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Difficulty: MediumEarly Civil Rights Movement (1940s and 1950s)

"During the past few days, declarations of importunate people and the actions of mobs have made it necessary for me to use the Federal troops... inside the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. ... Under the leadership of demagogues, disorderly mobs have deliberately prevented the carrying out of proper orders from a Federal Court. ... The foundation of our American way of life is our national respect for law. In the resolution of the Little Rock school integration dispute, the executive branch of the government was obliged to act when it became clear that local authorities would not or could not enforce the ruling of the Supreme Court."
—President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Radio and Television Address on the Situation in Little Rock, September 24, 1957

Which of the following developments in the early civil rights movement is most directly reflected in the excerpt?

  1. The growing role of the federal government in enforcing judicial desegregation orders against state and local resistance.Answer
  2. B
    The emergence of a unified consensus among Southern political leaders and civil rights activists regarding the pace of school integration.
  3. C
    The implementation of new federal social welfare legislation under Great Society programs to fund urban public school systems.
  4. D
    The immediate enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment's voting guarantees by the executive branch.

Answer

The growing role of the federal government in enforcing judicial desegregation orders against state and local resistance.
The correct option is correct because the deployment of federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 demonstrates the federal government exercising executive authority to enforce the desegregation mandate of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) when local and state officials actively resisted or refused to maintain order.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus document to identify the key event and historical context.
The stimulus is Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1957 address regarding the deployment of federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to resolve a school integration dispute.
This establishes the historical timeline (1957) and the specific civil rights issue (school desegregation and federal intervention).
2
Connect the event to the broader historical developments of the early civil rights movement.
Following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, many southern states engaged in 'massive resistance.' The federal executive branch was forced to intervene with military power to enforce federal court orders.
This links the specific details in the passage to the major trends of Period 8 (1945-1980) and early civil rights strategies.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the one that accurately describes this relationship.
The option stating the growing role of the federal government in enforcing desegregation against local resistance is correct.
It matches the actions taken by Eisenhower in deploying federal troops to uphold the Supreme Court's ruling.

Key Concept

Federal enforcement of civil rights rulings and resistance to school desegregation
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Early Civil Rights Movement (1940s and 1950s)

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