Examiner's Specific Advice

An argument is required that considers the extent to which Federal governments helped or hindered African Americans gain their civil rights between 1865 and 1992. The essay should look at each of the three elements: presidents, Congress and the Supreme Court. American presidents can be deemed to have both helped and hindered advancement. Grant, McKinley, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford and Carter all helped in various ways and degrees but the majority of presidents, notably between 1877 and 1897, 1909 and 1933, and 1981 and 1992, showed opposition or only gave lukewarm support. The US Congress was important as it was the only means by which legislation could be introduced to establish and protect civil rights, whether by amendments to the Constitution or by Acts, but it could both assist and handicap the interests of pro-civil rights presidents. Significantly there was no civil rights legislation between 1875 and 1957. The role of the Supreme Court became increasingly important when states, especially in the South, upheld the Jim Crow laws and Black Codes. It consistently hindered civil rights until the Guinn case in 1915. Thereafter judgements condemning segregation and discrimination occurred intermittently but quickened from the 1930s due to the work of the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall. Candidates could usefully cite a range of landmark cases and should be aware that in the 1970s some judgements, such as Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Bakke v the University of California, concerned the sensitive issue of positive discrimination in favour of the civil rights movement. Candidates may approach this question in different ways, though the three federal elements should be treated fairly evenly and synthesised across the whole period in a coherent and detailed analysis. There is no need to assess the role of African Americans themselves or other influences that may have helped advance their civil rights.

Exemplar Question

1. How far did the Federal government hinder the development of African American civil rights in the period 1865–1992? [60 marks]

 

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