Lesson Plans -- Student
The Civil Rights Movement in America
 A Document-Based Question
By Brandy Mohr
History 530B, Spring 2003

Directions: Using the documents (1-8) provided, analyze the impact of the Civil Rights Movement in America from 1954-1968. As you answer this question, be sure to take into account the documents, any biases they may contain, and additional information that you may have.

Background Information: United States History has been a history of struggle: struggle to overcome opposition and oppression; struggle to gain rights of access and opportunity; struggle to gain freedom. That struggle is clearly visible in the case of African-Americans and their struggle for legal, political, and social equality. Following the American Civil War, blacks were given equal protection under the law, rights of citizenship, and the vote. Despite having these freedoms granted legally, blacks were continually denied equal access and opportunity in the United States. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court legalized the separation of blacks and whites in all facets of social life from train cars to schools. The legalized segregation of the races resulted in limited opportunities and unequal access to education, employment, and representation. It was not until 1954, after two World Wars, that the Supreme Court would reverse that decision in Brown v. Board of Education. This Supreme Court ruling marked the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement that emerged in the United States, and played a significant role in public opinion and policies until the end of the 1960s.

Part A: Short Answer

Directions: After reading and analyzing the documents, complete the following questions, basing your answers on the document and information provided. Your answers do not have to be in complete sentences.

Document 1.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States of America.

-Constitution of the United States, Preamble

1. Identify at least two reasons why it was important to establish the Constitution.

Document 2

People are always saying to me, you are in the University of Mississippi, and thats the important fact. But so many unusual unique things have been a part of my stay here that I seriously doubt that I am in a true sense a student of the university. I'm inclined to go along with the diehard segregationists on this point. Just having a Negro in residence does not mean that the university has been integrated. Most of the time, I am perhaps the most segregated Negro in the world

If a white student sits down and drinks a cup of coffee with me, or walks with me across the campus, he is subjected to unhampered intimidation and harassment. I have been denied my privileges all along, but these whites have not been. Now they have lost a simple freedom. This sets back the Negro, because anytime you move backward, the person already down suffers more. This campaign, which apparently has been permitted to go on, really results in a reduction of everybody's rights.

-James Meredith, First Negro admitted to University of Mississippi, 1963

2. In your own words explain why Meredith thinks that simply being admitted to the University is not a sign of integration?

3. Why does Meredith feel that he is the "most segregated Negro in the world?"

Document 3

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

-Martin Luther King Jr., Excerpt from "I Have a Dream," 1963

4. What are the goals that Dr. King outlined for the Civil Rights Movement?

Document 4

 Recounting her experience at a 1963 Sit-in at Woolworths

At noon, students from a nearby white high school started pouring in to Woolworth's. When they first saw us they were sort of surprised. They didn't know exactly how to react. A few started to heckle and the newsmen became interested again. Then the white students started chanting all kinds of anti-Negro slogans. We were called a little bit of everything. The rest of the seats except the three we were occupying had been roped off to prevent others from sitting down. A couple of boys took one end of the rope and made it into a hangman's noose. Several attempts were made to put it around our necks. The crowd grew as more students and adults came in for lunch.

The mob started smearing us with ketchup, mustard, sugar, pies, and everything on the counter. Soon Joan and I were joined by John Salter, but the moment he sat down he was hit on the jaw with what appeared to be brass knuckles. Blood gushed from his face and someone threw salt into the open wound.About ninety policemen were standing outside the store; they had been watching the whole thing through the windows, but had not come in to stop the mob or do anything.

-Anne Moody, 1968

5. How did white students react to the Sit-in?

Document 5



Police use dogs to quell civil unrest in Birmingham, Ala., in May 1963. Birmingham's police commissioner "Bull" Connor also allowed fire hoses to be turned on young civil rights demonstrators. These measures set off a backlash of sentiment that rejuvenated the flagging civil rights movement.

-AP photo, 1963

6. What was one role that the police played in the Civil Rights Movement?

7. Why did these actions increase interest and enthusiasm around the Civil Rights Movement?

Document 6

AN ACT To enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes.
SEC. 2. No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.

-Excerpt from the 1965 Voting Rights Act

8. In your own words, explain what did the Voting Rights Act do?

Document 7

One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to this point there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghettos and the black-belt South. There has been only a "civil rights" movement, whose tone of voice was adapted to an audience of middle-class whites. It served as a sort of buffer zone between that audience and angry young blacks. It claimed to speak for the needs of a community, but it did not speak in the tone of that community. None of its so-called leaders could go into a rioting community and be listened to. In a sense, the blame must be shared--along with the mass media--by those leaders for what happened in Watts, Harlem, Chicago, Cleveland, and other places. Each time the black people in those cities saw Dr. Martin Luther King get slapped they became angry. When they saw little black girls bombed to death in a church and civil rights workers ambushed and murdered, they were angrier; and when nothing happened, they were steaming mad. We had nothing to offer that they could see, except to go out and be beaten again. We helped to build their frustration.

