The Fight against Apartheid: Nelson Mandela

  Nelson Mandela (born in 1918) was a leader of the African National Congress (ANC), a movement against Apartheid, a system of racial segregation in South Africa.  In 1948, the National Party came to power in South Africa.  The National Party was a racist party that instituted Apartheid or forced segregation of the races.  This white-minority party disenfranchised the black African majority.  The ANC was formed to combat Apartheid.  It engaged in passive resistance against the regime.  In the late 1950s, Mandela became a leader of the ANC and tried to move the party in a more radical direction.  He was tried for treason in 1956 but acquitted after a five-year trial.  In 1960, sixty-nine black anti-apartheid protestors were killed by the police in the Sharpeville Massacre.  The government banned the ANC.   In response to the ban, the ANC abandoned nonviolence.  In the 1960s, Mandela was sentenced to life in prison and held in the Robben Island prison and later in Pollsmoor Prison.  In prison, he became a symbol of the injustice of Apartheid system.  In 1990, in response to international pressure, the South African government released Mandela.  In 1991, Mandela became the leader of the ANC and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. De Klerk, the President of South Africa.  The following year, Nelson Mandela was elected the first black President of South Africa in the nation’s first multi-racial election.

 

Primary Source: An excerpt from “Mandela’s Call” after the Soweto riots of 1976

“…Successive white regimes have repeatedly massacred unarmed defenseless blacks…Apartheid is the embodiment of the racialism, repression and inhumanity of all previous white supremacist regimes…The rattle of gunfire and the rumbling of Hippo armored vehicles since June 1976 have once again torn aside that veil. Spread across the face of our country, in black townships, the racist army and police have been pouring a hail of bullets killing and maiming hundreds of black men, women and children…Apartheid is the rule of the gun and the hangman. The Hippo, the FN rifle and the gallows are its true symbols.”

Questions:

1: Who was Nelson Mandela? ________________________________________________________________________

2: According to Mandela’s primary source, what was apartheid? ________________________________________________________________________

3: Why was the ANC opposed to apartheid? ________________________________________________________________________

4: Why was Mandela imprisoned in Robben Island? ________________________________________________________________________

5: What happened in 1991 and the following year? ________________________________________________________________________

Zionism and the Holy Land: Golda Meir

  Golda Meir (1898-1978) became Israel’s fourth prime minister in 1969.  As a leading Zionist, Ms. Meir supported the political movement to establish and develop a national homeland for Jews in Palestine.  Jews regarded Palestine as their historical home.  Born in the Ukraine, Golda Meir moved with her family to Wisconsin in 1906.  The family had moved to the United States to escape pogroms in the Ukraine.  A pogrom was an organized attack on and persecution of the Jewish people.  Fleeing anti-Semitism (prejudice against the Jews), Golda Meir became a proponent of Zionism, particularly because she believed Jews would only be safe from persecution in their own homeland.  In 1921, Golda Meir and her husband moved to Palestine to work for the creation of a Jewish state.  After years of working tirelessly for the creation of a Jewish homeland, Meir’s dream was realized in 1947 with the founding of Israel.    

Primary Source: An excerpt from Golda Meir’s Speech before the Council of Federations in Chicago, January 2, 1948

“…We always had faith that in the end we would win, that everything we were doing in the country led to the independence of the Jewish people and to a Jewish state. Long before we had dared pronounce that word, we knew what was in store for us...I want to say to you, friends that the Jewish community in Palestine is going to fight to the very end. If we have arms to fight with, we will fight with those, and if not, we will fight with stones in our hands... During the last few years, the Jewish people lost 6,000,000 Jews, and it would be audacity on our part to worry the Jewish people throughout the world because a few hundred thousand more Jews were in danger. That is not the issue. The issue is that if these 700,000 Jews in Palestine can remain alive, then the Jewish people as such is alive and Jewish independence is assured. If these 700,000 people are killed off, then for many centuries, we are through with this dream of a Jewish people and a Jewish homeland..."

