Anyways as I mentioned in my last post the Edexcel course is split into two parts. The second I studied consisted of American history, including the civil rights in the US 1945-68 and the US in Asia including Korea and Vietnam. I must admit I preferred this side of the course. Although I enjoyed both sides, I prefer writing essays to analysing sources. Plus the teacher I have is great =D. So to anybody who enjoys modern history this side of the course was great. Having never actually learnt about Vietnam despite it's infamous status, I found this course enlightening to say the least.
This exam was also 1 hour 20 mins long and consisted of 2 essay questions worth 30 marks each I think. I felt more confident going into this exam in that I knew I knew the content. However having looked at past essay questions I was aware of some pretty vile ones in the past. Having said this, you were given a choice of 2 for each essay, so I chose from 2 for civil rights and 2 for the US in Asia.
This blog is about the civil rights essay.
Question 1.
This question was probably the one that looking back I could have answered better. I think my essay stucture may have deteriorated slightly but hopefully this won't be any real issue as I was under a hell of a lot of pressure.
The choice of question was as follows;
To what extent did opportunities/the situation for African Americans improve in the years 45-55?
'The Black Power movement hindered the Civil Rights Movement' to what extent do you agree?
(or they were along these lines at least!)
Having done 2 practice essays on 45 to 55 I was relieved to see it as an option and went straight for it. I also liked Black Power as a topic but thought the essay was more complicated and difficult to actually answer.
So for this answer I tried to split my essay up into how the economic, social, legal, and political situation of African Americans improved throughout the period. I would advise you do this as it gives your essay structure and means you can explore the variations of improvement across seperate areas of life.
I started in my intro by outlining the different factors and a general opinion about improvement to be explored throughout.
I then did a very short paragraph about the situation of African Americans in 1945, to help illistrate any improvements made.
Then I split my essay up as I said before, and will bullet point the sort of things I wrote (or could have written if I had more time =D)
Economic
Improved
- Northern migration continued, decline of Southern plantations, got jobs in defence industry, able to retain higher wages.
- Work of President Truman, FEPC continuation, fair employment laws in place in many cities by 1955.
- Truman issued executive orders to ban discrimination in defence contracts.
- Congress eventually refused to continue funding the FEPC, plus even when it had been in practice, 2 thirds of 8000 job discriminations had been dismissed by them.
- Truman could only control defence contracts run by government and employers avoided fair employment laws to continue discrimination.
- Only real improvement in the North.
- African Americans were still less economicall priviledged than whites in both North and South, e.g. Northern A.As lived in ghettos.
Improved
- Truman desegregation of the armed forces in 1948, black troops arguably widely praised for their part in the war.
- Work of CORE and the NAACP, also links to legal with cases like the famous 1954 Brown case overturning legal ground for 'seperate but equal'
- Truman promoted black civil rights, e.g. he was the first president to campaign in Harlem (a predominantly black area of New York) and address the NAACP directly.
- Overall attitudes seem to begin to change.
- In the South black people were still widely mistreated and were by no means equal anywhere in the US.
- In the Deep South a black soldier trying to register to vote was beaten up and a black soldier in a bus was blinded.
- The case of Emmett Till, young black boy killed in Mississippi in 1955 for supposedly 'wolf whistling' at a white woman.
- The case of Autherine Lucy, expelled from her uni for being black in 1955.
- Despite the Brown case, many schools refused to desegregate and there was a white backlash, with the revival of the KKK and the formation of White Citizens Councils.
- Social tensions in the North increased as black and white people fought for the same jobs.
- Generally despite limited examples of improvement, African Americans were still second-class citizens, or even worse.
Improved
- NAACP had many victories in the Supreme Court, such as Morgan vs. Virginia, Sweatt vs. Painter and the Brown case.
- Plessy vs Ferguson was thus basically overturned and 'seperate but equal eroded'. (see social section)
- Congress refused to pass any civil rights legislation.
- Jim Crow laws remained intact in the South.
- Backlash caused by Brown case and refusal to desegregate (see social section) and some schools even closed rather than desegregate.
- Hard to enforce Supreme Court rulings nationally, not enough media attention given to them.
- 1955 Brown II ruling said desegregation should happen with 'all deliberate speed' showed even Supreme Court unwilling to commit to a time frame for desegregation.
Improved
- 1947 Truman set up a commision who issued 'To Secure These Rights', a report which arguably put civil rights on the political agenda.
- The number of black people registered to vote increase. (There is a figure but I have forgotten it already-honestly it shows how these tests are mostly bloody memory ones!!!)
- Black people still under-represented. Although the number registered to vote increased it was not enough.
- Congress refused to pass voting registration.
- 'To Secure These Rights' was watered down in the end due to Trumans wish to be elected in his own right in 1948.
- There were still measures in place in the South to prevent African Americans from voting, such as the poll tax and voter registration tests with impossible questions.
Overall there was some improvement but it was slow, isolated and extremely limited due to many factors. Economic situation arguably improved the most but only really in the North and even then African Americans were deprived in comparison to whites.
Hope this is useful if you are doing this course too!
I'll blog about the second question on the USA in Asia tommorrow as this post is already too long! =D
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