In the mid 1950s racial oppression in the southern states was more than apparent, but black African Americans refused to accept being second-class citizens. The civil rights movement succeeded in abolishing the Jim Crow laws, which segregated blacks from whites in nearly all aspects of life. Source A shows the number of black students allowed to enter schools, which consisted of white only children between 1956-1962. It has been taken from a British textbook published in 1984: this means you should assume the content to be researched and reliable. By looking at the information we can immediately see that in some states such as: Tennessee and Texas there has been a very substantial increase. Also in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida they have increased from zero to several hundred. However, in South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi there is no change in the continuing segregation of schools. These statistics although show an increase in black students attending white schools they also show us that in all cases no more than 1% of black students attended predominantly white schools.
Source B ‘shows a black student on her way to enrol at the all-white central high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, September 1957.This source is a reliable as it is photographic evidence that the event occurred. The photo clearly shows that racism is still a large part of life in the south, however this picture highlights the racist views of a large percentage of the white south. The fact that the photo points out the racism in the south can help raise awareness, contributing to full civil rights in the United States.
Martin Luther King became involved in the Civil Rights movement and at the time a member of the executive committee of the NAACP. The more established leaders were afraid to get involve when Rosa Parks was arrested and the Black community wondered if they could take any meaningful action. Dr, King’s leadership in organizing the response--a boycott of the city busses brought him into the national spotlight. He wisely promoted non-violent resistance, even when exposed to brutal state sponsored and extra-legal violence. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. Source C is a passage taken from ‘chaos or community’ (1967) by Martin Luther King. It is a view on a black protest, “ I appreciate the limitations of non-violence and the distance we still have to go”. This quote I think shows that a great deal has been achieved between race relations in America but still a lot more has to be done to secure true equality. It shows us not complete success has yet been achieved, but according to Dr. King they have achieved a great deal. The validity of this sources is reliable as the writer has given a balanced overview of the situation and formulated his own views on the situation.
The civil rights movement was an immense struggle, which led to various protests taking place all over the south and the rest of America. A large majority of protesters were ordinary people usually led by such organisations as CORE, NAACP and the SCLC. These groups mainly focused on solving local issues such as opportunities, employment and political power instead of tackling larger issues like national legalisation. Source D is a conversation between two black Americans concerning the race riots of Detroit (1967). This source tells us that there are still massive racial tensions in most of America. This source however has been taken from an American magazine and the validity must be taken into account; this source is taken from a magazine and could have been easily sensationalised in order to sell more copies and should be approached with caution. The source tells us that there were problems with inter-race relations at that point in time but that does not mean it gives us a broad enough spectrum in which to conclude if or if not the civil rights movement achieved a great deal.
Source E shows the percentage of black people of voting age registered to vote in the south, 1964-71. In a few states there has been a large increase in the number of black people registered to vote, these states have shown improvement and can be considered as achieving a great deal. The downsides to these statistics are the facts that in Florida only around 50% of black people were registered to vote and also in North Carolina and Tennessee the number of black voters has decreased. This source can be relied on in the sense that these are official figures. However, the statistics do not give the number of white people registered to vote ergo you cannot make a comparison and conclude if these figures show that a great deal has bean achieved.
By Jake Taylor.