-Stokely Carmichael, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, 1967

9. Why did Carmichael feel that the Civil Rights Movement was unsuccessful?

Document 8

Reaction to last summer's disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.

[Change] will require a commitment to national action--compassionate, massive and sustained, backed by the resources of the most powerful and the richest nation on this earth. From every American it will require new attitudes, new understanding, and, above all, new will

-Excerpt from the Kerner Report, following an investigation of urban riots and unrest in the summers beginning in 1964, released in 1968

10. According to the Kerner Report were racial relations in America improving or deteriorating in the mid 1960s (be sure to provide evidence for your answer)?

Part B: Essay


Directions: Write a well-organized essay including an introductory paragraph, multiple body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Remember to include a clear thesis statement in your introductory paragraph. The body of your essay should contain relevant historical information drawn from at least six (6) of the documents provided and additional outside information.

Task: Using the documents provided, your analysis, and outside information, write an essay in which you:
Guidelines: .

Grading Guidelines
Part A:
Full Credit: students must fully answer the question based upon the document
Partial Credit: student either provides some true and some false information or does not fully answer the question
No Credit: student does not provide any answer or a completely incorrect answer

Examples of full credit responses to short answer questions (these are not the only acceptable or possible answers):
1. At least two of the following: Justice, general welfare, liberty, defense, domestic tranquility or stability, future generations
2. Being admitted is not enough because people still do not treat him like he belongs there, he is ostracized, he is not a full student there, everyone is suffering/losing their rights
3. He is the only one there, whites ignore him, feels like he is fighting alone, overwhelmed
4. At least two of the following: Social mobility, justice, equal access to housing, hotels, voting rights, blacks move out of ghettos
5. Angry, shocked, surprised, violently, attempt to put nooses around protesters neck, smear them with food, name-calling
6. Held back black protestors, violently, not nice because they let dogs bite unarmed people, mean, careless
7. Made people angry about discrimination, allowed more people to see what was going on, aroused emotional responses
8. Ended poll taxes, grandfather clauses, gave blacks more or equal access to the polls, supported or enhanced the 15th amendment
9. Too passive, did not take into account anger of many blacks, pandered to middle class white people, did not provide blacks with a sense of community, increased racial tensions and frustrations
10. No rioting was occurring, people were more conscious of racial divisions and everyone was suffering

Part B

Full Credit: In order to receive full credit students must thoroughly address all aspects of the question by interpreting at least six of the documents and incorporating outside evidence. Full credit responses would also include: Partial Credit: Students would receive partial credit for their response if they only partially addressed the question. Students receiving partial credit would have demonstrated a basic understanding of the question and task and may have neglected some aspect of the task. Points may also be deducted for: No Credit: A student would receive no credit for failing to write a response, using completely inaccurate or false information or answering a question completely different from that provided.

Rationale for This DBQ, Its Design and Document Choice


This DBQ is designed to focus students attention on the necessity and the purposes of the Civil Rights Movement, and at the same time allow students to build and refine their skills of argumentation. This question would be given to students after they had learned about the Civil Rights Movement and would assess their understanding of that material. The documents provided will provide students with some of the evidence necessary to support a coherent argument. At the same time, students should be able to provide outside information to supplement the documents and their argument. This will provide students with practice for answering DBQs on the Regents and gaining an understanding of the way in which they should be thinking in terms of making arguments and providing evidence in support of that argument.

This question is also designed to make students think about the Civil Rights Movement in a critical light. Too often we simply look at the movement as a heroic example of people overcoming great obstacles without ever taking a close look at just what the movement accomplished. I have selected documents that illuminate not only the goals of the movement, but also some of its successes (i.e. the Voting Rights Act). I have also included critics of the movement and the Kerner report that calls into question the success of the movement. Students can either argue that the Civil Rights Movement was a success, failure, or perhaps that it was a qualified success or failure. Regardless of how students choose to answer the question, I hope that this question and these documents will challenge them to think about the past through a critical lens.

In choosing these documents, I purposely avoided a few major events such as key court cases, the Little Rock 9, the Civil Rights Acts, and the bus boycott because I thought that they would serve as useful and effective sources of outside information. Choosing less well-known documents allows students to capitalize on their own knowledge and expand their understanding of the Civil Rights Movement at the same time. For example none of the documents directly mention civil disobedience or peaceful protest, but many of them hint at or imply it. When students begin to analyze and discuss these documents they should mention and incorporate civil disobedience. Consequently, they will be bringing in outside information.

