Ragtime Topics for Discussion & Projects | BookRags.com

Ragtime Topics for Further Study

Study the music of Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Eubie Blake, or another famous ragtime musician. Describe the characteristics of the music, and explain how it applies to the story the book tells.

At the end of the book the family goes to live in California, which was just starting its long reign as the movie capital of the world. Research the early movie studios, before 1920, and report on who was making movies and what kind of movies they were making.

Assemble as many pictures as you can from the years 1900-1915 and make a collage. Try to focus on one particular theme—clothes, sports, entertainment, or politics, for example.

Explore the debate represented by the "isolationist" theories of W. E. B. Du Bois and the "assimilationist" theories of Booker T. Washington. Explain which of these men would be supported by famous black leaders in today's world,...
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