Document 5: Baptist Ministers’ Union of Southern California Resolution


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Citation: From tray 83A-J11, Records of the U.S. Senate, RG 46.

Vocabulary: resolution, psychological inferiority, emancipation.

Questions for Students

1. To whom is the resolution addressed? Why?

2. What is the U.S. Supreme Court decision that prompted this resolution, and how did the Court rule?

3. Can you determine the race of the writers from the evidence in the document?

4. Why do you think this resolution was written?

5. The last lines of the resolution read: "And that we urge our people North and South to be obedient to this law; which is in their favor, as much as they have been obedient to laws that have been against them, and their Constitutional rights." Discuss.

Discussion Questions

1. How might such civil rights activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael have viewed the last sentence of the resolution?

2. Compare and contrast the sentiments expressed in this resolution with those of the Hale County citizens. How might you explain their differences and similarities?