Civil Rights Coursework
Question 1.
Source A is a description of attempts to follow through school segregtion after the Brown Decision. Source A suggests that the people in Little Rock were all racist and believed strongly in segregation, it suggests that the crowd were extremely angry that a black girl was being sent to their school. From Source A we can tell that the people in Little Rock hated the fact that a black girl was attending their school, we can tell this because alot of hostility is shown in Source A. The crowd seems to be mainly adults and they are being very hostile towards her, even though she is only a little girl, the guard at the front of the school even pointed his gun at her in a threatening manner, 'he raised his bayonet.' Source A suggests that there was a lot of tension at the school, people were shouting abuse at Elizabeth Eckford. She seems to be alone in the mob, she has no-one around her to support her, 'I tried to see a friendly face in the mob', this statement shows that she didn't know anyone there at all, she must have been very lonely. She would have felt very afraid because everyone around her shouted abuse at her, 'Lynch her! Lynch her!' and an old woman spat at her, this shows that people were very serious about the issue. Even though Elizabeth Eckford is clearly being verbally abused and treated unfairly she puts her head up high, she doesn't seem to show anyone that she is afraid, she acts extremely composed for someone in such a dangerous situation, I believe that source A shows that she is extremely brave. Elizabeth Eckford is only trying to get into school and she is being abused and mistreated, she has done nothing to deserve how they are treating her.