Civil Rights Sources Questions

Authors Avatar

HISTORY

COURSEWORK

1) a)   In source 2, the discrimination that blacks faced in thesouthern states was that they had to drink from separate drinking  fountains in public places, labelled ‘coloured only.’

  1. It supports it as in source 1, Martin Luther King talks about segregation, as does source 2. Martin Luther King also talks about black people having to use separate drinking fountains, as does source 2.

2)  In source 1, many types of discrimination were opposed on Black people. Black people had to have their children in Jim Crow hospitals. Then, the children had to attend a coloured only school, which, once again was inferior to white hospitals and black schools. Blacks also had to live in ghettos, which were run down, crowded and dangerous.  The kids had to play in the streets, as the parks for coloured people were totally inadequate.

        Even if the kids overcame these obstacles, they would be discriminated against job wise, and would end up having to do either menial or labouring work. Black people wouldn’t have got promoted, as the white staff would have been promoted before them. Blacks even had to use separate facilities in the workplace, like toilets and drinking facilities. The most important one however, was that Black people were intimidated not to vote, this only applies to those who could vote, because most Blacks couldn’t vote, due to the inferior style education they received, as you had to pass a literacy test before being allowed to vote.

         In source 3, Blacks suffered many types of segregation. In Atlanta, Georgia, you had to have written on the side of your taxi which race, you served. Blacks or Whites, as only whites could drive whites and Blacks drive Blacks. In 1944, separate facilities like waiting rooms were brought into use in airports. In 1933, the state of Texas prohibited Whites and Blacks from boxing and wrestling each other. Federal law also stopped the circulation of films showing inter-racial boxing. A law from 1937 in Arkansas required segregation at racetracks, betting and gaming establishments. Segregation was also required for ‘Seating, betting and all accommodation.’

In source 4, it shows us that Blacks had to take orders from Whites, and respond to White laws, and made the blacks act like they were inferior to them, and if you didn’t, like this fourteen year old boy, you could be severely hurt or even killed. The source also shows us how fearful Blacks were of Whites, and how fearful they were of being killed for the colour of their skin

    In source 5, Bob Dylan sings about a Black woman called Hattie Carroll, who was killed by a White man, just because she accidentally spilled juice on him. Although is an awful thing, what came next was a prime example of racism in the southern states. When the man was sent to court, for first-degree murder, he ended up getting only six months. This shows the corruption and true biased, racial opinions against Blacks from the courts.

3) Source seven might be reliable, as this source Is backed up by sources 8 and 9. This source is written in the New York Times in 1957. The source was written by a Northerner. People from the northern states in general were against segregation, and this journalist was. As the journalist is against segregation, we can expect a biased opinion, which we appear to get here. The journalist appears to be harsh towards southern whites. We cannot rely on this source a lot as we only see a bit of what is said as it is an extract from the newspaper and the book that the newspaper article was in, so we don’t see the whole story, and thus cannot say what is said in the rest of the story.

Join now!

Source 8 could also be considered reliable, but also a bit unreliable. Although this is a picture and would be considered a fact and always reliable, this isn’t always the case. In this case, we would rely heavily on the caption, so we can see what really happened here. Without a caption, we cannot say for definite say that they were shouting abuse at the girl, so we don’t know if they are being supportive or being abusive. This picture doesn’t give the full picture of what’s happening. It could also be reliable as sources 7 and sources 9 appear ...

This is a preview of the whole essay