| Date | May 2018 | Marks available | 6 | Reference code | 18M.1.BP.TZ0.15 |
| Level | Both SL and HL | Paper | Paper 1 - first exams 2017 | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | Compare and contrast | Question number | 15 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
Source O
George C Wallace, Governor of Alabama, in a speech delivered the day after the US President had signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, “The Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham and Hoax” (4 July 1964).
[This Act] is a sham, and a hoax [trick]. This law will live in infamy [shame] … Never before in the history of this nation have so many human rights been destroyed by a single Act of Congress. It is an act of tyranny. It is the assassin’s knife stuck in the back of liberty.
Today this tyranny is imposed by the central federal government which claims the right to rule over our lives ... Every person in every aspect of our daily lives becomes subject to the criminal provisions [clauses] of this bill. It makes the exercise of our freedoms a federal crime … I am having nothing to do with this so-called Civil Rights Bill.
We will not stand idly by while the [US] Supreme Court continues to invade the prerogatives [powers] left [granted] rightly to the states by the American constitution.
A left wing monster has risen up in this nation. It has invaded the government … and it intends to destroy the freedom and liberty of you and me … Red China and Soviet Russia are prime examples of what will happen.
[Source: Permission granted by Alabama Department of Archives and History]
Source P
Lyndon B Johnson, president of the US, reacts to the racist attacks during the Selma March in a speech to the US Congress (15 March 1965).
Every device [method] of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny the negro the right to vote. The negro citizen may go to register [for the vote] only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name or because he abbreviated a word on the application … The fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin …
The real hero of this struggle is the American negro. His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this nation … And who among us can say that we would have made the same progress were it not for his persistent bravery, and his faith in American democracy.
[Source: Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the US: “Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise,” March 15, 1965]
Compare and contrast what Sources O and P reveal about the attitudes of political leaders towards civil rights reform.
Markscheme
Apply the markbands that provide the “best fit” to the responses given by candidates and award credit wherever it is possible to do so. The following material is an indication of what candidates may elect to write about in their responses. It is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive and no set answer is required.
Comparisons:
• Both sources claim to advance the cause of freedom.
• Both sources show political leaders are highly emotive in their analysis of civil rights.
• Both sources express discontent with the current situation.
Contrasts:
• Source O Wallace expresses total opposition to Lyndon Johnson’s legislation because it represents a tyrannical attack on freedom whereas in Source P Lyndon Johnson sees his legislation as advancing freedom.
• Source O’s argument is mainly based upon constitutional matters (the power of federal government relative to states’ rights) whereas Source P’s argument focuses upon the question of racial discrimination and the obstacles placed in the way of voting rights for African-Americans.
• Source P claims that the purpose of the civil rights legislation is to deal with an internal American problem whereas Source O asserts that this legislation is part of a left-wing attempt to destroy human rights, and that it will lead to circumstances akin to the situation in Red China and the Soviet Union.
