Coursework mini session: MLK

Problem 1: The big picture One of your key elements in this coursework is your 100 year coverage. This is not just about looking at individual leaders/events in an isolated context, but about the big picture and tracking the Civil Rights movement, its leaders and their impact throughout the 100 year period. Whilst your individual events/leaders are important, you need to place them in the context of what is happening at the time, what has happened before and what will go on to happen. If you don’t do this then there are issues such as: You will not account for large periods of time, such as the early 20th Century That the leader that you are focusing on is the only one in operation at that time. You should keep in mind the time period and context in which they are a live and the opportunity to be able to make a difference, that will have an impact on how significant they are. Consequently, you should be referring to individuals in more than one theme, as there ability to have an impact will be a result of different skills, just like King. DON’T PANIC - On the whole, much of the things you will be adding in will be brief and in some ways will form part of your explanation in to why there is an anomaly or not.

Lets start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start… You need to be bringing in the big picture and the 100 year coverage in your introduction. You can do this by: Mentioning the time frame (ie. 1884-1984) Briefly looking at the how Civil Rights have progressed over this period

Criteria This proving to be a challenge for some. And before you rush to write it down you should think about: What would you expect to see if they are the most significant? You should think about the impact they have on both gaining support for the movement (both black and white people), the impact the have on improving Civil Rights. Judgement Think very carefully about what you want to say and what judgement you want running through. Don’t try and make your life too difficult; King has this reputation for a reason, though you are right to highlight his flaws.

Historians Which ever historian you are looking at, you need to remember they have not written a book about your question. Whilst there are parts of the book that will apply, you should not bend their arguments to ‘fit’. If the historians cover it then you should refer to what they say (such as Hodgson does look at Booker T Washington) and you should look to other historians to help you with your other events/people. Therefore they should not have to appear in every paragraph, what should be there though is your judgement and how the evidence is supporting it.

100 years Booker T Washington (1880s and 1890s to WW1). An early example of Black Civil Rights working with white leaders Web du Bois (1890s – 1900s to 1940s). He also creates the NWACP in 1909 and also encourages black people to fight during WW1. A Philip Randolph started to emerge as a civil rights leader during WW1 and is another example of an early leader working with white leaders. He generally took a different angle to du bois and argued that men should not fight. Despite this we do see black Americans involved during WW1, such as the Harlem Hell Fighters. Randolph is prominent during the 1920s and 30s, whilst we see lynching and the KKK in its prime. We also see the federal government prepared to intervene as little as possible and even when Roosevelt came in to power, he was from the South like many other people in government at that time and therefore wanted to very little with regards to segregation. WW2 – Whilst the issue of race was put to bed during the war, once the war had ended the Cold War started and so did the fight to against the Soviets and to show them and the rest of the world they had a more superior way of life. Therefore they needed to start addressing the race issues that had continued for so long. We also see the emergence of a new generation of black leaders, such as MLK. King and his supporters formed a new organisation - the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. They adopted new methods and tactics in the struggle for equality, and found considerable success in doing so. To help get you started on some of the wide context there are a couple of section on pre- war and post-war race relations on the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/history/usa/

1954 we start to see real change taking place with the Board vs 1954 we start to see real change taking place with the Board vs. Brown ruling and government intervention during Little Rock. We also see the Civil Rights movement start to take shape with the Montgomery bus boycotts in 1955 through to the March on Washington and the ‘I have a Dream Speech’ in 1863 and the march through Selma in ’65. During this time we also see more significant progress with both the Civil Rights Act 1964 and the Voting Act 1965. After 1968 and the death of King, we then start to see a dip in the movement where it is difficult to determine the impact of both the Black Panthers and Black Power during the 70s. This continues into the 1980s and 90s and Jesse Jackson who runs a close race as a Democrat candidate, but fails. By this time society are struggling to change more than the laws and there is also the reversal of affirmative action by Regan which also takes the movement of the political agenda.

Value of primary sources When you talk about value with your primary source you only need to look at it in terms of the insight it gives you to that particular leader at that time. You need to remember that the aim is to have between 350-400 words per a source and therefore most of that will need to be on value. Once you have gone through provenance, tone and a couple of context/arguments in this way you then need a sentence at the end which will then link it back to the question. Such as, ‘Despite the fact that the source says……… about Washington, King was still more significant because….’ When you are doing King then you should be automatically linking it back to the question.

Women and the Civil Rights movement 1880 – Washer women and 1880-1900s – Ida B Wells (some clear progress made with regards to civil rights and women – though sporadic and quite isolated events) 1910-1920 - New Jersey state federation of coloured women and Mary Mcleod Bethune also had an impact on education. Between WW1 and WW2 women get the vote and the role of women in society and the movement start to change. Septima Clark also starts to get involved in the movement and will continue into the 1960s. However, they only start to have a big shift in their role and their contribution to the movement in the 1950s (along side the shift in the movement as a whole due t the Cold War and the emergence of new leaders). Rosa Parks and Daisy Bates both are known for their involvement and then moving into the 1960s we also see Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Dorothy Height and Fannie Lou Hamer. Bridge leadership is instrumental during this period. Moving into the 1970s and there is a dip with women and their involvement Civil Rights Movement, which partly down to the direction it has taken which was more masculine, as can be seen with the Black Panthers and Black Power movements. Though there were still some women involved such as Shirley Chisholm and the National Women’s Political Caucus founded in 1971. There is then the more recent success of groups such as the Black Lives Matter which emerged in 2013. There are also other groups to look at such as the National Council of Negro Women and Young Women’s Christian Association.