W.E.B. Du Bois and the Fight for African American Rights: FRQ/SAQ
Using the excerpt provided, respond to the following questions. Be sure to use specific historical examples and evidence in your answers.
Group 1
Answer all parts A, B, C, and D using the excerpt above.
"We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American.... The battle we wage is not for ourselves alone but for all true Americans....
Our demands are clear and unequivocal. First, we would vote; with the right to vote goes everything....
We want discrimination in public accommodation to cease. Separation in railway and street cars, based simply on race and color, is unAmerican, undemocratic....
We want the Constitution of the country enforced.... We want the Fourteenth Amendment carried out to the letter and every state disfranchised in Congress which attempts to disfranchise its rightful voters. We want the Fifteenth Amendment enforced and no state allowed to base its franchise simply on color....
We want our children trained as intelligent human beings should be, and we will fight for all time against any proposal to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings, or simply for the use of other people. They have a right to know, to think, to aspire....
Justice and humanity must prevail."
Source: W.E.B. Du Bois, Niagara Movement Speech, 1906
W.E.B. Du Bois, Niagara Movement Speech, 1906
Question 1a
Describe the broader historical context that compelled Du Bois to make the speech in the excerpt.
Question 1b
Using a specific example, explain one way that the federal government’s failure to enforce the Fourteenth or Fifteenth amendment impacted the lives of African Americans.
Question 1c
Describe one specific way that a leader or group, other than Du Bois, advocated for the fulfillment of rights for African Americans in the second half of the twentieth century.
Question 1d
Using a specific example, explain how one of Du Bois’s demands for justice for African Americans was legally fulfilled in the century that followed his speech.
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