However source A is from an eyewitness account and is therefore quite reliable, as they were there at the time. Nevertheless the source has been written by Elizabeth Eckford herself, and therefore maybe slightly one-sided, as she is talking about herself. The source was also written for a book and therefore Elizabeth Eckford may exaggerate the extent and seriousness of the incident to enable herself to be presented as a “hero.” Nevertheless most of the information Elizabeth Eckford gives out in Source A is supported by sources B and C. Source C is a picture taken of Elizabeth Eckford on her first day at Little Rock high school. The crowd shown in the picture seem to be following her and closing in on her as Elizabeth Eckford described in Source A “I turned around and the crowd came towards me.” The picture also shows that she is the only black student in the picture emphasising the fact that she was a minority black student in a predominately white school, and also the fact that there is no one around to “help” her. The picture also shows a guard in the background as mentioned in source A, although the picture does not show his efforts to prevent Elizabeth Eckford from entering the school, written about in Source A “I tried to squeeze past him, but he raised his bayonet.” In Source C Elizabeth Eckford appears to be calm, dignified, and carries a certain poise, as was suggested in Source A, she is obviously not responding, to the remarks and taunts, of the woman behind her, who could have quite possibly been shouting “Lynch her” as described in Source A. The people in the picture also seem to be looking down their noses, and appear to be giving Elizabeth Eckford the “mean looks” described in Source A. Source C is only a “snapshot” of a day and therefore we are unable to conclude whether or not the events spoken about in Sources A and B took place earlier or later. There is also no date on the source and therefore it is impossible to judge whether or not the date that the sources actually refer to the same day. All the sources have different purposes, Source B the New York Times article, was to inform the north of the events taking place in the south, Source A the extract from a book was to inform those people interested in what happened at Little Rock High school and Source C may have been taken for a newspaper, a civil rights campaign or from someone’s own personal photograph collection.
I think that all the sources support all support each other to an extent, and there are some minor variations about the accounts and under the circumstances they have been written it becomes increasingly difficult to judge the sources. All the sources agree that after segregation was in schools, the entrance of black students into former white schools caused great controversy, upset and an unjustified “roar of rage.” Many southern states decided to ignore the new law, and carried on with the segregation of black and white schools and for those schools who did decided to carry out integration abuse towards the schools, teachers and pupils became evident. It was obvious from the Little Rock High School example, that even when blacks achieved the basic civil rights, legally, that whites were entitled to, some southern states decided to go against these new rules, and if others lived by them, they would receive abuse, intimidation and discrimination from black people. From these sources we are aware that the way white and blacks were treated was very different, and this is the main agreement of sources A, B, and C.
3. Study sources D, E and F.
What can you work out from these sources about the differences between the aims and methods of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X?
Differing conceptions of the power structure of American society and blacks ability to participate in the decision-making process, led to the development and adoption of different tactics in the struggle for racial equality. This becomes evident from the examples of the very different and yet great leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. The main differences of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King are suggested in Sources D, E and F are there believes in violence. Martin Luther Kings plan was to underpin civil rights movement with a philosophical theory of non-violence “he will need great courage and willingness to defeat this violence.” The ideology of “black power” emerged as a reaction to these events and the perceived failure of black leaders to address the problems in the North. Malcolm X was a spokesperson for “black power,” its philosophy provided a more radical analysis and the power of a black person position in American society, to that of Kings “the Negro revolt will merge into a world wide black revolution.”
Malcolm X took a more militant approach to the civil rights campaign, as he believed that the political systems of American society, were themselves racist and that for “a corrupt system which in 1964 still colonises and enslaves 22,000,000 Afro-Americans” to be overturned, you have to overturn the system by a revolution. Malcolm X radical thinking meant that he rejected white America, its laws and beliefs. The speeches of Malcolm X in the late 1950s and early 1960s were very influential in generating a Black Nationalist feeling and in the development of “black power.” “Black power” preached self-awareness, independence, integrity and manhood for black people and whatever they needed to do to receive the same civil rights as white people. Malcolm X believed that for reform to take place, and that for the system to become one of equality where integration existed “a position of strength” through the ‘closing of the ranks’ had to take place. Then black Americans could take place in the decision life process “we weren’t considered to be a part of them.” Martin Luther King was influenced by his studying of Gandhi, who believed in truth and love, and a refusal to harm someone else. As Martin Luther King was a practising Baptist, and was a strong believer in the notion of love, and non-violence, which he argues in source D was not to humiliate his opponents but to win them over through love and good will, “his struggle will not be free of violence begun by his enemies, and he will need great courage and willingness to defeat this violence.” Therefore Martin Luther King organised clever, economic and peaceful protests, such as restaurants sit-ins, the Montgomery bus boycott, selective buying which was the refusal to buy from shops that still used segregation, he made speeches, took part and organised marches such as the Washington March in 1963 where 200,000 people marched against civil rights. King did not advocate American rules, for him there were two types of laws “just and “unjust” he accepted and lived by the “just” rules but, denounced the unjust rules as “man made.”
