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Essay – Critical Thinking
Learning objectives:
Develop historical thinking skills.
Interpret sources.
Strengthen organization and communication skills.
Assignment:
Write a 2-page, double spaced essay that is based on the two primary sources included below –
the Justice Department’s amicus curiae brief and John F. Kennedy’s report.
Steps:
Complete the Race and Cold War lesson to learn about the historical context of race and
the Cold War. Note that the images of Soviet propaganda or images like them were
referenced in the amicus curiae brief.
Read and analyze the primary source excerpts below. How do the two sources show that
influence of the Cold War on the U.S. executive branch during the Cold War? In other
words, how does each author see the relationship between racial equality within the
United States and US Cold War rhetoric on the world stage.
o Note that the sources were written just over 11 years apart – in 1952 and 1963.
Be sure to include a thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph, and then support the
thesis with explanation and evidence in supporting paragraphs. The essay must be based
on the primary sources.
o Intro – Provide an intro to the sources (historical context of…). Thesis statement
should appear at the end of the introductory paragraph.
o Supporting paragraphs: One paragraph = one point
Include specific quotes from each primary source, and then explain how it
helps answer the question.
Be specific rather than vague. Who did or said what, when, where, how, why?
Submit typed essay, saved in Word or as a PDF through appropriate dropbox by the due
date. (Essays submitted in the Comments section or saved as an online document such as
Google docs or Pages will not be graded.)
Primary Source: Amicus Curiae Brief for Brown v. Bd. of Education, Submitted by the
Attorney General, 1952.
The interest of the United States
In recent years the Federal Government has increasingly recognized its special responsibility for
assuring vindication of the fundamental civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The
President has stated: “We shall not
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finally achieve the ideals for which this Nation was
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founded so long as any American suffers discrimination as a result of his race, or religion, or
color, or the land of origin of his forefathers.
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The Federal Government has a clear duty
to see that constitutional guaranties of individual liberties and of equal protection under the laws
are not denied or abridged anywhere in our Union.”
Recognition of the responsibility of the Federal Government with regard to civil rights is not a
matter of partisan controversy, even though differences of opinion may exist as to the need for
particular legislative or executive action. Few Americans believe that government should pursue
a laissez–faire policy in the field of civil rights, or that it adequately discharges its duty to the
people so long as it does not itself intrude on their civil liberties. Instead, there is general
acceptance of an affirmative government obligation to insure respect for fundamental human
rights.
The constitutional right invoked in these cases is the basic right, secured to all Americans, to
equal treatment before the law. The cases at bar do not involve isolated acts of racial
discrimination by private individuals or groups. On the contrary, it is contended in these cases
that public school systems established in the states of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and
Delaware, and in the District of Columbia, unconstitutionally discriminate against Negroes
solely because of their color.
This contention raises questions of the first importance in our society. For racial discriminations
imposed by law, or having the sanction or support of government, inevitably tend to undermine
the foundations of a society dedicated to freedom, justice, and equality. The proposition that all
men are created equal is not mere rhetoric. It implies a rule of law—an indispensable condition
to a civilized society—under which all men stand equal and alike in the rights and opportunities
secured to them by their government. Under the Constitution every agency of government,
national and local, legislative, executive, and judicial, must treat each of our people as
an American, and not as a member of a particular group classified on the basis of race or some
other constitutional irrelevancy. The color of a man’s skin—like his religious beliefs, or his
political attachments, or the country from which he or his ancestors came to the United States—
does not diminish or alter his legal status or constitutional rights. “Our Constitution is color–
blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.
The problem of racial discrimination is particularly acute in the District of Columbia, the
nation’s capital. This city is the window through which the world looks into our house. The
embassies, legations, and representatives of all nations are here, at the seat of the Federal
Government. Foreign officials and visitors naturally judge this country and our people by their
experiences and observations in the nation’s capital; and the treatment of colored persons here is
taken as the measure of our attitude toward minorities generally. The President has stated that
“The District of Columbia should be a true symbol of American freedom and democracy for our
own people, and for the people of the world.” Instead, as the President’s Committee on Civil
Rights found, the District of Columbia “is a graphic illustration of a failure of democracy.” The
Committee summarized its findings as follows:
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For Negro Americans, Washington is not just the nation’s capital. It is the point at which all
public transportation into the South becomes “Jim Crow.” If he stops in Washington, a Negro
may dine like other men in the Union Station, but as soon as he steps out into the capital, he
leaves such democratic practices behind. With very few exceptions, he is refused service at
downtown restaurants, he may not attend a downtown movie or play, and he has to go into the
poorer section of the city to find a night’s lodging. The Negro who decides to settle in the
District must often find a home in an overcrowded, substandard area. He must often take a job
below the level of his ability. He must send his children to the inferior public schools set aside
for Negroes and entrust his family’s health to medical agencies which give inferior service. In
addition, he must endure the countless daily humiliations that the system of segregation imposes
upon the one–third of Washington that is Negro.
