Unit 8 LEQ (The Civil Rights Movement) Answers

4 min read•june 18, 2024

AP US History 🇺🇸

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APUSH Long Essay Question Answers for The Civil Rights Movement

👋 Welcome to the APUSH Unit 8 LEQ (The Civil Rights Movement) Answers. Have your responses handy as you go through the rubrics to see how you did!

⏱ Remember, the AP US History exam has a mixture of free-response questions and allotted times. For these types of questions, there will be 1 LEQ, and you will be given 40 minutes to complete it. (This means you should give yourself 40 minutes to go through each practice LEQ.)

Guidelines

In your response you should do the following:

Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.
Describe the broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
Support an argument in response to the prompt using specific and relevant examples of evidence.
Use historical reasoning (e.g., comparison, causation, continuity or change over time) to frame or structure an argument that addresses the prompt.
Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the prompt.

Question

Evaluate the relative importance of different effects which resulted from the Civil Rights Movement from 1947 to 1980.

In the development of your argument, explain which effects were more important resulting from the Civil Rights Movement from 1947 to 1980.

Rubric

Adapted from College Board Scoring Guidelines

1pt: Thesis must create a historically defensible argument and it must be located in the first or last paragraph.

The thesis must make a historically defensible claim that establishes a line of reasoning about effects of the Civil Rights Movement on American society from 1948-1980.

The desegregation of schools was caused by the Civil Rights movement; however, the most important result of the movement was voting rights reform allowing Black Americans more of a say in politics.
Although the military was integrated following 1848 and more people were allowed to vote, the most important changes occurred in educational opportunities for Black children.
Although the opportunity to attend Black colleges rose significantly as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, the most important result were the political opportunities which arose as a result of Johnson’s Great Society programs.
As a result of the Civil Rights movement, Black students gained more educational opportunities; however the greatest impact occurred in professional sports as Black players began to have more opportunities in professional sports.
Although legislation impacted American Indians and Gay Americans, it was most effective at providing political opportunities for Black Americans allowing them to create further legislation.

1pt: To earn the point, the response must accurately describe broader historical events or processes relevant to the Civil Rights Movement from 1947 to 1980.

Examples might include the following with appropriate elaboration:

Black involvement in WWII
Practices of Gandhi
Tuskegee Airmen
A. Philip Randolph
Plessy v. Ferguson
Disenfranchisement
Failure of the 14th and 15th amendments
US involvement overseas to reduce the spread of communism and expand democracy
Rosie the Riveter

1pt: Provides specific examples of evidence relevant to the topic of the prompt.

Rubric states examples so it must be more than 1 to receive the point.

Examples include but are not limited to:

Truman’s Executive Order
Jackie Robinson
Korean War
Brown v. Board of Education
Little Rock Nine
Sit-Ins
Martin Luther King, Jr.
SCLC, CORE, SNCC
Black Panthers
Birmingham Race Riots
March on Washington
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
KKK
James Meredith
AIM
Stonewall Inn
Roe v. Wade
ERA

1pt: Supports an argument in response to the prompt using specific and relevant examples of evidence.

Evidence must be used to support an argument in order to receive the second point. The response uses outside information to actually support an argument relevant to the topic of the prompt.

Ex: The desegregation of schools was caused by the Civil Rights movement; however, the most important result of the movement was voting rights reform allowing Black Americans more of a say in politics.
Brown v. Board of Education laid the foundation for ending segregation in schools. Unfortunately, students still faced ridicule as evidenced by Little Rock, Arkansas.
However, as a result of the Voting Rights Act of 1865, the rights and privileges of the 15th Amendment were provided to Black Americans. Black voters could then elect officials to pass more effective civil rights legislation.

1pt: Uses historical reasoning (e.g. comparison, causation, CCOT) to frame or structure an argument that addresses the prompt.

The response clearly accomplishes the goal of stating the relative importance of causes of the Civil Rights Movement.
The response must identify and explain how one effect was more important than another in order to receive the point.

1pt: The response demonstrates a complex understanding of the historical development that is the focus of the prompt, using evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the question.

The response must explain and cannot make a fleeting reference.

Examples might discuss:

Not only the importance of the positive effects of the Civil Rights Movement, but also where the movement fell remarkably short.
The Civil Rights movement from more than one perspective. In other words, give a detailed examination of Black, Women, Native, Hispanic, or Gay impact.
The impact of worldview on change following the riots of 1963 and how America’s appearance on a world stage shaped Civil Rights Legislation.
A detailed similarity between the movements of the post civil war era or the 1920s to the movements in the 1950s and 60s.

Next Steps

🧠 Want to continue reinforcing your knowledge of Unit 8? Check out Unit 8 Trivia, either as a document or as a game.
⏭ Ready to move on to the next topic? Take a look at the collection of Unit 9 Resources.
📚 Want to review multiple units? Check out all of the APUSH SAQs, LEQs, and DBQs.