"The Civil Rights Movement achieved a great deal in 1950's and 1960's" Do sources C to J prove that this interpretation is correct? Explain your answer using the sources and your own knowledge.

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Stephanie Glenny 11LD

History Coursework

Question 3:

“The Civil Rights Movement achieved a great deal in 1950’s and 1960’s” Do sources C to J prove that this interpretation is correct?  Explain your answer using the sources and your own knowledge.

After looking at sources C to J that show the Civil Rights Movement was a success but it had its limitations.

Source C is a table showing the desegregation of schools in some of the southern states in America.  The source tells me that the CRM did achieve integrating the schools and getting black children to school.  I know this because during 1961 and 1962 their were 8 out of 11 states who had schools that were integrated and comparing 1957 to 1962 it shows that the number of black students has doubled due to the Civil Rights Act being passed by President Eisenhower.

Although source C tells us that the CRM is going in the right direction, it doesn’t actually prove that all of the CRM’s aims were achieved.  Also, from my own knowledge, the state of Alabama didn’t have integrated schools until 1963 and it was the last state in southern America to do so.  So it took 9 years, from when the Civil Rights movement started its campaign for integrated schools, until the major racial states in the south actually got rid of segregated schools.  Another problem with the sources is that it doesn’t tell us whether schools became segregated because of the Civil Rights Movement or from government action.

Source D is a photograph of the Civil Rights march on Washington.  It was taken on the 20th August 1963.  The source shows the strengths of the CRM as Martin Luther King is shown at the front of the picture and it shows how determined he was to hold a peaceful  protests and demonstrations to achieve the CRM’s aims.  The people were marching in the Capital City of America and there were 200,000 people, including a lot of white support, so it was bound to make an impact on the achievements of CRM and that something had to be done about the black peoples position in society.

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However, even though the march had a lot of support behind it for issues of the Civil Rights Movement, like an end to segregated schools and equal jobs for blacks it doesn’t actually show whether the march achieved any of these topics for the CRM.  Also, through my own knowledge I know that the CRM wasn’t achieving a great deal in 1963.  The march doesn’t show the white reaction either.  Even though there were some white supporters there were many white people who didn’t agree with equality for blacks for example the members of the KKK.

Source E is a ...

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