Kings Civil rights movement was very carefully premeditated and thought out, helping the civil rights movement to become successful. I think that his method and tackling of problems were more successful as they required more thinking instead of using violence, which was part of the reason why the black people were rebelling. I don’t think that Malcolm X’s violence could have solved when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man. Instead Martin Luther King’s professionalism and dedication to the non-violent civil rights movement meant that an economic and legal tactic ensured the success of the campaign. Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were great orators, their views affecting the way that many thought about the civil rights movement. Kings welcomes the supports of whites, where as Malcolm X rejected them “I try to point out today these integration-hungry Negroes about their liberal white friends, these so called “good white people.” This means that Malcolm X does not want or need the support of white people as a “black revolution will overturn systems.”
The aims of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were very similar, wanted equality, freedom and the proper treatment for blacks, as well as erasing all the wrongs done to the black community, but their way of achieving this, were very different. Martin Luther King as he said in his famous “I have a dream speech” was to live in harmony where there would be an end to racial injustice and where “the sons of former white slave owners could sit together at the table of brotherhood” and where people “would not be judged on the colour of their skin, but on the content of their character.” King wants a shared society, an equal society and integration of all, and in source D, he puts an emphasis on the need for non-violence “when he starts violence, he is blamed for the consequences.” However Malcolm X, and other “black power” leaders such as Carmichael felt the need for a separatist, extremist approach to the battle of civil rights. In Source F Malcolm X speaks of a Black revolution “the Negro revolt will merge into one world wide black revolution” and its consequences “Revolutions will overturn systems.” Martin Luther King takes a more realistic approach to civil rights, as he concentrates on one thing at a time such as voting in the south, and once he has achieved this, he moves on. However, Malcolm X is Source F discusses a “worldwide revolution,” his plans are on a huge scale and he is impracticable in his advance on civil rights.
Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had very different childhood experiences; this may explain one of the reasons why their tactics differed. In comparison to Malcolm X, Martin Luther king had a very good childhood; he was intelligent and had a good education, which was strange for black children of that time period. Martin Luther king jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. His father, was the priest of the Ebenezer Baptist church, and his mother was a schoolteacher. Martin also had a younger brother, and an older sister. Martin learned about racism at an early age. When he was six years old, their parents stopped his friendship with two white boys. At the age of eleven a white woman hit him over the head just because he was black. He was a very smart student and was admitted into college at the age of 15, without completing high school. When he was 18 years old he decided to become a minister and started to work in his father’s church. After graduating college in 1948, he entered the Crozer Theological seminary. King was the speaker of his class in 1951 and won a graduate fellowship. Then in 1955 he received a Ph.D. in theology. In Boston King met Coretta Scott. Then later in 1953 King and Coretta got married and had four children. In December 1958 Martin became the president of the group, Southern Christian Leadership Conference that was formed to carry on civil right activities in the south. Whereas Malcolm X had a bad childhood born May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan, he dropped out of school when he was 15 and in 1946 he is Convicted of burglary and sent to prison. Then from 1949 to 1951, he studies the Islam religion. Malcolm X constructed most of his beliefs while he was in prison and the idea of “good whites” was perhaps formed because he had experienced extreme prejudice from whites in his childhood.
Non-violent protest, economic tactics, legal action, involvement of the church, sit-ins speeches, rallies, voting registration camps and dialogue with the government, were the most effective methods in the fight for civil rights. No other campaign including “black power” received as much support or accomplished as much as Martin Luther Kings non-violent campaign did. This showed that violence was not necessary to achieve civil rights, and his philosophy meant that the civil right movement receive a lot of publicity and made everyone in America aware of the fight for civil rights. Malcolm X ridiculed Martin Luther Kings campaign, as did Martin Luther King ridiculed Malcolm X’s, the two very different leaders helped achieve and move forward the civil right movement through their different methods and aims.
6.) Study sources J and K.
How successful had the civil rights movement been by the late 1960s? use the evidence of these sources and your own knowledge to explain your answer?
