CIVIL RIGHTS REVISION SESSION

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CIVIL RIGHTS REVISION SESSION
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Tips for success

• Focus on the question throughout the essay
• Avoid too much narrative, telling the story
• Provide 3 or 4 relevant points and develop these
  with clear examples
• Cover the time-frame asked for

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Types of questions

• Description of methods used by Civil Rights
  campaigners or of the progress made between a
  particular period. Usually 1945-55, 1955-65 or
  1965-8
• Why methods were effective/successful
• Role of individuals either descriptive or a
  comparison
• Reasons why more extreme movements emerged in
  latter years of 1960s

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Methods

• Boycotts
• Sit-ins
• Freedom Rides
• Speeches
• Marches
• Legal challenges
• Commitment to Non-violent protest
• Mobilisation of Black support
• Aim to highlight the extent of prejudice and
  hostility amongst some Whites

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Why successful?

• Effective campaign strategies
• Inspirational Leadership
• Presidential support led to legislation
• Public opinion was swinging towards greater
  racial equality
• Publicity generated by violent reaction
• Cold War context

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Role of Individuals

• MLK
• Inspirational leader/Tactician
• Christian
• Charismatic speaker
• Claimed the moral high ground
• Philosophy of non-violence
• Co-operation with Whites
• Respectability
• Intelligence
• Organiser
• Courage

7

• Malcolm X
• An alternative philosophy
• Nation of Islam
• Militant approach
• Afro-Americans not negro
• Equality not possible
• Racial separatism
• Black pride
• Threat of violence
• Rejection of White support
• Uncle Tom rhetoric
• Warnings of a racial explosion
• Change after conversion to the real Muslim
  religion

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Emergence of more extreme protests/rejection of
MLKs approach

• By 1965 much had been achieved
• BUT
• Challenge now was to address social and economic
  problems harder to solve
• Blacks in the North were more concerned with
  these problems
• Impatience at slow pace of change EG in Education
• Northern Blacks were less committed to
  Christianity than their Southern counterparts and
  so less convinced by non-violent protest
• Escalation of Vietnam War made further reforms
  impossible
• Availability of an alternative philosophy
• Leaders such as Malcolm X and Stokeley Carmichael
  took a more militant line
• Younger generation of black students were
  emerging who embraced this philosophy