Essay #4.094

Some historians contend that conditions in the United States during the Second World War gave rise to a dynamic wartime alliance between trade unions and the African American community, an alliance that advanced the cause of civil rights.They conclude that the postwar demise of this vital alliance constituted a lost opportunity for the civil rights movement that followed the war.Other scholars, however, have portrayed organized labor as defending all along the relatively privileged position of White workers relative to African American workers.Clearly, these two perspectives are not easily reconcilable, but the historical reality is not reducible to one or the other.

Unions faced a choice between either maintaining the prewar status quo or promoting a more inclusive approach that sought for all members the right to participate in the internal affairs of unions, access to skilled and high-paying positions within the occupational hierarchy, and protection against management's arbitrary authority in the workplace.While union representatives often voiced this inclusive ideal, in practice unions far more often favored entrenched interests.The accelerating development of the civil rights movement following the Second World War exacerbated the unions' dilemma, forcing trade unionists to confront contradictions in their own practices.

Question #11. 094-01

The "unions' dilemma" mentioned in the highlighted text can best be described as the question of whether or not to

(A) pressure management to create more skilled and high-paying positions

(B) fight for greater union participation in management decisions

(C) include minority workers in their membership

(D) extend full rights and benefits to all their members

(E) emphasize the recruitment of new members over serving the needs of current members

Question #12.094-02

According to the passage, the historians mentioned in the first highlighted portion of text and the scholars mentioned in the second highlighted portion disagree about the

(A) contribution made by organized labor to the war effort during the Second World War

(B) issues that union members considered most important during the Second World War

(C) relationship between unions and African Americans during the Second World War

(D) effect of the Second World War on the influence of unions in the workplace

(E) extent to which African Americans benefited from social and political changes following the Second World War

Question #13.094-06

The passage is primarily concerned with

(A) providing a context within which to evaluate opposing viewpoints about a historical phenomenon

(B) identifying a flawed assumption underlying one interpretation of a historical phenomenon

(C) assessing the merits and weaknesses of a controversial theory about a historical phenomenon

(D) discussing the historical importance of the development of a wartime alliance