The answer to the essay question is to be written in you composition notebook

Part I

DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION

This question is based on the accompanying documents. It is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Some of the documents have been edited for the purposes of the ques- tion. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document.

Historical Context:

The struggle for equal rights for African Americans has been long and difficult. Beginning in the 1950s, the fight for equality gained momentum. This struggle for equality is known as the modern civil rights movement.

Task:

• Discuss ways in which African Americans have been denied equal rights

• Discuss methods that individuals, groups, and/or the government have used since 1950 to deal with the inequality faced by African Americans

Part A

Short-Answer Questions

Directions: Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that follow each document in the space provided.

Document 1a

. . . We [the Supreme Court] come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” [real] factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does. . . .

Source: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954

1a According to this document, what inequality did African Americans experience? [1]

Score

Document 1b

. . . We [the Supreme Court] conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently [by nature] unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs [the Brown family] and others sim- ilarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. This disposition [ruling] makes unnecessary any discussion whether such segregation also violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. . . .

Source: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954

1b According to this document, what was the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ofTopeka? [1]

Score

Document 2

The photograph shows Rosa Parks being fingerprinted at police headquarters after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.

Source: New York World-Telegram and Sun, Library of Congress

2a According to this document, what did Rosa Parks refuse to do that led to the situation shown in this photograph? [1]

Score

2b According to this document, what method did African Americans use to deal with the inequality they faced in Montgomery, Alabama? [1]

Scor

Document 3a

“Operation Arkansas: A Different Kind of Deployment Photo,” September 25, 1957

3a Why might this photo have been entitled “A Different Kind of Deployment Photo”?

ScoreDocument 3b

.. . . On September 4, after walking a virtual gauntlet of hysterical whites to reach the front door of Central High, the Little Rock Nine were turned back by Arkansas National Guardsmen. The white crowd hooted and cheered, shouted, stomped, and whistled. The segregationist whites of Little Rock did not see the vulnerability or the bravery of the students. Instead, they saw symbols of the South’s defeat in the War Between the States, its perceived degradation during the Reconstruction that followed, and the threats to the southern way of life they had been taught to believe was sacrosanct [sacred]. . . .

Source: Clayborne Carson, ed., Civil Rights Chronicle, Legacy Publishing

3b According to this document, what was one reason some white citizens of Little Rock, Arkansas, did not want the Little Rock Nine to attend Central High School? [1]

Score

Document 4a

. . . From the Greensboro area there must have been people from six or seven university campuses who wanted to participate, who wanted to help sit-in, who wanted to help picket [take part in a public demonstration]. We actually got to the point where we had people going down in shifts. It got to the point wherein we took all the seats in the restau- rants. We had people there in the mornings as soon as the doors were open to just take every seat in the restaurant or at the lunch counter. . . .

Source: Franklin McCain interview, My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in theDeep South Remembered, Howell Raines, ed., G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1977

4a Based on this document, identify one method of protest that was used to gain equality. [1]

ScoreDocument 4b

... It was an uneventful ride until we got to the Birmingham city limits. We were pulled over by the police... They came on the bus and said, "This is a Freedom Rider bus, who's on here from Nashville? And the bus driver pointed to Paul and myself. They came up and really started badgering Paul, you know, "Get up... why aren't you in the back of the bus?" And he said he was very comfortable where he was. So they placed him under arrest. And they asked me to move so they could get to him... and I said, "I'm very comfortable where I am too.". ...Finally they took us to Birmingham Jail and fingerprinted us. They put me in solitary for a little while. Then they put me in with a fellow who was a felon. I mean, I'm in my suit and tie and I've got my pocket bible with me. I think he thought I was some clergyman making calls. Ultimately they threw me in a drunk tank, with about twenty guys in various states of inebriation, and announced in no uncertain terms that I was a nigger-lover for the Freedom Riders. 

Source: Jim Zwerg interview, Civil Rights Activist: Freedom Riders 1961

4b Based on this document, identify one method of protest that was used to gain equality. [1]

Score

Document 5a Document 5b

5a Explain what you think the architectural style of the Lyceum symbolized to James Meredith and others who wanted to integrate Ole Miss [1]

Score

5b Explain why James Meredith wanted to attend the University of Mississippi. [1]

Score

Document 6a

George Wallace, January, 1963 Inaugural Address

….. Today I have stood, where once Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. It is veryappropriate then that from this Cradle of the Confederacy, this very Heart of the Great Anglo-SaxonSouthland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us done,time and time again through history. Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send ouranswer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have evertrod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . and I say . . .segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever…..

6a Who was George Wallace calling a Tyrant? How is Wallace suggesting the people of the“Southland” respond to the tyranny?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Document 6b

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963)

“…You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood…”

6b In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” how does King explain the purpose and effectiveness ofnonviolent direct action?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Document 7

This photograph shows some of the 250,000 Americans who gathered for the March on Washington inAugust 1963.