African Americans have been struggling for equality for many decades. It only seems that during the 1960’s there were actual significant advances made. This was about the same time that civil rights came into the political scene. Throughout the South, Blacks were still in the majority, but had no political power what so ever. The Civil Rights Movement gave African Americans a voice and a chance to make a difference. The Civil Rights movement began in the 1950s, with Brown Vs The board of education (Topeka) but, success did not happen until the 1960s.
Segregation went on until the landmark case; Brown vs. Board of Education, declared that separate schools based on race was unconstitutional. This case “…became the cornerstone of sweeping changes ” because the decade following the Brown decision “…witnessed a complex interplay of forces between black citizens striving to exercise their constitutional rights, the increasing resistance of southern whites, and the ambiguous response of the federal government. The Brown Vs The Board of Education was based around a girl called Linda Brown. Linda Brown had to walk 20 blocks to her school in Topeka, even though there was one just around the corner, which was bigger and better equipped. The teachers in Linda's school, worked very hard but the classes were big, the classrooms shabby and a lack of materials. This was because the local school had more funds from the board of education, this was because Linda's local school was for ‘whites only’ and Linda was black. This angered Linda's father so much, that he took the board of education to the courts, and lost. With the help of the NACCP, Oliver Brown, Linda's father appealed and the case went to the supreme court of America. Oliver Brown won, and the Topeka Board of Education had to end segregation in their schools. In many cases the run down former ‘black-only’ schools were shut down and the children were sent to the local school. Yet the south was determined to keep segregation in its school, of the schools that did decide to integrate its pupils, the black pupils were often abused physically and mentally by the pupils, many of their parents lost their jobs and riots broke out. Opposition continued and it was not till the civil rights act of 1964 that brought about an end to segregation, in the south’s schools and colleges. This law gave the president power to hold back funds from the schools that did not integrate.
Blacks voting rights was always an issue, especially in the south. King and other civil rights leaders wanted political rights, and that blacks could vote. King picked the tough town of Selma, Alabama where only 1% of eligible black voters voted. Previous attempts had been made to try and get equal voting rights for blacks. In 1957, an attempted to make sure that blacks could vote was made and the Kennedy Civil rights Bill in 1964 reaffirmed this law, making it illegal for discrimination in voting. Yet it wasn’t until in 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed which gave every citizen the right to vote regardless of intelligence, race, or any other reason. This rule was not passed until after the famous ‘bloody Sunday.’ The Southern Christian Leadership Conference planned a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital, Montgomery. Also, there to help organize the voting rights march was Martin Luther King, Jr. This was a distance of about fifty miles. Over five hundred marchers were stopped just outside of Selma by state troopers and were told to go home. The marchers refused and as a result the police then attacked. They beat and tear-gassed the protestors. Seventy people went to the hospital that day.
Luckily there were television cameras on the scene to record the bloody incident and show the United States viewers what was really going on. The scenes shocked everyone and Lyndon Johnson was prompted to deplore the violence. This day would be called Bloody Sunday. Martin Luther King said he was “compelled” to lead another march on Montgomery, the SCLC petitioned a federal district judge for an order that would allow them to march again without any interference from the police. The four-day, 54-mile march led by Martin Luther King was a success, the violence, the march and the excitement, all contributed to the second landmark of civil rights. Two weeks after Bloody Sunday, the march was redone with over three thousand people protesting. This march created the support needed to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The increase in black voters after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is shown in source K, where black voters went from 4% in Mississippi in 1964 to 59%. This shows that after the law was passed that more people felt comfortable to vote, and that before many blacks were afraid to vote, although 59% isn’t the whole of the black community, it shows that conditions for blacks were improving. Thousands in total flocked to register votes, in the southern counties including Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, where the government sent federal examiners to uphold the voting rights. In just four days 6,998 negro voters were added to the voting register where previously here had been 3.857.
In 1964 a bill ends discrimination against blacks in employment, housing, education and public places. Is the passing of Kennedy’s civil rights bill, which Johnson approved as a remembrance for Kennedy. Its complete terms consolidated the ground won by earlier campaigns and allowed blacks to become a step closer to civil rights. It also meant that because the law protected blacks, many southerners couldn’t exploit blacks. A groundbreaking act thataimed to end all forms of discrimination based on race, color, gender, religion or national origin. The equal opportunities act of 1965 strengths this act. Further civil rights of 1968, in the selling and renting of property meant that law now covered blacks by a federal law when they sell or rent property. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is historically significant because it stands as a defining piece of civil rights legislation, being the first time the national government had declared equality for blacks.
