Race is a highly complex issue. In what ways did race relations and the discourse of race changed over this period? How is race related to class? (Think for example about the impact on race relations of the development of a black middle class since the 1960s.) And in what way is it related to gender? (Think about the purposes of lynching in the Jim Crow era). Remember that the issue of race is not simply about black history it is also about how race has affected people's sense of identity (notions of "whiteness" or "ethnicity"). How has race affected political alignments and political rhetoric?