The Source tells of an attack on a vehicle carrying Black Americans, none of who were killed buy the attack, this is a really dramatic scene.
Therefore this source is of little use as evidence about the black protest in the early 1960s because it is a story and could be dramatised to make it more interesting and so some of the facts if not all of them are lost.
However this is a primary source and could quite easily be truthful, also attacks of this kind are well known to have happened at this time.
Source C:
Source E & F:
Source E is from a book written by Martin Luther King, a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. In this primary source (written 1967), King speaks about the great achievements that they had made though non-violent action. For example he speaks of the 1960 “sit-ins” and the 1961 “Freedom Rides,” he also notes that this was progress done with the minimum loss of life.
In this source we see why King and his followers had great success in non-violent action, and therefore would like to continue this. However this was not the feeling of every one that wanted Civil rights for Black Americans, they felt they should retaliate against the white Americans in the same way they had been attacked with violence. (Seen below).
Source F is an extract from a speech made by James Forman in April 1969 and is therefore a primary source, in this speech Forman says that black people are “no longer afraid to demand our full rights.” Forman ends saying that “by force and power that we will win.”
So in this source James Forman sees the success of the non-violent action but says that force must be used, however thing is not the view of all the black protester of time as seen above.
Therefore Source E & F are helpful in understanding why blacks disagreed amongst themselves about the best way to try and again equal rights, because as seen in source E King and his group want to be peaceful and encourage this sort of protest. And in source F Forman wants action (violence), to get equal rights.
However some people in Black American didn’t want to protest in either way, they just wanted to get on with life and try not to get killed by white extremists.
Source D & E:
Source E is from a book written by Martin Luther King, a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. In this primary source (written 1967), King speaks about the great achievements that they had made though non-violent action. For example he speaks of the 1960 “sit-ins” and the 1961 “Freedom Rides,” he also notes that this was progress done with the minimum loss of life.
This source is useful to a historian studying the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s because it shows that non-violent protest was used to achieve their goals. It is also a primary source being from the time, and is therefor highly truthful.
Source D is a picture of the Civil Rights march on Washington in 1963, it is a primary source showing a number of black protesters with signs saying things like “Jobs for all NOW” and “an end to Police brutality NOW”.
So this source is helpful because it shows what they black protesters wanted and why they where protesters, it also shows the number of people that wanted this to be done.
However because this is a photo it could have been staged for the propose of propaganda, also this may not be the feels of all the black Americans, although it is known that most if not all black Americans did wan the Civil Rights.
Therefore these two sources are helpful to an historian studying the Civil Rights movements in the 1960s because it shows the feelings of the protester and what they did to get there goals.
However this is not the overall feels of Black population, and one of the sources (Source D) could have been staged and therefore not a reliable piece of evidence.
