| Date | November 2018 | Marks available | 2 | Reference code | 18N.1.BP.TZ0.13 |
| Level | Both SL and HL | Paper | Paper 1 - first exams 2017 | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | What | Question number | 13 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
Source M
“White Citizens’ Councils”, an online article from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
at Stanford University in the US (date unknown).
In 1954, white segregationists throughout the South had created White Citizens’ Councils (WCCs) … Martin Luther King faced WCC attacks as soon as the Montgomery bus boycott began, and was a target of these groups throughout his career.
In January 1956, a month after the start of the boycott, the mayor of Montgomery joined the WCC, publicly declaring “I think every right-minded person in Montgomery, Alabama and the South should do the same. We must make certain that negroes are not allowed to force their demands on us” ... By the next month WCC membership had doubled. The WCC attempted multiple strategies to stop the boycott, from prosecuting the boycott organizers to pressuring insurance agencies throughout the South to cancel policies for church-owned vehicles. King appealed to President Eisenhower to investigate violence carried out by WCC members against the boycott organizers whose homes were bombed … The attorney general [the US government’s chief lawyer] responded to King’s appeal, writing that “the activities of the White Citizens’ Council do not appear to indicate violations of federal criminal statutes.”
Source N
Laura Gray, an artist and member of the Socialist Workers’ Party, depicts
the struggle for civil rights during the Montgomery bus boycott in the cartoon
“Freedom is Rising in the South” in the US magazine The Militant (26 March
1956).
[Source: Laura Gray/The Militant]
What, according to Source M, were the reactions to the bus boycott?
What does Source N suggest about the struggle for civil rights in 1956?
Markscheme
- Martin Luther King was immediately attacked by opponents of desegregation.
- The mayor of Montgomery joined the White Citizens’ Councils and appealed for others to do the same.
- White Citizens’ Council membership doubled.
- The White Citizens’ Councils deployed a range of strategies to halt the boycott.
The above 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. Award [1] for each relevant point up to a maximum of [3].
- African Americans were making headway in their challenge to racial discrimination.
- There was continued resistance to ending discrimination and/or resistance to ending discrimination was increasingly difficult.
- The struggle was developing in the South.
The above 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. Award [1] for each relevant point up to a maximum of [2].