7 Based on this photograph, state two goals of the March on Washington in August 1963. [2]

(1)

(2)Score

Document 8a

Source: Karales, J. (1962). Bobby Simmons, Selma to Montgomery March. Bobby Simmons, Selma to Montgomery March. Montgomery.

8a Why does the subject of the photograph have white paint on his face? [1]

Score

Document 8b

Alabama state troopers swing nightsticks to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. John Lewis, front right, of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, is put on the ground by a trooper. The Bloody Sunday march was

followed weeks later by a march from Selma to Montgomery led by Martin Luther King Jr.(Photo: File photo/The Associated Press)

8b Why would an image like this be so shocking to the American public? [1]

Score

Document 9

Percentage of African American Voting-Age Population Registered

Key

Before Voting Rights Act of 1965After Voting Rights Act of 1965 VA 38% 52%

AR TN 66% 65%NC

44% 43%

SC42% 81% MS AL GA 33% 45%

1964 Twenty-fourth Amendment outlaws the poll tax in elections for federal

LA 6% 60%

32% 56%

18% 54% 28% 64%

FL

office.1965 Voting Rights Act prohibits literacy

tests and makes it easier for African Americans to register to vote.

51% 54%

Source: Paul S. Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, D.C. Heath and Co., 1996 (adapted)

9a What major trend in African American voter registration is shown by this map? [1]

Score

9b Identify two actions taken by the federal government that help explain the trend shown on the map. [2]

(1)

(2)Score

Document 10

We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and as a people…It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets…It is time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives.

But there are other necessary measures which only the Congress can provide….In too many communities, in too many parts of the country, wrongs are inflicted on Negro citizens and there are no remedies at law. Unless the Congress acts, their only remedy is in the street.

I am, therefore, asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments….

Source: John F. Kennedy, Speech promoting the Civil Rights Act of 1964, June 11, 1963.

10a According to this document, what problems does JFK see happening to African Americans in America? [1]

Score

10b According to this document, what how does JFK propose to solve this problem? [1]

Score

Document 11a

. . . But far beyond this, we call upon them [African Americans] to accept Christian Love in full knowledge of its power to defy evil. We call upon them to understand that non-vio- lence is not a symbol of weakness or cowardice, but as Jesus demonstrated, non-violent resistance transforms [changes] weakness into strength and breeds courage in face of dan- ger. We urge them, no matter how great the provocation [aggravation] to dedicate them- selves to this motto:

“Not one hair of one head of one white person shall be harmed.”

We advocate [support] non-violence in words, thought and deed, we believe this spirit and this spirit alone can overcome the decades of mutual fear and suspicion that have infest- ed and poisoned our Southern culture. . . .

Source: Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration, “A Statement to the South and Nation,” January 11, 1957, Atlanta, Ga.

11a According to this document, what method was recommended to help African Americans achieve equality? [1]

Score

Document 11b

Malcolm X Press Conference, New York City 1964

“It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.It is legal and lawful to own a shotgun or rifle. We believe in obeying the law. The time has comefor the American Negro to fight back in self-defense whenever and wherever his is being unjustly

and unlawfully attacked.”

11b What does the speaker mean by ‘we believe in obeying the law’?

Score

Document 8aDocument 12a

"...these racist Gestapo pigs [the police] have to stop brutalizing our community or we're going to take up guns,

we're going to drive them out."

—Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther spokesman

12a According to this document, what method was recommended to help African Americans achieve equality? [1]

ScoreDocument 12b

Statement by the minister of defense of the Black Panthers, May 2, 1967The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense calls upon the American people in general and the black people

in particular to take careful note of the racist California Legislature which is now considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very same time that racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder, and repression of black people.

Black people have begged, prayed, petitioned, demonstrated, and everything else to get the racist power structure of America to right the wrongs which have historically been perpetrated against black people. All of these efforts have been answered by more repression, deceit, and hypocrisy. As the aggression of the racist American government escalates in Vietnam, the police agencies of America escalate the repression of black people throughout the ghettoes of America. Vicious police dogs, cattle prods, and increased patrols have become familiar sights in black communities. City Hall turns a deaf ear to the pleas of black people for relief from this increasing terror.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense believes that the time has come for black people to armthemselves against this terror before it is too late.

12b According to this statement, what reasons to the Black Panthers give for arming themselvesagainst a racist government?

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Score

Document 13

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.

And I don't mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

Source: Martin Luther King Jr. "I've been to the Mountaintop", delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee

13 According to this document, what request is being made to the African American community in relation to the Civil Rights Movement? [1]

Score

Document 14

14 According to the cartoonist, African Americans have made gains in racial equality. In what area of equal rights do African Americans still face challenges? [1]

Score