Creative tension? Divisions in the civil rights movement

Question 1

Which 2 significant events occurred in 1965?

Answer 1

Passing of the Voting Rights Act

Watts Riots in Los Angeles

Question 2

How many deaths, injuries and arrests were there in the Watts Riots? How much damage was done ($)?

Answer 2

34 deaths,
1,032 injuries,
3,438 arrests,
over $40 million in property damage.

Question 3

There were 4 significant events in 1966. What were they?

Answer 3

Shooting of James Meredith
James Farmer resigns as leader of CORE
SNCC embraces self-defence and expels white members
NAACP and NUL walk out of negotiations with SCLC and SNCC

Question 4

Which 2 significant events occurred in 1968?

Answer 4

SNCC embrace the use of ‘revolutionary violence’

CORE expels white members

Question 5

Why did divisions arise within the civil rights movement?

Answer 5

Disagreements over methods and goals for which black Americans were fighting
Personal clashes between leaders competing for media attention and public recognition

Question 6

Which groups were presented as ‘moderate’? Why?

Answer 6

NAACP and National Urban League (NUL)
NAACP - commitment to work through courts
NUL - willingness to work with America’s white population

Question 7

Which groups were presented as ‘radical’? Why?

Answer 7

CORE and SNCC

-because they advocated self-defence

Question 8

What was the SCLC labeled as?

Answer 8

criticized by moderates for being too radical while radicals attacked them for being too moderate

Question 9

The aims and methods of groups changed over time, and so did the labels applied to them, Which groups became more radical during the 1960s?

Answer 9

SNCC, CORE, SCLC

Question 10

Sources of tension: What were the 4 sources of tension within the civil rights movement?

Answer 10

The different methods:

• use of violence in the fight for black civil rights (peaceful/violent)
• extent to which black and white people should collaborate in the campaign for racial equality (collaboration)
• how far de jure change would bring about de facto change (using the law)
• the extent to which black people should seek integration (integration/seperatism)
• Shayan’s bigoted stance on gay marriage (Shayan)

Question 11

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: What was King’s commitment to nonviolence based on?

Answer 11

His heartfelt belief in Christianity and Jesus’ teachings that Christians should ‘turn the other cheek’

Question 12

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: Which other groups also organised campaigns using peaceful protest?

Answer 12

SNCC and CORE

Question 13

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: Why did SNCC and CORE use peaceful methods?

Answer 13

Pragmatic (it worked) rather than ideological

Question 14

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: What did SNCC believe (regarding non violent tactics)?

Answer 14

That they [non violent tactics] were compatible with self-defence
e.g. some SNCC activists in the South were willing to accept protection from black farmers armed with guns

Question 15

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: How did radicals react to the tactic of non violent protest?

Answer 15

Critically.

e.g. Malcolm X argued that black people should be prepared to use any means to fight white oppression

Question 16

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: When was the shooting of James Meredith?

Answer 16

1966

Question 17

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: What did the shooting of James Meredith prompt the SNCC to do?

Answer 17

Emphasise its commitment to self-defence

Question 18

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: What did Stokely Carmichael argue the shooting of James Meredith underlined?

Answer 18

The need for black people to use violence to defend themselves

Question 19

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: What happened to SNCC in 1968? Why?

Answer 19

Became more radical as Carmichael proposed using revolutionary violence against the US government

Question 20

(Methods) Peaceful/violent: What prompted the resignation of CORE’s leader James Farmer in 1966?

Answer 20

CORE also moved away from non-violence during the late 1960s

Question 21

(Methods) Collaboration: How far did the NAACP and SCLC collaborate with white people?