I would generally prefer to include more than one image in a DBQ for students to analyze. In this particular case and with the goals that I had in mind, however, I felt that the personal narratives and texts told a more vivid story. For example Moody's account of the sit-in revealed far more than a cartoon depicting a similar scene. Likewise, Carmichael's incisive glimpse into the shortcomings of the Civil Rights Movement was far more illustrative than a Black Panther cartoon.

Explanation of the Documents:

Doc. 1: Preamble of the United States Constitution
http://www.house.gov.constitution/constitution.html
I selected the preamble of the Constitution as the first document in the DBQ because it sets the foundation for the purpose of the movement: justice, liberty, and general welfare. All too often the Civil Rights Movement is analyzed in terms of the rights of African Americans with regards to the 14th and 15th amendments. I want my students to be aware and conscious of racial tensions and struggles that have existed from the inception of this nation, not just the Civil War.

Doc 2: James Meredith quote about being the most segregated Negro in the World
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6326/
I selected this quote because I wanted students to see that integration went beyond simply a mixing of blacks and whites. True integration would also mean a change in mindset so that blacks and whites would not feel isolated when they were in the company of the other race and that whites would not extend their oppression over other whites. I thought that this was a compelling example and useful in that it would help remind students of the 9 children integrated after the Brown ruling. This document provides an excellent bridge between outside information and document-based information

Doc. 3: Martin Luther King Jr., I Have A Dream Speech, 1963
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/mlkdream.htm
I selected this segment of King's Speech because it clearly outlined what the goals and focus of the movement were. This paragraph reveals a tight focus for the movement and will allow students to zero in on the necessary information. Students should be familiar with this speech and can incorporate other aspects of it into their essay as well. Using this speech also allows students to bring in their own knowledge and understanding of King's use of peace and passive resistance in the Movement, both of which he talks about in the full version of the speech.

Doc. 4: Anne Moody's account of the Woolworth Sit-in
http://azimuth.harcourtcollege.com/history/ayers/chapter29/29.1.comingofage.html
I selected this segment of Anne Moody's account because it was such a vivid account of the sit-ins and the type of reactions that blacks and whites received while protesting. Not only does this segment reveal the violence and aggression the many blacks faced simply for sitting at a lunch counter, it also reveals the role that the police played allowing such violence and aggression to occur. This passage is important in an analysis of the Civil Rights Movement because it reveals the hope and tenacity of blacks as well as the resistance to change. It is important in this DBQ because it plays into the importance of mindset and the necessity for change to go beyond the laws, as Meredith noted in Doc. 2. This passage is also important because it implies the ideas of peaceful protest and civil disobedience, two concepts that were very important in the Civil Rights Movement.

Doc. 5: AP photo of police dog
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/mlk/man/photogallery/1963-65/photo17.html
I selected this AP photograph because it is such a powerful image. I want students to understand that race was such a divisive issue that even police, who were supposed to be on the side of justice, did not always uphold the law and support the peaceful protests of blacks. This photo is also important because it is so emotionally provocative. As the caption notes, this image reinvigorated the Civil Rights Movement. I have specifically asked why students think that this picture may have had this effect. If students can understand this concept they have begun to understand why civil disobedience was such an effective tactic. My hope is that this picture will prompt that thought and allow students to bring in civil disobedience and peaceful protest as a tactic of the Civil Rights movement.

Doc. 6: Voting Rights Act of 1965
http://hcl.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/dye/docs/votrit65.htm
I thought that it was important to include at least one piece of legislation that was passed as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. The Voting Rights Act is important because it ties into the heart of the movement (freedom riders, voter registration drives, etc) and with the segment of the I Have A Dream speech that is outlined in an earlier document. Students can use this piece of legislation as a mark of success for the Civil Rights Movement. Hopefully this Act will also remind students of the Civil Rights Acts and the future amendments to the Voting Rights Act.

Doc. 7: Stokely Carmichael, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, 1967
http://azimuth.harcourtcollege.com/history/ayers/chapter29/29.1.blackpower.html
I incorporated Carmichael's writing because it clearly articulates why members of the black community were disillusioned and frustrated with the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was a massive movement, but it is important for students to recognize that not all blacks agreed with or were part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Doc. 8: Kerner Report, 1968
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6545/
The Kerner Report is important for reasons similar to the Carmichael piece. The report reveals the tension and problems that still exist in the United States. The report seems to indicate the there is still a lot of work to be done in repairing the rift that has developed between blacks and whites. It is important that students realize that change is a process and occurs over a period of time.