PERIOD 8

Directions: Question 1 is based on the 7 documents below which have been edited for the purpose of this test. Spend 15 minutes reading and planning, and spend 45 minutes writing your answer.

Be sure to do the following when writing your answer:

·  Provide a thesis statement that explicitly addresses all parts of the question.

·  Support your thesis or argument with relevant evidence from all, or all but one, of the documents.

·  Include analysis of all, or all but one, of the documents in your argument.

·  In your analysis of each document, address at least one of the following: intended audience, purpose, historical context, and/or point of view.

·  Support your argument with analysis of historical examples outside the documents.

·  Connect your argument to broader historical events or processes.

·  Synthesize all of the above into a coherent and persuasive essay that extends your argument, connects it to another historical context, OR account contradictory evidence about the topic.

Analyze major changes and continuities in American cultural values between 1945 and 1961 in terms of conformity and challenges to conformity.

Document 1
Source: Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates, c. 1957
This photo depicts the first African American students to attend a segregated high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, after intervention by the Eisenhower administration.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Visual Materials from the NAACP Records [LC-USZ62-119154
Document 2
Source: 1950s family

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA [LC-G613-57609]
Document 3
Source: 1950s suburb

©Thinkstock/Superstock
Document 4
Source: J. Edgar Hoover, Speech before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, March 1947
…The communists have been, still are, and always will be a menace to freedom, to democratic ideals, to the worship of God, and to America’s way of life. I feel that once public opinion is thoroughly aroused as it is today, the fight against communism is well on its way. Victory will be assured once communists are identified and exposed because the public will take the first step of quarantining them so they can do no harm. Communism, in reality, is not a political party. It is a way of life–an evil and malignant way of life. It reveals a condition akin to disease that spreads like an epidemic; and like an epidemic, a quarantine is necessary to keep it from infecting the nation.
Document 5
Source: Brown v. Board of Education, Supreme Court decision, 1954
We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does…We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.
Document 6
Source: From the Interim Report, Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency, 1955, by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary after investigating the impact of comic books on youth behavior
The subcommittee believes that this Nation cannot afford the calculated risk involved in the continued mass dissemination of crime and horror comic books to children… the subcommittee flatly rejects all suggestions of governmental censorship as being totally out of keeping with our basic American concepts of a free press operating in a free land for a free people…There is no doubt [however] that much can and has been accomplished toward eliminating crime and horror comic books from newsstands through vigorous citizen action in local communities. Children can be guided away from the purchases of crime and horror stories… Effective steps of this nature have been taken in several parts of the United States. For example, the citizens of Hartford, Conn., spurred on by the Hartford Courant, have been successful in cleaning up the newsstands of their city.
Document 7
Source: From The Southern Manifesto of 1956, a document introduced into the U.S. Congress, and signed by many Southern senators and representatives, in response to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.
The unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court in the public school cases is now bearing the fruit always produced when men substitute naked power for established law…In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 the Supreme Court expressly declared that under the 14th Amendment no person was denied any of his rights if the States provided separate but equal facilities. ..This interpretation, restated time and again, became a part of the life of the people of many of the States and confirmed their habits, traditions, and way of life… We decry the Supreme Court's encroachment on the rights reserved to the States and to the people, contrary to established law, and to the Constitution. We commend the motives of those States which have declared the intention to resist forced integration by any lawful means.

Key Concept: 8.1.III

Key Concept: 8.2.I

Key Concept: 8.3.I

Thematic Learning Objective: ID-3

Thematic Learning Objective: ID-8

Thematic Learning Objective: POL-3

Thematic Learning Objective: CUL-5

Thematic Learning Objective: CUL-6

Thematic Learning Objective: CUL-7

Historical Thinking Skill: Patterns of Continuity and Change over Time

Historical Thinking Skill: Contextualization

Historical Thinking Skill: Historical Argumentation

Historical Thinking Skill: Appropriate Use of Relevant Historical Evidence

Historical Thinking Skill: Interpretation

Question Type: Document Based Question

Stimulus Question: Yes

Points: 7