1. Introduction (Introduce two approaches to achieving change during the Civil Rights Movement and introduce who the two leaders are)
2. Thesis: (A statement of your side of the argument AND your 3 supporting reasons)
3. Reason 1:
4. Document(s) used for Reason 1 supporting EVIDENCE:
5. Reason 1 Evidence (write in Quote/Description)
6. Reason 2:
7. Document(s) used for Reason 2 supporting EVIDENCE:
8. Reason 2 Evidence (write in Quote/Description)
9. Reason 3:
10. Document(s) used for Reason 3 supporting EVIDENCE:
11. Reason 3 Evidence (write in Quote/Description)
12. Opposing View (describe what the opposing view point would say about your opinion and why it is bad. Hint, use a quote from a document for the other side of the argument):
13. Document(s) used FOR RESPONSE TO OPPOSING VIEW (which document best argues against 12?):
14. Evidence (write in Quote/Description of image that defends your position FROM this opposition)
Civil Rights DBQ
TASK:
Which is a more effective way to change society, violence or nonviolence?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Civil Rights Movement in America lasted from 1955 to 1968. Civil rights, which are rights guaranteed to all citizens by the US Constitution, had long been denied to African-Americans. Until emancipation in 1863, African-Americans had remained under the strong fist of slavery and after the abolition of slavery African-Americans faced bigotry and racism through Jim Crow laws. Additionally, the 1896 Supreme Court ruling in favor of “separate but equal” in Plessy v. Ferguson legalized segregation in the country. The Civil Rights movement began after African-Americans gained respect and confidence while serving in WWII. The movement truly began with the court case Brown v. The Board of Education, which desegregated schools. Two strong leaders emerged within the movement to gain equality for African Americans – Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King. Building on the ideas of Mohandas Gandhi, MLK preached the route to equality was through non-violent protest. He believed the final goal was reconciliation and friendship between the races. On the other hand, Malcolm X preached a more radical solution to racial equality based upon aggression and the use of violence. Other groups, such as the Black Panthers supported the ideas of Malcolm X as the Black Power movement took hold. It would not be until after the assassinations of both Dr. King and Malcolm X that the country would see complete desegregation in public places and racial equality.
DOCUMENT 1
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“The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he’s within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don’t think he’ll be by himself.” ~Malcolm X, Oxford Union Society debate, Dec 3, 1964 |
What does he mean by saying “use any means necessary?
DOCUMENT 2
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“If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.” ~ Malcolm X, New York City Speech, Nov 1963 |
How is Malcolm X using the U.S. military to justify African-Americans using violence in self defense?
DOCUMENT 3
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“An integrated cup of coffee isn’t sufficient pay for four hundred years of slave labor… How can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours ~Malcolm X, Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, April 8, 1964 |
Why might Malcolm X believe the Greensboro 4’s desegregation of lunch counters is NOT a major victory for the Civil Rights Movement?
DOCUMENT 4
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“Concerning nonviolence: It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself, when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. It is legal and lawful to own a shotgun or a rifle. We believe in obeying the law…. It doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time, I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.” ~Malcolm X, A Declaration of Independence, March 12, 1964 |
Why does Malcolm X view violence as justified (legal)?
What kind of violence is Malcolm X supporting?
DOCUMENT 5
The following images show Black Panthers and Cops on the court house steps in NYC in 1969 during a case trying other Black Panthers (right), a Black Panther Poster (center), and Black Panther Party members on the street armed with a Colt .45 and a shotgun
What are 5 words that can be used to describe the Black Panthers?
DOCUMENT 6
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[T]he basic question which confronts the world’s oppressed is: How is the struggle against the forces of injustice to be waged? There are two possible answers. One is resort to the all too prevalent method of physical violence and corroding hatred… Violence solves no social problems; it merely creates new and more complicated ones….If the American Negro … [uses] violence in the struggle for justice, unborn generations will live in a desolate night of bitterness, and their chief legacy will be an endless reign of chaos. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, “Nonviolence and Racial Justice” Feb 6, 1957 |
What does Martin Luther King Jr. say violence creates?
What does MLK say is the legacy of those who use violence?
DOCUMENT 7
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…[N]onviolent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding…. [Non-cooperation] and boycotts…merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness. ~Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “Nonviolence and Racial Justice” Feb 6, 1957 |
What does MLK say non-violent protesters seek?
What is the end goal for nonviolent resisters?
DOCUMENT 8
Martin Luther King Jr. being arrested in Montgomery, Alabama on September 4, 1958.
How does this image demonstrate MLK’s commitment to nonviolence?
DOCUMENT 9
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[T]he attack is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who are caught in those forces… Those of us who struggle against racial injustice must come to see that the basic tension is not between races… The tension in [Alabama] is not between white people and Negro people. The tension is at bottom between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness… We are out to defeat injustice and not white persons who may happen to be injust.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr, “Nonviolence and Racial Justice” Feb 6, 1957 |
What is the tension that should be attacked with protest?
What does MLK say tension is NOT between?
DOCUMENT 10
The following pictures show protesters being sprayed with a fire house (left) and being taken down and arrested by police officers in gas masks with clubs and other weapons (right)
How do these pictures demonstrate the importance of the media to the Civil Rights Movement?
DOCUMENT 11
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The method of nonviolence is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. It is this deep faith in the future that causes the nonviolent resister to accept suffering without retaliation…. May all who suffer oppression in this world reject the self-defeating method of retaliatory violence and choose the method that seeks to redeem. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, “Nonviolence and Racial Justice” Feb 6, 1957 |
What must non-violent protesters be committed NOT to do?
DOCUMENT 12
After the restless efforts of Gandhi and his subsequent assassination, the non-violent protests of Indian citizens led to the British Empire granting the country its independence.
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In the application of Satyagraha, I discovered, in the earliest stages, that pursuit of Truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent, but that he must be weaned from error by patience and sympathy. For what appears to be truth to one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of Truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but one’s own self. ~Mohandas K Gandhi in a statement given before Disorders Inquiry Committee on Jan 9, 1920 |
What truth about opponents did Gandhi discover in Satyagraha?
Who should suffering NOT be inflicted upon?
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