2024 AQA A-Level HISTORY 7042/2Q Component 2Q The American
Dream: reality and illusion, 1945–1980
Verified Question paper and Marking Scheme Attached
A-level
HISTORY
Component 2Q The American Dream: reality and illusion, 1945–1980
Friday 7 June 2024 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7042/2Q.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01. In
Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
, 2
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From ‘The Southern Manifesto’, written to condemn the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision, by
Southern senators, March 1956. 99 signatories were Democrats and two were Republicans.
The Supreme Court has replaced the established law of the land with their own political and social ideas.
This unforgivable exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and
confusion in some States. With no regard for the consent of the governed, immediate and revolutionary
changes are threatening how our public schools are organised. We believe in the Constitution as the
fundamental law of the land. We strongly oppose the Supreme Court’s encroachment on the rights reserved
to the States. We commend the motives of those States which have declared their intention to resist forced 5
racial integration. Even though we constitute a minority in the present Congress, we have full faith that a
majority of the American people share our beliefs. We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to bring
about a reversal of this decision, which is contrary to the Constitution, and to prevent the use of force in its
implementation.
10
Source B
From comments by Ruby Sales, recorded by the Southern Oral History Program, 2011. Sales, a member of
the SNCC, had taken part in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery.
When we look at Rosa Parks, people often think that she behaved as she did because of her civil rights and
because she wanted to sit down on the bus. But she was also part of a rebellion of maids, a rebellion of
working-class women. These women were tired of boarding buses in Montgomery, a public service, and
being assaulted and called names and abused by white bus drivers. And that’s why Rosa’s protest
movement continued so long. If it had just been a protest about riding on the bus, it might have shattered.
But it went to the very heart of black womanhood, and black women played a major role in sustaining that 5
movement. That’s why I think it’s really important to see the larger context. I don’t think this movement
would have lasted as long as it did without the preaching, without the community connections, and without
the strong desire of black women to be seen as first-class human beings.
10
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2Q
, 3
Source C
From comments made to John Howard Griffin, a white journalist, by a black café owner, 1959. Griffin had
darkened his skin to experience what life was like in the South.
Until we, as a race, can learn to work together, we’ll never get anywhere. That’s our trouble. We work
against one another instead of together. Now you take darker black men like you, Mr Griffin, and me.
We’re old Uncle Toms to our people, no matter how much education and high principles we’ve got. No, you
have to be pale-skinned, have your hair straightened and all slicked out, and look like a movie star, for other
Blacks to look up to you. You’ve got to have class. Isn’t that pitiful? And the White man knows that. The 5
White man uses this knowledge to flatter some of us, tell us we’re above our people, not like most Blacks.
We’re so stupid we fall for it and work against our own type. Why, if we’d work just half as hard to boost our
race as we do to please Whites whose attentions flatter us, we’d really get somewhere.
10
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context, assess the value of
these three sources to an historian studying the problems faced by African-Americans in the years 1954
to 1960.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2Q Turn over ►
Dream: reality and illusion, 1945–1980
Verified Question paper and Marking Scheme Attached
A-level
HISTORY
Component 2Q The American Dream: reality and illusion, 1945–1980
Friday 7 June 2024 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7042/2Q.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01. In
Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
, 2
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From ‘The Southern Manifesto’, written to condemn the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown decision, by
Southern senators, March 1956. 99 signatories were Democrats and two were Republicans.
The Supreme Court has replaced the established law of the land with their own political and social ideas.
This unforgivable exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and
confusion in some States. With no regard for the consent of the governed, immediate and revolutionary
changes are threatening how our public schools are organised. We believe in the Constitution as the
fundamental law of the land. We strongly oppose the Supreme Court’s encroachment on the rights reserved
to the States. We commend the motives of those States which have declared their intention to resist forced 5
racial integration. Even though we constitute a minority in the present Congress, we have full faith that a
majority of the American people share our beliefs. We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to bring
about a reversal of this decision, which is contrary to the Constitution, and to prevent the use of force in its
implementation.
10
Source B
From comments by Ruby Sales, recorded by the Southern Oral History Program, 2011. Sales, a member of
the SNCC, had taken part in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery.
When we look at Rosa Parks, people often think that she behaved as she did because of her civil rights and
because she wanted to sit down on the bus. But she was also part of a rebellion of maids, a rebellion of
working-class women. These women were tired of boarding buses in Montgomery, a public service, and
being assaulted and called names and abused by white bus drivers. And that’s why Rosa’s protest
movement continued so long. If it had just been a protest about riding on the bus, it might have shattered.
But it went to the very heart of black womanhood, and black women played a major role in sustaining that 5
movement. That’s why I think it’s really important to see the larger context. I don’t think this movement
would have lasted as long as it did without the preaching, without the community connections, and without
the strong desire of black women to be seen as first-class human beings.
10
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2Q
, 3
Source C
From comments made to John Howard Griffin, a white journalist, by a black café owner, 1959. Griffin had
darkened his skin to experience what life was like in the South.
Until we, as a race, can learn to work together, we’ll never get anywhere. That’s our trouble. We work
against one another instead of together. Now you take darker black men like you, Mr Griffin, and me.
We’re old Uncle Toms to our people, no matter how much education and high principles we’ve got. No, you
have to be pale-skinned, have your hair straightened and all slicked out, and look like a movie star, for other
Blacks to look up to you. You’ve got to have class. Isn’t that pitiful? And the White man knows that. The 5
White man uses this knowledge to flatter some of us, tell us we’re above our people, not like most Blacks.
We’re so stupid we fall for it and work against our own type. Why, if we’d work just half as hard to boost our
race as we do to please Whites whose attentions flatter us, we’d really get somewhere.
10
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context, assess the value of
these three sources to an historian studying the problems faced by African-Americans in the years 1954
to 1960.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2Q Turn over ►