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The shamefulness and absurdity of Washington’s treatment of Negro Americans is highlighted
by the presence of many dark–skinned foreign visitors. Capital custom not only humiliates
colored citizens, but is a source of considerable embarrassment to these visitors. * * * Foreign
officials are often mistaken for American Negroes and refused food, lodging and entertainment.
However, once it [*6] is established that they are not Americans, they are accommodated.
It is in the context of the present world struggle between freedom and tyranny that the problem
of racial discrimination must be viewed. The United States is trying to prove to the people of the
world, of every nationality, race, and color, that a free democracy is the most civilized and most
secure form of government yet devised by man. We must set an example for others by showing
firm determination to remove existing flaws in our democracy.
The existence of discrimination against minority groups in the United States has an adverse
effect upon our relations with other countries. Racial discrimination furnishes grist for the
Communist propaganda mills, and it raises doubts even among friendly nations as to the intensity
of our devotion to the democratic faith. In response to the request of the Attorney General for an
authoritative statement of the effects of racial discrimination in the United States upon the
conduct of foreign relations, the Secretary of State has written as follows:
* * * I wrote the Chairman of the Fair Employment Practices Committee on May 8, 1946, that
the existence of discrimination against minority groups was having an adverse effect upon our
relations with other countries. At that time I pointed out that discrimination against such groups
in the United States created suspicion and resentment in other countries, and that we would have
better international relations were these reasons for suspicion and resentment to be removed.
During the past six years, the damage to our foreign relations attributable to this source has
become progressively greater. The United States is under constant attack in the foreign press,
over the foreign radio, and in such international bodies as the United Nations because of various
practices of discrimination against minority groups in this country. As might be expected, Soviet
spokesmen regularly exploit this situation in propaganda against the United States, both within
the United Nations and through radio broadcasts and the press, which reaches all corners of the
world. Some of these attacks against us are based on falsehood or distortion; but the undeniable
existence of racial discrimination gives unfriendly governments the most effective kind of
ammunition for their propaganda warfare. The hostile reaction among normally friendly peoples,
many of whom are particularly sensitive in regard to the status of non–European races, is
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growing in alarming proportions. In such countries the view is expressed more and more vocally
that the United States is hypocritical in claiming to be the champion of democracy while
permitting practices of racial discrimination here in this country.
The segregation of school children on a racial basis is one of the practices in the United States
that has been singled out for hostile foreign comment in the United Nations and elsewhere. Other
peoples cannot understand how such a practice can exist in a country which professes to be a
staunch supporter of freedom, justice, and democracy. The sincerity of the United States in this
respect will be judged by its deeds as well as by its words.
Although progress is being made, the continuance of racial discrimination in the United States
remains a source of constant embarrassment to this Government in the day–to–day conduct of its
foreign relations; and it jeopardizes the effective maintenance of our moral leadership of the free
and democratic nations of the world. . .
….We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people above all other peoples. But it is difficult to
reconcile that boast with a state of the law which, practically, puts the brand of servitude and
degradation upon a large class of our fellow–citizens, our equals before the law.
The Government and people of the United States must prove by their actions that the ideals
expressed in the Bill of Rights are living realities, not literary abstractions. As the President has
stated:
If we wish to inspire the people of the world whose freedom is in jeopardy, if we wish to restore
hope to those who have already lost their civil liberties, if we wish to fulfill the promise that is
ours, we must correct the remaining imperfections in our practice of democracy.
We know the way. We need only the will.
Respectfully submitted.
JAMES P. McGRANERY,
Attorney General, DECEMBER 1952.
Source: John F. Kennedy, transcript for his Radio and Television Report to the American
People on Civil Rights (You can also watch President Kennedy give this report:
https://youtu.be/7BEhKgoA86U)
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