Ashford 5: – Week 4 – Discussion 1

A Single American Nation

 Background: When the First World War began, African-American leaders   pressed the government to provide black men the right to go to combat to   prove their devotion to their country. Hoping that their service would lay a   stake on citizenship that the nation would have no choice but to honor, the   “New Negro” of the 1920s adopted a more militant stance toward civil rights.   The civil rights struggle envisioned at the time, however, made few concrete   gains. Discrimination and disenfranchisement persisted.
 

  African-American leaders responded to the Second World War much as they had   to the First, offering their services while expecting recognition in return.   They intended to fight a “Double-V Campaign” against fascism abroad and   racism at home. They helped to kill fascism abroad; racist policies at home   survived, but only for a time. Less than a decade after the war ended, the   Brown case struck down the principle of “separate but equal” in schools. A   grass-roots movement emerged to challenge discrimination elsewhere. By 1965, nonviolent   means had murdered Jim Crow. Yet, the 60s were nothing if not a violent   decade, marred by war, riots, and assassinations. By the end of the decade,   Americans were as divided in some ways as they had ever been, and hopes for   integration into a single American nation largely gave way to an emphasis on   the unique needs and interests of different groups within the nation.
 

Resources: When writing your response, draw from material in the   following video: 

1. Beacham, T. Gilmartin, B.,        Grobman, S, Ling, C., & Rhee, V. (Producers), Libretto, J.        (Director). (2004).  Let freedom ring:        Moments from the civil rights movement, 1954-1965 [News program]. New York, NY:        NBC Universal. Retrieved from        http://digital.films.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx?Token=40565&aid=18596&Plt=FOD&loid=0&w=640&h=480&ref= 

Also in your response, draw from   at least   TWO of the documents listed below:

1. (1962).  “The bottom of the        economic totem pole”: African American women in the workplace. Retrieved from        http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6472 
2. (1962). The Port Huron        statement of the students for a democratic society. Retrieved from        http://www.h-net.org/~hst306/documents/huron.html 
3. (1969).  “The cycle of        poverty”: Mexican-American migrant farmworkers testify before Congress. Retrieved from        http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/7024  
4. (1970).  “We must destroy        the capitalistic system which enslaves us”: Stokely Carmichael advocates        black revolution.        Retrieved from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6461 
5. (1976).  “Self        determination of free peoples”: Founding documents of the American        Indian Movement (AIM).        Retrieved from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6897 
6. Steinem, G.        (1970).  “All our problems stem from the same sex based myths”:        Gloria Steinem delineates American gender myths during ERA hearings. Retrieved from        http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/7025  
7. Truscott, L. (1969, July        3).  Gay power comes to Sheridan Square. The Village Voice. Retrieved from        http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/stonewall-village-voice/ 

Instructions: After reviewing your Instructor’s Guidance and   completing the weekly reading assignments (including those in the resource section   below), please post a substantive discussion post of at least 200 words that   analyzes the development and success of the Civil Rights Movement using the   following questions as the basis of your analysis: 

• What precisely did the Civil        Right Movement gain?  
• What objectives did it fail        to achieve?  
• How were the approaches of        Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcom X to Civil Rights different? How were        they the same?  
• Why did so many new movements        emerge by the end of the 1960s? (i.e. regarding Native Americans, Women,        Chicanos, etc)  
• Was the nation more or less        divided in 1970 than it had been in 1950? 

Your initial post should be at   least 200 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the   required material(s) and properly cite any references. You may use additional   scholarly sources to support your points if you choose. Respond to at least   two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7 in at least 100 words. When responding   to classmates, you should refer to the material from one of the sources which   you did not reference in your initial post.