Exam practice HL history Civil Rights

“From Reconstruction to the Depression of the 1930´s, there was little lasting improvement in the civil rights of African-Americans”. To what extent do you agree with this verdict?

Booker T. Washington and the Atlanta compromise:

The year of 1895 Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee normal and industrial institution delivered a speech in Atlanta. His philosophy put forward in the speech, was that African-American citizens, should accept the disfranchisement and the social segregation, on the terms that they were allowed some economic and educational growth. Frankly stating that African-Americans should accept being inferior to Whites. Whist being cheered on by Whites, the African-American community felt confused and betrayed by his philosophy. A case could be made that Washington was seeking personal approval by the White community, rather than the advancement of the African-American community, and therefore did not sufficiently care for the civil rights of them. With the Atlanta compromise African-Americans were put into a situation where they had to live under segregation, often on worse terms than whites.

Jim Crow laws:

Jim Crow, a caricature to embarrass and show the stupidity of the black citizens of the american south, became the name of some of the most racist laws in US history. These laws restricted African-American citizens in the south of the US, and they allowed for white supremacy. In the 1800´s these laws at removing all civil rights for African-american citizens. One of the most notable actions taken were the introduction of literacy tests, and poll taxes to try and exclude African-American citizens from voting. These tests were of extreme difficulty and very few passed them, hence discluding most African-Americans from the political world. Whilst all citizens were equal in front of the law, Jim Crow laws were designed to circumvent the constitution, namely the 14th amendment, that guaranteed equality for all. An example of this is the segregated train cars, that was introduced in most southern states. When a black man by the name of Homer Plessy, refused to move from a White only car to the car designed for blacks, he was arrested. He took his case to the supreme court which ruled in favor the state of Louisiana, stating that segregated cars did not violate the 14th amendment, as long as they were equal in quality, this became known as the Plessy v Ferguson case and gave constitutional right for southern states to segregate African Americans from society. This gave birth to the phrase: separate but equal, which became for a long time the basis of many Jim Crow laws. These laws hindered much of the African American civil rights movement as they were a then constitutional way of keeping them out of society.

Ku Klux Klan

Many old soldiers of the confederate army, did not accept the freedom given to African American citizens after the civil war. From 1867 and onward they led an underground campaign of mainly violence to scare away supporters of the Reconstruction in the south. They targeted voters (both black and white), who supported the radical reconstruction. Most of the chiefs of police and judges in the southern states were members of the KKK and therefore it became difficult for black citizens to have their rights enforced by the law. However the Ku Klux Klan act, an attempt in 1871 by the US government halted their activities. Success would be short lived however as southern democrats grabbed more and more power in the south. In 1915 the clan was revived in Atlanta ,Georgia with burning crosses and lynchings, there was again a violent threat to southern blacks.

“The main reason why the civil rights movement fractured after 1965 was because it had achieved its aims”. How far do you agree with this interpretation?

I do not fully agree with this statement. Even though lawfully, african-americans had gained civil rights following the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, African-Americans still faced violence in the south. Furthermore the civil rights movement, mainly targeted the south pre 1965, were there was so evident that African-Americans were being treated as inferior citizens, with no rights to vote and segregation in public were everyday life. After 1965, when Martin Luther King decided to target ghettos in the north, the civil rights movement started to fracture.

King had no clear approach how to deal with northern segregation as he had in the south. In the south segregation on busses, trams and public spaces gave him a window from which he could argue that the laws of the south were unconstitutional, and push the government to make changes. In the north however, segregation did not come from laws or enactments, they came from socio-economic structures, something far more difficult to change by government legislation. King's failure to change the socio-economic structures of the north were more of a reason why the civil rights movement fractured.

King was never satisfied with progress of the civil rights movement, and after 1965 he set off to try and desegregate the northern ghettos. The previous non violent approach did little to change the socio-economic structures within the north. Many blacks therefore grew impatient with King's work, and started to approach violence to have their will. Many of King´s own men started to try a more violent approach when real change in the north did not show. Whilst King's aims were not achieved, his movement started to break apart. With the rise of black power, under supervision of Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King's Civil Rights began to weaken and fracture apart.

