Example
13 (b) What is the message conveyed in Source K? (2 marks) Student answer
The message conveyed in Source K is the lonely attempt of Elizabeth Eckford to enter the Little Rock High School in the face of an angry mob of white protesters, some of whom are screaming insults at her. A soldier or national guardsman does not appear to be protecting her. |
Source K: Black student Elizabeth Eckford tries to enter Little Rock Central High School on 4 September 1957. She was spat on and there were shouts of 'Nigger whore!' and 'Lynch her!'
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Student Answer
The value of Source E for historians studying non-violence is that it is an account written by Martin Luther King Jr, a man personally involved in the non-violent struggle against an oppressive system, as indicated by the stated origin and purpose. As such, he would have potentially witnessed and/or participated in events regarding the social organization of the masses. The content of the source clearly indicates that Dr King had analysed the power of non-violence practised in India by Gandhi and how the British were unable to resist the persistence of the Indian masses. king thought this strategy would work in the United States as well. A limitation of Source E for historians is that the origin of the extract is from the magazine Liberation, a possibly non-objective source. The purpose of King's article is to promote non-violence so he is unlikely to hold counter views. The content supports this because King contends that concerted efforts against oppression will 'always' result in success. The content also suggests that the Indian non-violent and unyielding struggle for freedom against the British was a good guide for the United States even if the two situations might be very different. |
SOURCE E - Excerpt from an article by Martin Luther King Jr entitled 'The Social Organisation of non-violence' in the magazine Liberation, October 1959, quoted in The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader edited by Clayborne Carson and others, published by Penguin, New York, USA, 1991, p.12.
There is more power in socially organized masses on the march than there is in guns in the hands of a few desperate men. Our enemies would prefer to deal with a small group rather than with a huge, unarmed but resolute mass of people. However, it is necessary that the mass action method be persistent and unyielding. Gandhi said the Indian people must 'never let them rest,' referring to the British. He urged them to keep protesting daily and weekly, in a variety of ways. This method inspired and organized the Indian masses and disorganized and demobilized the British...All history teaches us that like a turbulent ocean beating great cliffs into fragments of rock, the determined movement of people incessantly demanding their rights always disintegrates the old order. |
Source I
Pamphlet issued by the National Party head office in late 1947 ahead of the May 1948 general election, located at: www.politicsweb.com Race relations policy of the National Party Introduction There are two distinct guiding principles determining the South African policy affecting the non-Whites. One line of thought favours a policy of integration, conferring equal rights - including the franchise as the non-whites progressively become used to democratic institutions - on all civilised and educated citizens within the same political structure. Opposed to this is the policy of apartheid, a concept historically derived from the experience of the established White population of the country, and in harmony with such Christian principles as justice and equity. It is a policy which sets itself the task of preserving and safeguarding the racial identity of the White population of the country; of likewise preserving and safeguarding the identity of the indigenous peoples as separate racial groups, with opportunities to develop into self-governing national units; of fostering the incubation of national consciousness, self-esteem and mutual regard among the various races of the country. The choice before us is one of these two divergent courses: either that of integration, which would in the long run amount to national suicide on the part of the Whites: or that of apartheid, which professes to preserve the identity and safeguard the future of every race, with complete scope for everyone to develop within its own sphere while maintaining its distinctive national character, in such a way that there will be no encroachment on the rights of others, and without a sense of being frustrated by the existence and development of others. |
Source J
Excerpt from Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, published by Abacus, London, UK, 2013, pp. 126-7. Nelson Mandela became the first president of a democratic South Africa in 1994, after being imprisoned for years due to his anti-apartheid views and actions. Malan's platform was known as Apartheid. Apartheid was a new term but an old idea. It literally means partners, and it represents the codification in one oppressive system of all the laws and regulations that had kept Africans in an inferior position to white for centuries...The often haphazard segregation of the past three hundred years was to be consolidated into a monolithic system that was diabolical in detail, inescapable in its reach and overwhelming in its power. The premise of Apartheid was that whites were superior to Africans, Coloureds and Indians, and the function of it was to entrench white supremacy forever...Their platform rested on the term baaskap, literally 'boss-ship', a loaded word that stood for white supremacy in all its harshness. The policy was supported by the Dutch Reformed Church, which furnished Apartheid with its religious underpinnings by suggesting that Afrikaners were God's chosen people and that blacks were a subservient species. In the Afrikaners' world view, apartheid and the church went hand in hand. |
Instructions
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The response does not reach a standard described by the descriptors below. |
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Source A
The Johnson Treatment: Lyndon (right) lobbies Republican leader in the senate, Everett Dirksen (left). Source C
Excerpt from Debating the Civil Right Movement, 1945-1968 by S. Lawson and C. Payne, published by Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland, USA, 1998, p108 Inspired by the Court, courageous Americans, black and white, took protest to the street, in form of bus boycotts, sit-ins and freedom rides. The protest movement, led by brilliant and eloquent Dr.Martin Luther King, aided by a sympathetic federal government, mostly notably the Kennedy brothers and Lyndon Johnson, was able to make America understand racial discrimination as a moral issue... [and to] to remove racial prejudice and discrimination from American life, as evidenced by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1965. |
Source B
Excerpt from Johnson's commencement address at Howard University 'To Fulfill these rights', 4 June 1965, located at: www.lbjlibrary.org/. Freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person who, for years, has been nobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates. This is the nest and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity. Source D
Excerpt from an essay by Steven Lawson in Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968 by S. Lawson and C. Payne, published by Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland, USA, 1998, p42. Lawson was professor of history at Columbia University, New York, USA, and an expert on the History of the civil rights campaign. The federal government made racial reform possible, but Blacks in the South made it necessary. Had they not mobilized their neighbors, opened their churches to stage protests and sustain the spirits of the demonstrators, and rallied the faithful to provoke a response from the federal government, far less progress would have been made. Thus, real heroes of the civil rights struggle were the Black foot soldiers and their white allies who directly put their lives on the line in the face of often overwhelming odds against them. Federal officials were not heroes yet they proved essential for allowing the truly courageous to succeed. |
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