Civil Rights DBQ

Use the following sources to:

Evaluate what factors caused the Civil Rights Movement and to what extent did Americans react
to the ongoing of separate but equal?

Document 1
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor
having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right
there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys
and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every
valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be
made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2 This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back
to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone
of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a
beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray
together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing
that we will be free one day.
-Marther Luther King Jr, I Have a Dream Speech (1963)

Document 2
We commend the community as a whole, and the local news media and law enforcement
officials in particular, on the calm manner in which these demonstrations have been handled. We
urge the public to continue to show restraint should the demonstrations continue, and the law
enforcement officials to remain calm and continue to protect our city from violence.
We further strongly urge our own Negro community to withdraw support from these
demonstrations, and to unite locally in working peacefully for a better Birmingham. When rights
are consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local
leaders, and not in the streets. We appeal to both our white and Negro citizenry to observe the
principles of law and order and common sense.
-A Call for Unity (1963)
Document 3

Document 4
Document 5
The black masses have refused to vote, or to take part in politics, because they reject the Uncle
Tom approach of the Negro leadership that has been handpicked for them by the white man.
These Uncle Tom leaders do not speak for the Negro majority; they don't speak for the black
masses. They speak for the "black bourgeoisie," the brainwashed, white-minded, middle-class
minority who are ashamed of black, and don't want to be identified with the black masses, and
are therefore seeking to lose their "black identity" by mixing, mingling, intermarrying, and
integrating with the white man.
The white conservatives aren't friends of the Negro either, but they at least don't try to hide it.
They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of
where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the
Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the
conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into
the open jaws of the "smiling" fox.
-Malcom X, Chicken Come Home to Roost (1963)

Document 6

This section of the park is for the use of whites only

-Political Cartoon
Document 7
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
-14Th Amendment