In 1966, James Meredith, the first black to study at the University of Mississippi, decided to march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi, a trip that would according to him be 450.000 steps long, one step per unregistered black voter in the south). The fact that there was 450.000 unregistered black voters in the south, gives evidence that the civil rights movement only achieved legislative success in the south, but practical success was still not obtained. This makes it evident that King did not achieve all of the aims of the civil rights movement, and therefore this cannot be the main reason why the movement started to fracture. Furthermore, the fact that Meredith got shot by a white man during the march and was put in a hospital, shows that King had not achieved civil rights for all in the south.

These failures however helped fracture the civil rights movement, and help black power to rise. When it became evident that the non-violent approach did not seem to create any practical success, again many of King´s followers turned to black power and violence to try and defend themselfs.

However it can be argued that King's aims were to achieved legislative success, and ensure rights for blacks through that route. If this is case, then it can be argued that his success in the legislative branch was what fractured the civil rights movement, since most blacks wanted more than just legislative rights. There has been arguments whether or not King just wanted to be shown as a freedom fighter, and that he did little to actually achieve this status.

Analyse the reasons for for opposition to the Vietnam War in the period 1964-75.’

During the duration of the war in Vietnam, the United States government would face growing opposition against continuing the war. The United States determined not to look weak in the eyes of the communists, mainly the Soviet Union and China, drafted more and more young men to be sent to fight in Vietnam. The war has been one of the most costly in American history, some 58.000 american troops died in Vietnam. Opposition to war began in student organizations such as SDS (students for a democratic society), but would spread to groups of artist hippies and also the civil rights movement.

In the early stages of the war, there were no major protests occurring, most of the American population supported the war at this stage as it was a fight against the devil known as communism, and a war to liberate Vietnam from it. However student organizations such as the SDS, opposed the war, adopting drug culture and rebelling towards authority. The student organizations were soon joined by hippies and certain groups of artists and musicians who believed that United States federal government had no right to force them to fight in Vietnam. They were fueled by the success that the current civil rights movements seemed to experience under the lead of Martin Luther King, and wanted to make a change in American society for the better of them. Passing of the civil rights act in 1964 and the voting rights act in 1965, showed that the american government could be forced into “submission” and this became a central staging point for these protesters.

Major opposition to the war began in 1967, by november that year, about 500.000 american troops were stationed in Vietnam and protesters began to wonder if the war was really a fight to liberate Vietnam from communism. As the federal government of the United States kept drafting troops to send to Vietnam, major protests started to break out. Many anti-war movement campaigns sprung up with the message to withdraw from Vietnam. The main reason for them to do so was that the war was costly. First of all, many Americans felt sympathy towards the innocent Vietnamese that were killed in the rigorous bombings by the United States, families felt a strong disgust when seeing all the horrible pictures of innocent civilians being brutally and unnecessarily killed. It was simply morally wrong. Secondly the war was the first to be televised and the horrors that faced the soldiers combating in Vietnam scarred the American population. Many felt like it was an unnecessary loss of men in a war that made no good for the US, and therefore they wanted to pull the troops. This culminated in 1968 when the Tet offensive was broadcasted on television. The large communist offensive seemed to cripple the American soldiers. Even though the Americans managed to push the communists back, the horrors that faced the captive communists shook horrors in the American population. Videos of American officers cold bloodedly executing vietnamese captives got the population to protest against the war and they wanted to stop the terror the war created in Vietnam.

In 1967 the largest protesting campaign took place in Washington D.C. by the Lincoln Memorial where about 100 000 protesters gathered and about 30 000 of those continued after the gathering to march to The Pentagon where they were met by violent confrontation from soldiers and U.S. Marshals protecting the building from protesters, where hundreds of demonstrators were arrested.

Opposition within congress also rose during the duration of the years 64-75. In the early years of the war, most of American politicians were in agreement that the spread of communism to Vietnam was to be stopped. But as the war continued, congress started to question the federal government's intentions in Vietnam. Opposers towards the war started to state opinions that the war continued only to show that the US were strong in the eyes of the world. The reason for this was that the US forces were bogged down and seemed to make no progress, yet still, the government wanted to send more troops to the stalemate, which only resulted in more innocents dying in vain.

Student protests towards the end of the war began to protest that the older generation seemed to ignore them and sacrifice them in the war. They began to state that the older generation wanted to save their own skin by sending the younger generation to fight. This lead to a deeply rooted protest that questioned the accountability of the war even further.

All of these opposing factors, along with the economic issues caused by the war, lead to that Nixon, in January 1973, was pressured to make an announcement to end all U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.