(a) A lot of the views expressed in H are enforced by I+J. A man in H says, ‘If you aren’t better than a nigger, who arte you better than?’ Source I enforces this calling them ‘undesirable neighbours’.
T regards Negroes only for the menial, dirty jobs and H says ‘they don’t take baths, they stink’ and I says they are ‘unsanitary’.
The sources indicate that White attitudes hadn’t changed towards Negroes they still believed that they had to be segregated.
(b) The portrayal of attitudes in ‘Mississippi Burning’ is valid because it shows the segregation that Negroes faced in the Southern States. The first thing we see is a clean water fountain for Whites only beside a dirty water fountain for Negroes this shows that Negroes were not thought good enough to have the same as Whites. Also a man tells of what his father said to him, ‘If you’re not better than a nigger who are you better than?’ There is also mention of ‘two Cultures’, White and Negro; this is that it is ‘White Culture’ to abuse blacks and is “Negro Culture” to be abused. Lastly there are the stereotypes of Negroes by Whites ‘they don’t take baths, they stink,’ this shows that Whites think that Negroes are inferior.
Question 4
In what way does Source M provide evidence of the success of the Civil Rights tactics as outlined in Sources K and L?
Source M provides evidence of the success of the Civil Rights tactics mentioned in K and L because it shows that after the tactics of mass rallies in the Northern States and in front of the world’s media in Washington were employed the protesters got what they wanted. The evidence is that after the rallies the Civil Rights Bill was passed though it had been rejected before in 1963 before the above tactics had been employed. These tactics were brought in after the rejection of the bill in 1963 they were ‘marches, speeches and sit-ins,’ and finally a mass march of 200,000 people of all backgrounds on Washington and the world’s media.
Question 5
How do Sources N and O illustrate the divisions within the black American community about the tactics and aims of Martin Luther King?
N and O illustrate the divisions within the black American community about King’s aims because one directly criticises his tactics and calls him a “dreamer” instead of a ‘leader’. It also says that all of her other Negroes never had time to ‘dream’, down in Mississippi while all King did was to ‘go on and on talking about his dream’.
Another division in the black community were those people who thought that instead of and end to segregation King should be going for revenge on the Whites who had oppressed them for 500 years.
Question 6
“The Civil Rights Acts were not enough…” Using Source P, explain whether you agree or disagree with his interpretation.
I agree with this statement, from looking at the source I can see that the Civil Rights bill had not worked. Things for them were not as they were for the whites. They were not getting equal education, the schools were understaffed, under funded and overcrowded. They saw themselves living in squalor in overcrowded inner city districts like Watts and finally they saw that the draft taking young men to Vietnam sent more blacks than whites. This happened because the draft was structured to mean that only those out of university education and those without doctors orders would be sent to Vietnam, as no blacks went to university and could not afford orders from a doctor not to go they were forced to go. They also saw that the law was only for the whites, this is shown by there being only 5 black police officers in the Watts police force of 205. The evidence in source P is reliable because it is taken from a government inquest.
Question 7
How do Sources Q and R illustrate the wider impact of the American Civil Rights Movement?
Q and R by Paddy Devlin who was a founder member of NICRA and Terrence O’Neill the former Prime minister of N. Ireland respectively both give reference to the American Civil Rights Association having an impact on NICRA.
In Q Devlin says that a movement with the same aims as the Negroes in America was emerging in N. Ireland inspired by the American movement.
This source is reliable because Devlin himself was a founder member of NICRA and knew where the inspiration had come from.
Source R from O’Neill said that ‘presumably the example of Martin Luther King was in the forefront of their minds’, the ‘their’ he refers is NICRA.
The fact that these two sources say that the ACR had an effect on Ireland shows that the ACR had a wider impact.
Question 8
Using the Sources and your own knowledge, explain why the Civil rights Movement in America might have had an influence on events on Northern Ireland.
The Civil Rights Movement in America started after Martin Luther King organised a protest of segregated buses in Montgomery Alabama. This was the rise of Martin Luther King and so the rise of the American Civil Rights Movement. NICRA in N. Ireland started after the young Catholics that had benefited from University Education began not to accept the second-class citizenship they had. In America the campaign was for an end to segregation, for all Americans to live united, not judged by their skin colour, this was Martin Luther King’s dream where people will ’not be judged by their skin colour but by their character’. In N. Ireland the campaign was for an end to discrimination to Catholics.
The media carried out the job of spreading the pictures and facts about the American Civil Rights Association. When the new educated Catholics saw the pictures they could compare their plight to that of the Negroes, and so took the same action.
They’re were many similarities between the plight of the Negroes and that of the Catholics which made NICRA that they could attempt what the ACRA had done.
As the Negroes were thought to be a threat to the way of life in the Southern States of America so were Catholics in N. Ireland, as Protestants feared that they would want United Ireland.
In many areas in the Southern States Negroes were prevented from voting either by threats or by being unallowed to register their vote. In the same way N. Ireland voting laws were so that Catholics could net get to vote in large numbers, for example extra votes for business owners most of whom were Protestant and only rate payers being allowed to vote (most Catholics weren’t rate payers). Also in N. Ireland there was Gerrymandering. These measures by whites and protestants respectively helped keep down negroes and catholics.
In the allocation of jobs blacks were discriminated against. For example Source D tells of a black man being top of his class but still not getting jobs he applied for because whites who were not as good as he were chosen over him. This was the same in N. Ireland. It was not unheard of for the excuse for not accepting the job application on the grounds of religion. It was thought that if Catholics and blacks could be kept down socially they could have no effect on the country.
In education catholic and black schools were under funded, overstaffed and overcrowded. And so these two groups were prevented from gaining a 3rd level education making an elite of oppressors.
Both groups used similar tactics, those of civil disobedience, protests and demos. Their aims were helped to be met by the media, which broadcast the protesters getting beatings, and so embarrassed the governments. These marches brought about for King the Civil Rights Bill and for NICRA the 5 Point Reforms from O’Neill.
Both groups also faced opposition. King was seen as a dreamer by some and to soft by others. NICRA also faced opposition in the form of the People’s Democracy, who wanted a socialist state while the PIRA wanted a United Ireland.
To conclude some thought that NICRA were influenced by protestant demos in ’66 but those at the heart of the organisation like Paddy Devlin admit that it took its inspiration from the American Civil Rights Association.
