You are required to answer three questions from Part B. Write a short essay, at least 400 words long, for each answer. Focus your response on the question; and, "own" your answers.
Answer any three of the following 8 questions.
1. Segregation, a social system based on a long history of prejudices and discrimination, was deeply entrenched in people's minds as well as in the culture. How did segregation manifest itself in daily life in the South? How did segregation disenfranchise black Americans?
2. "Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, American society was sharply segregated along color lines. Supported by both law and custom, the Jim Crow system-late nineteenth-century rules and regulations that codified a long tradition of prejudice, dehumanization, and discrimination- created separate and unequal services, employment, and housing for blacks and whites.
The first episode traces events that brought this discrimination and violence to public awareness and the awakening of the nascent civil rights movement. (Blackside, 1986, ‘Awakenings')".Considering the resultant context, what is the difference between desegregation and integration? What is required for each?
3. What is the evidence that American youth of college age participated in the ACRM during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s? Describe a youth organization you know participated in some of the biggest campaigns of the ACRM.
4. In his civil rights address of June 11, 1963, President Kennedy points to several contradictions inherent in twentieth-century American democracy. What were they? Why did they become especially significant in June 1963?
5. In his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", MLK wrote about the "degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness'" prevalent among blacks in America. What did he mean by the term ‘nobodiness'? How, according to the King's letter, do indignities like name-calling rob blacks of their individuality and humanity? Can you think of other examples in which people are made to feel like "nobodies" because of the way they're treated?
6. "Four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for her defiant bus ride, local activists recruited a young minister to lead their struggle against segregation in Montgomery ... twenty-six-year-old Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ... to lead the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association ... on December 5, 1955 ... at the Holt Street Baptist Church ... King ... laid out the plan for the Montgomery bus boycott and a new vision for American democracy". What kind of struggle did King propose? What principles did King cite as a foundation for the struggle?
7. Episode 5 of the video series EOTP explores the "voter registration drive and the racist backlash of intimidation and violence that followed". What strategies were employed by activists during "Freedom Summer" to reverse years of intimidation, segregation, and discrimination in Mississippi? How did the various components of the program connect?
8. Is the American Civil Rights Movement over? Georgia Congressman John Lewis probably will answer "not yet". Would you agree or disagree with the Congressman? Take a stand and explain why you agree or disagree
Extra Credit. 5 Points each. Answer only one of the following questions
9. Episode 6 of eyes on the prize, "bridge to freedom"... What different strategies did activists in Selma, Alabama use to draw national attention to discrimination in voting rights?
10. Would you recommend to others the course BST 204, Intro to African American History II - Great Depression to American Civil Rights Movement? Why or, why not? Considering your experience in that course, please explain in a short essay.