Document Based Essay Question
June 2008 (Adapted)
Historical Context:Imperialism, discrimination, and violence are problems that the world has had to face. Various people throughout history have made attempts to resolve these issues.
Task: Using the information from the documents and your knowledge of world history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A. Your answers to the questions will help you write thePart B essay in which you will be asked to:
Select two problems mentioned in the historical context and for each
• Describe the problem
• Discuss attempts made to address and/or resolve the problem
Question:
From the 1950s to 1970s leaders of the Civil Rights movement used various methods to affect change. Analyze the types of resistance and the extent to which the methods successfully advanced the movement.
Part A
Short-Answer Questions
Directions: Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that follow each document in the space provided.
Document 1
. . . EDITOR: Passive resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant [offensive] to my conscience, I use soul-force. For instance, the Government of the day has passed a law which is applicable to me. I do not like it. If by using violence I force the Government to repeal the law, I am employing what may be termed body-force. If I do not obey the law and accept the penalty for its breach, I use soul-force. It involves sacrifice of self. Everybody admits that sacrifice of self is infinitely superior to sacrifice of others. Moreover, if this kind of force is used in a cause that is unjust, only the person using it suffers. He does not make others suffer for his mistakes. Men have before now done many things which were subsequently found to have been wrong. No man can claim that he is absolutely in the right or that a particular thing is wrong because he thinks so, but it is wrong for him so long as that is his deliberate judgment. It is therefore meet [proper] that he should not do that which he knows to be wrong, and suffer the consequence whatever it may be. This is the key to the use of soul-force. . . .
Source: M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, Navajivan Publishing House, 1946
- What contribution did Mohandas Gandhi make to the Indian independence movementaccording to this document?
______
Document 2
. . . Campaigns to reform discriminatory laws through nonviolent action—such as the civil rights movements in the United States—are one example of how human rights have been advanced through the use of nonviolent action. More significant, however, has been the remarkable upsurge [rise] in nonviolent insurrections [uprisings] against authoritarian regimes. Many of the individual revolts have received major media attention—such as those in China, the Philippines and Eastern Europe—and certain political consequences of these largely prodemocracy movements have been analyzed. However, there has been little recognition of the significance of the increasing utilization of nonviolent methods to affect change in nations where guerrilla warfare from below or gradualisticreform from above were once seen as the only alternatives. Despite the diffusion of nonviolence as a conscious strategy through movements around the world in recent decades, little is understood about how or why nonviolence works as a technique for securing social change. “Nonviolence” is not even a category in the mainstream academiclexicon [vocabulary]. . . .
- What impact did the use of nonviolent action have on global history according to StephenZunes?
______
Document 3
“…You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood…”
-Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963)
- According to Document 3, what does Martin Luther King Jr. say is necessary for growth?
______
Document 4
“…Why do you want to drive away the English?
…Because India has become impoverished by their Government. They take away our money from year to year. The most important posts are reserved for themselves. We are kept in a state of slavery. They behave insolently (disrespectfully) towards us and disregard out feelings…”
5) Based on the document, identify one criticism Gandhi expressed about British rule.
______
Document 5
“We believe it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life Wealso believe that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them, the people have a further right to alter it or abolish it. The British Government of India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has exploited the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually. We believe, therefore, that India must sever (break) the British connection and attain PurnaSwaraj or Complete Independence.”
6) According to Gandhi, how has British rule in India hurt the Indians?
______
7) According to Document 5, what is Gandhi asking the people of India to do?
______
Document 6
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1 — All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Article 3 — Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4 — No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade
shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5 — No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
Article 9 — No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 13 — 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence
within the borders of each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and
to return to his country.
Article 14 — Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum
from persecution.
Article 15 — Everyone has the right to a nationality.
Article 18 — Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Article 19 — Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
Article 20 — Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
Article 21 — Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country,
directly or through freely chosen representatives.
8.) State two human rights listed in this document.
(1) ______
______
(2) ______
Document 7
Ending Apartheid in South Africa
1973: United Nations General Assembly declares apartheid a crime
against humanity.
1977: United Nations Security Council embargoes arms exports to South
Africa.
1983: New Constitution gives limited political rights to coloured and Asian
minorities.
1986: United States imposes broad economic sanctions.
1990: Mandela released from prison. Legal end of segregation in public
places.
1991–93: Dismantling apartheid and enfranchising black majority.
1994: First all-race election.
9.) Based on this document, identify two actions taken to end apartheid.
(1) ______
______
(2) ______
______
Outside information for Documents 1-7
Document 1
Document 2
Document 3
Document 4
Document 5
Document 6
Document 7