the description of the blue eyed European to convey his image of the devil.

This highlights some of the ideals of Marcus Garvey. These strongly influenced Malcolm X's views on what his race should do.

This article is from the NY times in the 50s where the author makes several comparisons between the experience that Ellison tells and hell. Helps give a good understanding of how badly conditions were for IM that outside bystandards can compare them to hellish.

States the effects of the Grapes of Wrath and gives concrete information on the masses of migrant workers and their treatment in 1930s America. Shows legal actions taken as well as position of the press during the time period

"a four-week strike in October 1933 that involved 12,000 to 18,000 workers. Workers refused to pick the 1933 crop for the $0.60 per hundred pounds offered by growers" This quote describes the workers banding together in a strike attempting to do away with the poor treatment they are receiving from the large farm owners.

About the migration of "Okies" and "Arkies" to California, their efforts to survive in the face of abuse by Californians, and writers' attempts to make public the migrant workers' plight.

This article describes the changes in wages and working conditions for labor since 1900.

Haha the comparison of exotic dancers to lemonade stand kids is funny at the beginning. But, anyways, the way this article goes in to such great detail about the conditions helps to get a better understanding of how bad it still is to work in some of these places.

"...10 percent of Oklahoma farmers lost their land to foreclosure, and tenant farmers (who comprised more than 60 percent of Oklahoma farmers in the 1930s) had little incentive to endure poor crops and low prices year after year. Mechanization of farming began to consolidate small farms into larger ones. "Just as the Joads had struggled to maintain income sufficient to live on at their farm, so did the rest of the tenant farmers during their time period. The large corporations such as the ones that took over the Joads were forcing many of the small farmers off their land with no regard or care as to what would happen to these people and their families

About the migration of those affected by the Dust Bowl to California and how poorly they were treated in California.

Life goes on for the Migrant farmers, and this recration of a radio show shows just that. Even in the time of depression and hardship, the people could still turn to the comfort of music and the radio.