History Practice Controlled Assessment: ‘To what extent has the contribution of Martin Luther King to the advancement of black Americans between 1954 and 1968 been exaggerated?’ On 6th December 1865, the 13th amendment to the American Constitution was passes, leading to the abolition of slavery. However whilst slavery was abolished, the black people of America still faced harsh racism and had very little rights. During the period of 1954-1968, many people were campaigning for an advancement of black Americans. These people wanted equal civil rights for blacks as white Americans had. One such person was Martin Luther King.
The Black Power movement was a new era of ideals and methods to end racial segregation and inequality in America in the 1960s. They used a variety of different methods and attained to different ideals than Martin Luther King. Malcolm X was a main leader of the movement and he heavily pushed home the ideas of separatism, self-defence and Black Nationalism claiming that blacks would never be treated as equals under the current white system. It could be argued that Black Power did hinder the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It brought about the mass fragmentation of the movement and saw two main civil rights campaigners SNCC and CORE split from the cooperation of the NAACP and SCLC.
How far do you agree that events at Little Rock were the most important for the Civil Rights campaign? During the 1940s – 60s, the South of America was totally segregated, separating the white people from the blacks: from schools and jobs, to travelling and shopping. The Black African American community faced severe hardships during this period, in terms of: lynching, slavery, torture and segregation alone, as racism and discrimination were immense. Due to the unstoppable, horrifying racism portrayed in the USA, the ‘Civil Rights Campaign,’ a campaign which aimed to abolish the main cause of racism and discrimination, begun to expand during the 1950s. While there may have been many who disliked and hated African Americans, the Civil Rights campaigners crafted and cunningly planned tactics to permanently change the opinions of the brain-washed racists using methods and people, such as: Little Rock, Martin Luther King and Rosa parks (bus boycotts) – as source 7 displays R. Parks being arrested for refusing to give up her seat for sitting in the ‘white only seats.’ Racism was also stored in the hearts and minds, which can be identified through Source 3, which shows the two separated sinks that a black and white person would use – the clean, spacious tap for the whites, and the dirty, tiny tap that the black people would use.
WW1 was a turning point in increasing racial equality between black and white Americans to a lesser extent. During WW1 black people made contributions to the war effort by moving north to work in factories making war goods. However violence occurred where they moved as competition with the whites for jobs was rife. In the short term with competition and violence intensifying, the Ku Klux Klan restarted in the south and lynchings became common. It would seem that racial equality had not improved, but worsened.
Rather than place the blame at the feet of the poor, the author demonstrates how federal and local governments aided in cutting off persons from decent housing, economic and educational opportunities with legalized segregation and planned metropolitan expansion that sought to ensconce the poor in the shadows of southern society. This intensified the poverty as a whole to the point where it then became the highest ranked poverty are in the nation. Dyson points out that this nation’s willful ignorance and naivety concerning its poorer and disproportionately darker citizens is disturbingly sad and dissapointing. The second and third chapters, “Does George W. Bush Care About Black People?” and “The Politics of Disaster,” focus directly on toward the “rhythms, relations, and rules of race” that informed the federal government’s response to Katrina, or lack thereof, and the anemic structuring of FEMA that has been embattled by a history of what the author refers to as “a combination of cronyism, politicization, inexperience and incompetence” respectively. According to Dyson, Katrina uncovered a culture of “passive indifference” to the problems plaguing poor black folk that as a matter of consequence is indistinguishable from “active malice.”
The South Socio- Economics Issues (1900-1950) The civil war between Northern and Southern parts of America occurred in 1800’s changing the social economics for the original old Southern America. The southern Socio- Economic issues: • The Southern economy was destroyed and had no concept and needed to be reconstructed in order to comply with the acceptance of new laws. • Once the southern was in ruins after being destroyed immigrants from the northern part of America began to come and take over and make money. • The higher class ‘plantation’ groups manners stereotype was broken due to the rough and lower class immigrants invading their land. • Black and white people were divided by politics.
The Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s was one of the most significant and pivotal periods for achieving equality of all African Americans since the abolition of slavery in 1863 – the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. There was an ongoing conflict between the races of people who lived in the United States, predominantly black versus white. Black people were seen as inferior to that of white people and rights were violated on a continuous basis, purely because of the colour of that person’s skin. The Civil Rights Movement’s ongoing struggle led to two distinct groups of black activists. One group was rather violent and radical, the Black Power movement led by Malcolm X who believed blacks should be self-reliant, due to the increasing
In the early 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to African slaves as a cheaper, more plentiful labour source than indentured servants and were treated inhumanly. African Americans had been fighting against racial discrimination for centuries; during the 1950s, however, the struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life. A growing group of Americans spoke
How did Martin Luther King campaign against prejudice and discrimination in USA? America in the 20th century was a highly racist society, especially in the southern states. Black people were treated unfairly and discriminated against, white people justified the situation by saying the black race were inferior. In 17 states throughout America, there were laws segregating the black from the whites in places like parks, cafes, buses, public toilets, swimming pools and even drinking fountains. Black people also had separate schools and universities, the white schools had more money.
The immigrants arriving in waves in the 1950s and after soon discovered that they were the target of discrimination in class and status. Black people have generally had the worst paid jobs, lived in the worst housing and encountered hostility from white neighbors. There were still white people who in words of one newspaper, “go on pretending ... that one day the blacks can somehow be sent ‘home’, as though home for most of the was anywhere else but Britain. “ In the 1960s the government introduced the first three Race Discrimination Acts in order to eliminate racial discrimination. At the same time, however, laws were introduced to restrict immigration.