| Date | November 2018 | Marks available | 6 | Reference code | 18N.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
Jamie Wilson, a professor of history, writing in the student reference book
The Civil Rights Movement (2013).
The boycott was an overwhelming success … Ministers and activists formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to direct the protest, coordinate transportation for boycotters, garner [gain] support from individuals and organizations in and out of the state, and enter into negotiations with the bus company and city officials. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was elected president of the organization … His acceptance of the position was the beginning of his career as a civil rights leader ... The mayor and the city officials claimed that the separation of the races was ordained [ordered] by God and social custom, and white Montgomerians retaliated against the boycotters with harassment and violence … When they were not taunted by white residents on their way to and from work, black boycotters were harassed by telephone ... Police officers stopped, fined, and arrested car pool drivers on trumped-up [invented] charges.
The boycott ended after 381 days and was a key victory in the Civil Rights Movement. Local people, the educated and uneducated, the wealthy and the poor, demonstrated to people around the country, especially to those in other southern cities, that African Americans could organize themselves to abolish a system that had oppressed them for decades.
[Source: Republished with permission of ABC-CLIO Inc, from Jamie J. Wilson, Civil Rights Movement
(Landmarks of the American Mosaic), Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, January 24, 2013;
permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.]
Source P
Robert Graetz’s letter to the editor of the US current affairs magazine Time
(22 December 1955).
Dear Sir:
I am writing this letter to you, because I have long been impressed with the fair and unbiased treatment you give in your news stories.
There is a story in the making here in Montgomery. I am referring to the protest which negroes (and many whites) of Montgomery are making against the local bus company ... The local newspapers have consistently printed one-sided stories about developments in this protest. They have at times omitted [left out] relevant facts that would have put a much more favorable light on what the negroes are asking for …
I am a white Lutheran minister, serving a negro congregation. I cannot even give my own church members a ride in my car without fear of being stopped by the police and accused of running a taxi … If you want a good look at the way a one-way press and a one-race police force band together to discredit fifty thousand people who are tired of being treated like animals on the city buses … then I urge you to send a reporter to Montgomery as soon as possible. …
I respectfully request that the contents of this letter be kept confidential until such time as they have been verified [checked] by you.
Sincerely yours,
Robert Graetz
Compare and contrast what Sources O and P reveal about the Montgomery bus boycott.
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 indicate the involvement of members of the Church in support of the boycott.
- Both sources indicate that there was white opposition to the boycott and/or the use of the police to intimidate the boycotters.
- Both sources indicate that the boycott was having a significant impact in Montgomery during the time in question.
Contrasts:
- Source P demonstrates that there was some white support for the bus boycott whereas Source O asserts that African Americans “could organize themselves to abolish a system that had oppressed them for decades”, which could be inferred to mean that it was an exclusively black protest.
- Source O suggests that segregation was ordained by God whereas Source P demonstrates that some religious leaders supported desegregation.
- Source O focuses on the intimidation of blacks by whites whereas Source P indicates that white anti-segregationists were also subject to intimidation.
