Civil Rights Movement Document Based Questions Essay
The Four Primary Source Documents
A letter (later known as Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”) written by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while Dr. King was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama in the Spring of 1963 for his role in leading non-violent protests in that city (later known as the “Children’s Crusade”)
Malcolm X’s famous “Ballot or Bullet Speech” given in April 1964
The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program issued shortly after the Black Panthers’ formation in Oakland, California in 1966
An excerpt from The Kerner Commission Report on Civil Disorders issued after
widespread riots in northern cities from 1965-1967 (and issued just weeks before the assassination of Dr. King (in April 1968) and the consequent riots that ensued across the country thereafter)
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non-violent direct action and civil disobedience by African Americans and other civil rights protestors that strategically “used” White supremacist violence, via the media, to engender more support from moderate Whites for enhanced civil rights for African Americans
riots by African American in their own communities in northern cities from 1965-1967 and then later in 1968 across the country after Dr. King’s assassination.
trace the evolution from non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to increasing militancy among African American leadership during the Civil Rights Movement and explain the reasons for (and give several specific examples of transitionary events that led to) that evolution
Explain the essential differences (and several important similarities) in the philosophical beliefs as well as the specific strategies and objectives between and among Dr. King, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers
Explain how Dr. King might have responded to both:
(a) arguments promoting “Black Power” and Black Nationalism (the latter of which Dr. King briefly addressed in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail)
the Kerner Commission’s specific conclusions about the primary causes for the riots in major northern cities in the mid-to-late 1960’s.