Questions:

1: Who was Golda Meir? ________________________________________________________________________

2: Why did Golda Meir become a Zionist? ________________________________________________________________________

3: How did Zionism lead to the founding of Israel? ________________________________________________________________________

4: According to the primary source, why will the Jewish community in Palestine fight? ________________________________________________________________________

5: According to the primary source, why is a Jewish homeland important? ________________________________________________________________________

Nationalism and Independence in Africa: Jomo Kenyatta

    Jomo Kenyatta was born in British East Africa in the 1890s.  Although Kenyatta studied in a mission and received a Western education, by the 1920s, he began to question European imperialism in the African continent and joined a nationalist movement.  One of Kenyatta’s goals was to reclaim land taken by white settlers.  During the 1930s, Kenyatta briefly joined the Communist party and opposed the Italian invasion of East Africa.  By 1946, Kenyatta assumed the leadership of the Kenya African Union.  By 1952, African frustration with British imperialists erupted in the Mau Mau rebellion.  This movement was directed against the white settlers and the land they had taken.  The colonial government arrested Kenyatta and imprisoned him for seven years.   Kenyatta denied the involvement of the Kenya African Union in the Mau Mau rebellion.  Eventually, the British began to transition their territory to African majority rule and in 1961, Kenyatta was released from prison.  In 1962, Kenyatta helped negotiate the terms for an independent Kenya and by December 12, 1963, Kenya celebrated its independence with Jomo Kenyatta as its Prime Minister.   Sadly, Jomo Kenyatta passed away in 1978.    

Primary Source: Excerpt from Jomo Kenyatta’s Speech “The Kenya African Union is Not the Mau Mau”, 1952

“... I want you to know the purpose of K.A.U. … It involves every African in Kenya and it is their mouthpiece which asks for freedom. K.A.U. is you and you are the K.A.U. If we unite now, each and every one of us, and each tribe to another, we will cause the implementation in this country of that which the European calls democracy. True democracy has no color distinction. It does not choose between black and white. We are here in this tremendous gathering under the K.A.U. flag to find which road leads us from darkness into democracy. In order to find it we Africans must first achieve the right to elect our own representatives. That is surely the first principle of democracy. We are the only race in Kenya which does not elect its own representatives in the Legislature and we are going to set about to rectify this situation…”

Questions:

1: Who was Jomo Kenyatta? ________________________________________________________________________

2: Why was Jomo Kenyatta a nationalist? ________________________________________________________________________

3: What was one of Kenyatta’s goals? ________________________________________________________________________

4: According to the primary source, what is the first principle of democracy? _____________________________________________________________________

Nonviolence and Independence: Mohandas K. Gandhi

  Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) was the nationalist leader of India’s independence movement.  As a nonviolent activist, Gandhi believed that Indians should not cooperate with injustice.  Instead Indians should break unjust laws, the unjust laws of British imperialism.  However, while Gandhi was strongly opposed to British imperialism, he did not believe that the ends did justified the means.  Therefore, Gandhi never used violent actions.  Gandhi believed that through nonviolent actions, individual attitudes and ultimately, government policies would change.  Prior to his activism in India, Gandhi fought discrimination in South Africa.  Gandhi’s actions changed world history.  Gandhi led India to independence and inspired future activists, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Primary Source: BROADCAST TO AMERICA on CBS network from Kingsley Hall, Sept 13^th

  “In my opinion, the Indian Conference bears in its consequences not only upon India but upon the whole world. India is by itself almost a continent. It contains one-fifth of the human race. It represents one of the most ancient civilizations. It has traditions handed down from tens of thousands of years, some of which, to the astonishment of the world, remain intact. If India is to perpetuate the glory of her ancient past, it can do so only when it attains freedom. The reason for the struggle having drawn the attention of the world, I know does not lie in the fact that we Indians are fighting for our liberty, but in the fact that the means adopted by us for attaining that liberty are unique and, as far as history shows us, have not been adopted by any other people of whom we have any record. The means adopted are not violence, not bloodshed, not diplomacy as one understands it nowadays, but they are purely and simply truth and non-violence. No wonder that the attention of the world is directed towards this attempt to lead a successful, bloodless revolution.”

Questions:

1: Who was Mohandas K. Gandhi? ________________________________________________________________________

2: What did Gandhi want to achieve? ________________________________________________________________________

3: How did Gandhi want to achieve his goal? ________________________________________________________________________

4: What significant American activist did Gandhi influence? ________________________________________________________________________

5: According to Gandhi’s speech, why must India be free? ________________________________________________________________________

US History Project-April MP1
due Wednesday April 9, No exceptions...

Either in poster format/Written Research paper:
2 parts;

1) Explain and analyze the historiography of the Civil Rights movement

1. From post Civil War(Reconstruction era)
2. During the period of the Civil Rights movement(1930-1960s)
3. Present day(post 2000)

2) Compare the actions and leadership of two groups and/or major figures, both:

1. Against
2. In support 

of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

Grade determined on:

1. quality of work
2. quality of research
3. analysis
4. organization