The civil rights door as Thurgood Marshall, the great civil rights lawyer, and later first black man to serve on the Supreme Court, "Far too long, the doors have been shut to the Negro" The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and equal opportunities act of 1965 opened them.
After Kennedy assassination, Johnson took over. He continued Kennedy’s work in the matter of civil rights. The social reforms that Johnson made included medicare, education, housing and social security generally benefited everyone, but it was blacks that benefited the most. Johnson was more successful in the battled for civil rights as his laws didn’t have as many loopholes. Kennedy needed the Southern senators votes to stay in power, to this he tried to please them and limit the rights that he gave to blacks. Therefore he was unable to get enough support for the passing of a Civil rights bill, however President Johnson succeeded where Kennedy had failed. Only just coming into power with just the small margin of black voters he improved Kennedy’s legacy and on the press coverage of civil rights marches and protests he helped move civil rights forward.
Attitudes were beginning to change, as blacks were becoming more accepted in society. The 1960s saw an increase in the status of black peoples jobs as whites began to realise, their capability, blacks became judges, majors and elected officials. Blacks used their voting power in an attempt to vote black people into power whenever they could and the civil rights law on integration meant that nearly all schools were integrated. The gradual change was evident, blacks had come along way since the days of slavery and although the civil rights campaign took years to complete, the remarkable campaigns should be honoured. Whites began to realise that blacks were entitled to the same civil rights as them, and that you “shouldn’t judge a person on the colour of the skin, but on the content of their character.” As generations went on, many forgot what it was like to live in a segregated society and although blacks never forgot the prejudice, discrimination and intimidation that they endures, they got on with living their lives in unity with whites.
Yet blacks were still along way of achieving civil rights. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s racial discrimination continued, 50% of blacks people in the North experienced the worst housing, education and high unemployment. According to source J 56% if blacks were below the poverty line in 1970 compared to 18% of white people. Although the Ku Klux Klan and lost most of its status and power, it continued to be a threat for black people. Before integration, whites and blacks had always been kept separate and had never had contact with black people. So when suddenly the two are put into close contact with each other through school, it is going to cause some problems. The old ideas of blacks being “impure” and not entitled to the same civil rights were still imprinted peopled minds, even though they didn’t say so. As source K shows, only a small percentage of blacks were voting in 1968 just 56% of black civilians in Alabama, 62% of black civilians in Florida, 56% in Georgia, 59% in Mississippi and 56% in South Carolina, it is obvious that some people were obviously still afraid to vote. Martin Luther King continued his civil rights campaign, as blacks were still not treated, as they should be. Up until his assassination in 1968 Martin Luther King focused on the poverty in the North, including housing discrimination and inequality.
The federal government was sure that things had improved, there was certainly less protests. Yet as we all know you can change the rules, but you can’t change people perspective as Eisenhower said “One cannot change people’s hearts by law alone.” The civil rights laws would never had worked if the federal government, who made sure that the laws enforced were upheld. The success that had been started in the 1950s ended in the 1960s, some say that the civil rights campaign ended with Martin Luther Kings death, others say it was after Selma, Alabama, while others say that it isn’t over yet because the movement ceased to a significant change, and others say it hasn’t ended because blacks are still not treated the same as whites. The civil rights movement bought an end to most of the injustice that was inflicted upon most blacks and I hope that Martin Luther King knows his dream of “that the former slave owners and the former slaves will sit together at the table of brotherhood.”
7.) Study all sources.
The author of source L believed that television played a huge part in ending segregation in the USA. Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain if you agree with this view?
African Americans have been struggling for equality for many decades. It only seems that during the 1960’s is when there were actual significant advances made. This was about the same time that civil rights came into the political scene . Throughout the South, Blacks were still in the majority, but had no political power what so ever. The Civil Rights Movement gave African Americans a voice and a chance to make a difference. All the civil rights movements were broadcasted on television, which was very effect full.
American, after seeing his/her TV screen, turned into a Civil Rights supporter. Black unity and white support continued to grow as the events of civil rights movement was broadcast in their homes. After the war, America was prosperous and so many people could afford the latest technology such as televisions. Martin Luther Kings studying of Gandhi, who believed in truth and love, and a refusal to harm someone else, influenced King. As a practising Baptist, Martin Luther King was also a strong believer in the notion of love, and non-violence. As a one of the main civil rights leaders the protests that he held were all non-violent such as the protest in Birmingham, Alabama or Selma, Alabama. Yet this was not always the case for the whites in response to the non–violent protest often resulted in violence. This violence spilled across TV screens nationwide. The average, neutral American, after seeing his/her TV screen, turned into a civil rights. In Birmingham, Alabama