Answer 21

Welcomed black and white members arguing that cooperation would make them stronger

Question 22

Stokely Carmichael fact file

Answer 22

• Born Trinidad
• (1941 - 1998)
• Leader of SNCC from 1966
• Involved in freedom rides of 1961
• Radical position on many issues made him a natural ally to the black panthers
• Appointed Prime Minister of the Black Panthers in the 1970s

Question 23

James Farmer fact file

Answer 23

• (1920 - 1999)
• Leader of CORE from 1942
• CORE’s leading figure in Freedom rides of 1961
• Spoke at Washington March 1963
• Resigned from CORE leadership in 1966 due to increasing radicalisation [of CORE]

Question 24

(Methods) Collaboration: SNCC and CORE moved away from mixed membership in the late 1960s.

1) What did the SNCC do in 1966?
2) What did CORE decide in 1965 and 1968 respectively?

Answer 24

1) Expel all white members
2) 1965 - decided that black people must form the majority of the organisation
3) 1968 - whites were officially excluded from membership

Question 25

(Methods) Using the law: What did the NAACP, NUL and SCLC all have in common?

Answer 25

Fought for legal change

Question 26

What impact did this action through the courts have on Northern Blacks?

Answer 26

Little. The absence of legal segregation in the northern states meant that changing laws did not help (as much)

Question 27

(Methods) Using the law: What did SNCC and CORE focus on when they realised action through the courts was ineffective in the north?

Answer 27

Economic and political issues faced by black citizens in northern ghettos

Question 28

(Goals) Integration: Which campaign groups was integration important to?

Answer 28

NAACP and SCLC

Question 29

(Goals) Integration: What did Stokely Carmichael begin to stress in the mid-1960s?

Answer 29

The importance of black control over public services rather than just integration
Argument:
1) traditional integrationist campaigns (Brown 1954) only changed education for a handful of black students
2) to address this black people should campaign for control over local schools

Question 30

(Goals) Seperatism: What did Malcolm X believe white people would never stop doing?

Answer 30

Trying to enslave black people

Question 31

(Personalities): Why did King become the focus of criticism from other groups?

Answer 31

They believed

• he dominated the movement
• he was essentially a glory seeker
• he was controlled by the white gov.
• he dominated media attention

Question 32

(Personalities): SNCC and CORE were critical of King. They accused him of treating them as junior partners. Give examples to support this.

Answer 32

King suggested SNCC should become the ‘student wing’, of SCLC.
CORE thought King could have played a more prominent role in the freedom rides 1961
This is evidence that he dominated the movement.

Question 33

(Personalities): Why did radicals object to King working too closely with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson?

Answer 33

They felt that it had failed to protect protestors during the civil rights campaigns

Question 34

(Personalities) Vietnam: Another point of division. What did radicals think of Vietnam?

Answer 34

Believed it was a racial war between the white American government and the Asian people of Vietnam.

Question 35

(Personalities) Vietnam: What did NAACP think of Vietnam?

Answer 35

They felt obliged to support it as they believed that any criticism would drive a wedge between the civil rights activists and the gov.

Question 36

(Personalities) Vietnam: Initially King did not criticise the campaign. What happened then?

Answer 36

• criticised by SNCC and other radical groups
• eventually felt a moral obligation to speak
• heightened tensions between King and NAACP

Question 37

(Effects of the tension) Creative tensions: What did Whitney Young argue?

Answer 37

That every time Malcolm X or Carmichael criticised the NUL it became easier to work with white politicians and business leaders. The criticisms persuaded white leaders that the NUL was a respectable organisation.

Question 38

(Effects of the tension) Destructive tensions: What were the negative effects of tension?

Answer 38

• damage to King’s rep
• showed King’s weakness
• fragmentation of the movement (NAACP, SCLC and NUL vs SNCC and CORE)

Question 39

Timeline: 1965

Answer 39

Watts Riots in Los Angeles

Question 40

Timeline: 1966

Answer 40

Shooting of James Meredith
James Farmer resigns as leader of CORE
SNCC embrasses self-defence and expels white members
NAACP and NUL walk out of negotiations with SCLC and SNCC

Question 41

Timeline: 1967

Answer 41

SNCC embrace the use of ‘revolutionary violence’

CORE expels white members