By 1957 The Civil Rights Movement Had Made Real Progress In Integrating Schools
History Essay:
Q: ‘By 1957 the Civil Rights Movement had made real progress in integrating schools’. How far do the sources support this statement? Use details from Source A-D and your own knowledge to support your answer.
A: Source A agrees with the statement, while Sources B to D doesn’t.
Source A supports the statement because it tells us that the majority of white students didn’t harass the black students who attended Little Rock High, but instead it was a minority of white students who made school difficult for those black students. This tells us that racist attitudes which were expressed were only prevalent in a small group of the white students in the school which means progress had been made in integrating schools. The evidence to support this is Source A says “Most of the white students didn’t bother us”.
Source A was said by Elizabeth Eckford, a black student who attended Little Rock High at the time. This strengthens the support of the statement by Source A as although the source is the account of a person and therefore is subject to bias Elizabeth wouldn’t have a reason to change the account as it would actually have benefited her to exaggerate her experiences as she said this in 1962, only 5 years after what happened when not much had changed. Therefore, the source is reliable. …show more content…
Source B challenges the statement as it shows the school board didn’t take action against those who harassed the students but instead took action against the black students when they retaliated.
This tells us that the school board was racist and allowed the harassment to take place to give them an opportunity to expel or suspend the black students which means that much progress hadn’t taken place in integrating schools as the school board was racist. The evidence to support this is Source B says “The school board used the incident to suspend Minnie (but not the ones who harassed her), and then finally to expel
her”.
Source B was said by another black student who attended the high school at the time, Ernest Green in a 1993 interview. This weakens the challenge of the statement by Source B as although he couldn’t lie about what the school board did he could have exaggerated the abuse experienced by Minnie to gain sympathy.
Source C challenges the statement as it shows the lack of enforcement several years after the events that occurred at little rock high of the Supreme Court ruling which was the result of Brown vs. Board which ended with the ruling that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. It also showed how Brown II which said that “schools had to desegregate through all deliberate means” that was supposed to counter the slow progression if integration of schools had failed miserably which shows us that very little progress had been made in integrating schools. The evidence to support this is “By 1964 only 2.3% of all African American children in illegally segregated Southern States were attending desegregated schools”.
Source C is a statistic which was published in a book called ‘The Civil Rights Movement’. This strengthens the challenge made by the Source, as it’s a statistic. It’s not subject to bias as the criteria used by those who recorded the statistic are what you would expect for an accurate statistic.
Source D challenges the statement as it shows us the harassment faced by black students who attended Little Rock High by white mobs. This highlights the resistance faced by those who wanted to integrate schools. The evidence to support this is the source shows a picture of Elizabeth Eckford, a black student on her way to Little Rock High on the first day of school followed by a white mob shouting insults at her.
The challenge is made less reliable as the source is a photo which shows only one school it could have been the case that when other schools integrated, they faced far less resistance in that area and so it could have only been an issue at that school.
Overall the sources suggest that real progress hadn’t been made in integrating schools as most of the sources challenge the original statement.
Q: ‘By 1957 the Civil Rights Movement had made real progress in integrating schools’. How far do the sources support this statement? Use details from Source A-D and your own knowledge to support your answer.
A: Source A agrees with the statement, while Sources B to D doesn’t.
Source A supports the statement because it tells us that the majority of white students didn’t harass the black students who attended Little Rock High, but instead it was a minority of white students who made school difficult for those black students. This tells us that racist attitudes which were expressed were only prevalent in a small group of the white students in the school which means progress had been made in integrating schools. The evidence to support this is Source A says “Most of the white students didn’t bother us”.
Source A was said by Elizabeth Eckford, a black student who attended Little Rock High at the time. This strengthens the support of the statement by Source A as although the source is the account of a person and therefore is subject to bias Elizabeth wouldn’t have a reason to change the account as it would actually have benefited her to exaggerate her experiences as she said this in 1962, only 5 years after what happened when not much had changed. Therefore, the source is reliable. …show more content…
Source B challenges the statement as it shows the school board didn’t take action against those who harassed the students but instead took action against the black students when they retaliated.
This tells us that the school board was racist and allowed the harassment to take place to give them an opportunity to expel or suspend the black students which means that much progress hadn’t taken place in integrating schools as the school board was racist. The evidence to support this is Source B says “The school board used the incident to suspend Minnie (but not the ones who harassed her), and then finally to expel
her”.
Source B was said by another black student who attended the high school at the time, Ernest Green in a 1993 interview. This weakens the challenge of the statement by Source B as although he couldn’t lie about what the school board did he could have exaggerated the abuse experienced by Minnie to gain sympathy.
Source C challenges the statement as it shows the lack of enforcement several years after the events that occurred at little rock high of the Supreme Court ruling which was the result of Brown vs. Board which ended with the ruling that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. It also showed how Brown II which said that “schools had to desegregate through all deliberate means” that was supposed to counter the slow progression if integration of schools had failed miserably which shows us that very little progress had been made in integrating schools. The evidence to support this is “By 1964 only 2.3% of all African American children in illegally segregated Southern States were attending desegregated schools”.
Source C is a statistic which was published in a book called ‘The Civil Rights Movement’. This strengthens the challenge made by the Source, as it’s a statistic. It’s not subject to bias as the criteria used by those who recorded the statistic are what you would expect for an accurate statistic.
Source D challenges the statement as it shows us the harassment faced by black students who attended Little Rock High by white mobs. This highlights the resistance faced by those who wanted to integrate schools. The evidence to support this is the source shows a picture of Elizabeth Eckford, a black student on her way to Little Rock High on the first day of school followed by a white mob shouting insults at her.
The challenge is made less reliable as the source is a photo which shows only one school it could have been the case that when other schools integrated, they faced far less resistance in that area and so it could have only been an issue at that school.
Overall the sources suggest that real progress hadn’t been made in integrating schools as most of the sources challenge the original statement.