US History B
Essay Writing
Essay topic – Civil Rights
Prompt- Using the documents and the knowledge of
the period, analyze the changes and viewpoints of
the civil rights movement in the 1960’s.
You will be graded on the following items
Thesis Statement- did you answer the question fully by making a
clear statement that could be proven by the evidence. (5
points)
Evidence- did you use the evidence provided in the correct way. (5
points)
Analysis- Did you analyze the evidence in a way that supports your
thesis statement. (5 points)
Format- Does your essay include an introduction, body, and
conclusion paragraph and is relatively grammar free. (5
points)
Total points for essay- 20 points
Evidence 1- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) statement of
purpose, April 1960
We affirm the philosophical or religious ideal of nonviolence as the foundation of our purpose,
the presupposition of our faith, and the manner of our action.
Nonviolence as it grows from the Judaeo-Christian tradition seeks a social order of justice
permeated by love. Integration of human endeavor represents the crucial first step towards such a
society.
Through nonviolence, courage displaces fear; love transforms hate. Acceptance dissipates
prejudice; hopes ends despair. Peace dominates war; faith reconciles doubt. Mutual regard
cancels enmity. Justice for all overcomes injustice. The redemptive community supersedes
systems of gross social immorality.
Evidence 2- Selection from “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C., August
28, 1963
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which
leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty
of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and
discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and
again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a
distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here
today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to
realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march
ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When
will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the
unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy
with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the
cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a
larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and
robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a
Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to
vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like
waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
Evidence 3- Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech in Cleveland Ohio, April
3, 1964
Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-white, but it does mean we're antiexploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression. And if the white man doesn't want us
to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. Whether we are
Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our
differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us
not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man. If the late President
Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly have more
in common with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other.
If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced either
to use the ballot or the bullet. It's one or the other in 1964. It isn't that time is running out -- time
has run out!
1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most explosive
year. Why? It's also a political year. It's the year when all of the white politicians will be back in
the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white
political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building
up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which
they don't intend to keep. As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an
explosion; and now we have the type of black man on the scene in America today -- I'm sorry,
Brother Lomax -- who just doesn't intend to turn the other cheek any longer.
Don't let anybody tell you anything about the odds are against you. If they draft you, they send
you to Korea and make you face 800 million Chinese. If you can be brave over there, you can be
brave right here. These odds aren't as great as those odds. And if you fight here, you will at least
know what you're fighting for.
I'm not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, I'm not a student of much of anything.
I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican, and I don't even consider myself an American. If you
and I were Americans, there'd be no problem. Those Honkies that just got off the boat, they're
already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans.
Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long
as you and I have been over here, we aren't Americans yet.
Well, I am one who doesn't believe in deluding myself. I'm not going to sit at your table and
watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make
you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you
an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American. Why, if birth made you
American, you wouldn't need any legislation; you wouldn't need any amendments to the
Constitution; you wouldn't be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now.
They don't have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a Polack an American.
Evidence 4- Statement by the minister of defense of the Black Panthers, May 2, 1967
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense calls upon the American people in general and the
black people in particular to take careful note of the racist California Legislature which is now
considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very
same time that racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality,
murder, and repression of black people.
Black people have begged, prayed, petitioned, demonstrated, and everything else to get the racist
power structure of America to right the wrongs which have historically been perpetrated against
black people. All of these efforts have been answered by more repression, deceit, and hypocrisy.
As the aggression of the racist American government escalates in Vietnam, the police agencies of
America escalate the repression of black people throughout the ghettoes of America. Vicious
police dogs, cattle prods, and increased patrols have become familiar sights in black communities.
City Hall turns a deaf ear to the pleas of black people for relief from this increasing terror.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense believes that the time has come for black people to arm
themselves against this terror before it is too late.
Evidence 5- Estimated Percentage of Voting Age African Americans Registered in
1960 and 1968
State
Alabama
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
1960
13.7
37.3
38.9
29.3
30.9
5.2
1968
56.7
67.5
62.1
56.1
59.3
59.4
State
N. Carolina
S. Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
TOTAL SOUTH
1960
38.1
15.6
58.9
34.9
22.8
29.1 %
1968
55.3
50.8
72.8
83.1
58.4
62.0%