Source ‘F’ a speech by ‘James Foreman’ a civil right activist and a follower of ‘Malcolm X’ also believing in violence and riots to win the civil rights. This speech is useful and very reliable as it’s a primary source. It was in April 1969 when the speech was said, him showing the hatred “Racist white Americans” he is willing to attack the western whites as he says. He is also not afraid to say what he thinks. So he basically supported all the black violent groups i.e. Black power and Black panthers who are the black version of the Ku Klux Klan. For an historian I think that this is useful and reliable because he/she can see two different views and the way they are tackling to gain civil rights fully. It is also showing that violence is leading to nowhere (James Foreman), and the peaceful Martin Luther King Peacefully achieved a lot.
Overall both sources are showing one aim but different ways to gain it, but if I was present at the time I’d surely support Martin Luther King as he is gaining more in an appropriate way.
“The civil rights movement achieved a great deal in the 1950’s and 1960’s”. I think this is true to an extent. Source ‘C’ is showing that the estimated number wasn’t met in the southern states and the worst state being was south Carolina where there was no movement at all, but it still shows improvements even though its no huge. Source ‘D’ showing the march peacefully lead by Martin Luther King he still thought not enough improvements were made and needed more, all the banners held by protestors stating some of the problems still in need of the improvements. This is also showing changes to be made and ways of improvements. Source ‘E’ clearly showing proud ness of Martin Luther Kings achievements and benefits, this source clearly states all the successes and shows hope for everything soon to be done peacefully. Source ‘F’ showing not great amount of achievements and how they will have to use violence to get some civil rights, and expressing their hate towards the white. Source ‘G’ also is showing not a lot of success which resulted in riots and violence outbreak and also discrimination against whites, Black and whites relationship wasn’t very good so the achievements weren’t as great as they could have been. Source ‘H’ shows that nothing much was achieved but what the whites opinions about blacks got better because of Martin Luther Kings peaceful protests regardless of what the whites done to blacks. There was a success in equal job rights with whites, and a black mayor was elected. Source ‘I’ this shows a major develop in voters that are black this was a great achievement, many blacks now voted and each states percentages of black voters increased, the smallest increase was in south Carolina. Source ‘J’ the movie ‘Mississippi burning’ it was set in the 1960’s showing attitudes in the southern states against blacks and the cruelty used again them, the spotlight was more on the Ku Klux Klan on what they did and showed how terrifying it all got for the blacks. This film also showed civil rights workers had a great deal of risk from racist white groups who didn’t want them to help the blacks. ‘Malcolm X’ was also showing some hostile attitudes in some of the civil rights movement. I personally think there were many achievements: Brown v Board of education Topeka lead by Martin Luther King achieved a lot such as segregation got stopped in schools. Bus boycott lead by Martin Luther King gave black people their rights on the buses, murder of ‘Emmett Till’ lead by Martin Luther King showed people that he was doing something again injustice with blacks and will try to punish those individual culprits. Martin Luther King got world wide attention and popularity for what he was doing and his achievements were and are still in action.
Also Martin Luther King sent guards with black pupils attending the schools which were once all whites i.e. Little Rock High School, for the individual black and their safety as some white’s still had hatred filled hearts for blacks. Although civil rights act began in 1957 they gained power in the 1960’s. Early 1960’s is when Martin Luther King got arrested and ‘Bull Connor’ chief of police ordered his men for violence again his supporters, newspaper headings and TV headlines all published this act of ‘Bull Connor’ and the public got some opinion and the president Kennedy pointed out clearly that Bull Connor is not abiding the law and civil rights is made for him. The march in Washington where 1000’s attended Martin Luther King gave his speech of “I have a dream” this speech is world wide famous as millions of people heard it and gained huge amounts of publicity due to this. Civil rights made many more black people have the freedom to vote and go to the same schools as whites, also 1967 ‘Carl Strokes’ being elected as the mayor of ‘Cleveland Ohio’ showing that civil rights giving much help to black people and giving them as much equality as white.
There were many cases were the attempt had failed i.e.: 1950 Martin Luther King failed to get support of the president ‘Eisenhoa’, southern whites of America failing to comply or listen to their president, they didn’t want to give up segregation and not a single black child was attending school in the fear of the southern whites. The Ku Klux Klan kept operating despite of the illegalness and 1950’s they done many beating and lynching e.g. Emmet Till and still remained to escape the consequences. 1960’s a lot of segregation still continued, President Kennedy wanted to help but the politicians would have been upset and he was at far more risk of not being elected in the near future, also the southern whites were not abiding by his orders and they where ready for the separation of two halves in America which would of lead to severe crisis.
How far was resistance to civil equality to overcome in this period of time? : The sit-ins and freedom rides played a major part in bringing down some aspects of the ‘Jim Crow’ system in the south. Outside the Deep South they had a number of successes, especially in states like North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee. In Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, they made less impression. Many white people in these states were determined to resist the demands of both the protestors and the federal government. The movement’s tactics had not always been successful in getting change. Its support from the federal government, though increasing, was still patchy. The Kennedy administration was reluctant to intervene unless law and order was breaking down, However, the movement learnt from its errors and now planned to target areas that would bring favourable results.
By 1968, black civil rights had progressed a long way in just a quarter of a century, Segregation in public places had disappeared from all but the most resistant part of the Deep South. This was a remarkable achievement in so short space of time, Most transport facilities were now thoroughly integrated. Far more black people were registered to vote. Racial integration of school was now proceeding in many states. Where housing patterns discouraged this, the possibility of bussing students from one area to another to achieve a racial mix had been suggested for the first time, Armed forces integration was well established and black people were starting to rise to high rank within them. Black people were rising to high office in many different walks of American life. The principle of equality was now thoroughly accepted by the great majority of the American public.
In terms of high drama and achievement, the years 1963 to 1965 could be seen as the most successful for the Civil Rights Movement: two successive US Presidents were committed to supporting the movement’s demands; public opinion in the USA was swinging even further towards racial equality. MLK reputation was at its heights, The passing of two important acts: the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
However: There were signs of tension and potential division in the movement that were to become increasingly apparent in the next three years, Only very limited progress had been made in improving the economics and social conditions of black American, especially in the north
However: Black voter registration was still lower than white, some parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina maintained segregation in public areas, such as bus terminals. Major economic and social problems remained for black people in both the north and the south. The Civil Rights Movement itself was weakened and divided over tactics. Its two greatest spokesmen had been assassinated. So overall there were many achievements with a lot of big oppositions, and a lot was gained and a lot needed to be gained. So if Martin Luther King never got assassinated in 1968 there would have possibly been much more of achievements, as he was attempting full equality of where he had succeeded some step but needed few more to gain it all. By the looks of things it seems as if a few more years could have lead to a possibility of a few more successes, to have total equality.
By Naumaan Amjed
