Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT120 S2 P1 Q3 Explanation

The Downstate Campaign

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsLocal PurposeSociety

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Passage

In 1963, a three-week-long demonstration for jobs at the construction site of the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, became one of the most significant and widely publicized campaigns of the civil rights movement in the United States. An interdenominational group made up mostly of locally based African American ministers, who in trade union hiring practices, both of which they believed excluded African Americans from construction jobs.

Inspired by the emergence of African American religious leaders as key figures elsewhere in the civil rights movement, and reasoning that the ministers would be able to mobilize large numbers of people from their congregations and network effectively with other religious leaders throughout the city, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a their political careers and their reputations within their communities for effecting change through established political channels.

The Downstate campaign ended with an agreement between the ministers and both government and union officials. This agreement did not include new legislation or a commitment to a specific numerical increase in jobs for African Americans, as the protestors had demanded. But even though some civil rights activists therefore considered the agreement a model for future ministers who sought to initiate protest actions on behalf of their communities.

What this question is testing

Local Purpose

Your task

Identify why the author included the referenced detail at that point in the passage — its function, not its content.

Common trap

Answers that merely repeat or summarize the topic of the detail instead of describing the role it plays.

Winning move

Ask what job the detail does for the paragraph, then for the passage's broader point.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
3.

The primary function of the reference to past activities of ministers and churches (second

Answer choices

  1. Opposite12% picked this

    demonstrate that the tactics used by the leaders of the Downstate campaign evolved naturally out of

    The big idea we're trying to reinforce is that the ministers' involvement in the Downstate campaign represented something new / risky for them. That sounds like the opposite of "evolved naturally out of their previous activities". If we changed this answer to say that "the goals of the leaders evolved naturally" that would work fine. The highlighted text is showing us that the ministers have always had the goal of helping their community address social / political / economic concerns. But the tactics of civil disobedience are radical, not moderate. They aren't any longer working through established political channels.

  2. Unsupported Purpose11% picked this

    explain why the leaders of the Downstate campaign decided to conduct the protest in the

    The highlighted text talks about what the ministers had been doing in the community for the last few decades. It doesn't offer any reason why they are doing something radically different when it comes to how they're conducting the Downstate campaign (i.e. using civil disobedience rather than working through established political channels as they've always previously done).

  3. Out of Scope: CORE promoted9% picked this

    provide examples of the sorts of civil rights activities that the leaders of

    The highlighted text has nothing to do with CORE. It describes what the ministers were doing in the decades prior to when CORE reached out to talk to them.

  4. Unsupported Purpose1% picked this

    indicate how the Downstate campaign could have accomplished its goals by means other

    The author never suggests that the choice to use civil disobedience was an unnecessary one, or that the ministers could have accomplished their goals at least as well by working with community and government organizations, through established political channels. This paragraph is telling us that for these ministers, the means used were different from the norm. This answer is telling us that the means used weren't important or crucial.

  5. Correct66% picked this

    underscore the extent to which the Downstate campaign represented a change in approach

    Why this is right

    This reinforces the "Bookend" ideas, as we expect on Local Purpose questions. Both before and after the highlighted text, the paragraph is conveying the idea that "by doing civil disobedience, ministers were jeopardizing/risking their reputations and political careers", which implies that they are doing something that is at odds with their reputation / with their customary approach. The highlighted text shows a group of ministers working in a moderate way within established political channels. The Downstate campaign used civil disobedience, which is nothing like their previous tactics. It's sort of analogous to a middle-manager who for decades tried to improve conditions for her subordinates by having many meetings and conferences with the top brass, but then one day she decides to tell her employees that they all should go on strike.

    Skill tested: Local Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

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