African Americans Thematic

Question 1

What did the 15th amendment do?

Answer 1

Gave African Americans the right to vote

Question 2

What did the First Enforcement Act do?

Answer 2

Prohibited discrimination in voting based on race, established penalties and gave federal courts the power to enforce the act.

Question 3

What did the Second Enforcement Act do?

Answer 3

The Second Enforcement Act overturned state laws which prevented African Americans from voting and provided federal supervision of elections.

Question 4

What demonstrates the high levels of representation during Reconstruction?

Answer 4

Voters in the south elected more than 600 African-American state legislators and 16 members of Congress. In South Carolina, black representatives on the state assembly outnumbered whites.

Question 5

What was the ‘Williams vs Mississippi’ ruling 1898?

Answer 5

The Supreme Court ruled that discriminatory voter registration laws were constitutional, as there was no specific mention of race.

Question 6

What was the ‘Smith vs Allwright’ judgement?

Answer 6

The Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for black voters to be excluded from primary party voting. Thurgood Marshall (who was leader of the NAACP defence fund) represented Smith.

Question 7

What was the impact of 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Act?

Answer 7

They did not add substantial numbers of African Americans voting By 1960, only 28% of southern African Americans of voting age were registered.

Question 8

What was the 24th amendment?

Answer 8

It stated that citizens’ right to vote should not by denied by failure to pay a tax.

Question 9

What was the 1965 Voting Rights Act?

Answer 9

It prohibited discrimination in voting.

Question 10

What was the impact of the 1965 Voting Rights Act?

Answer 10

By the end of 1965, 250,000 new Black voters had been registered.

Question 11

What did the Voting Rights Act (1982) do?

Answer 11

Passed by Reagan, it strengthen penalties for discrimination.

Question 12

What was the Civil Rights Act (1866)?

Answer 12

Civil Rights Act 1866 established that all persons born in the USA were endowed with the rights of citizens (full and equal benefit of all laws and equal penalties for breaking them).

Question 13

What was the Third Enforcement Act?

Answer 13

The Third Enforcement Act made it a federal offence for two or more persons to conspire to deprive citizens of their right. The KKK was not strong enough to resist federal pressure from Grant and Congress.

Question 14

What was the Civil Rights Act (1875)?

Answer 14

The 1875 Civil Rights Act guaranteed all citizens, regardless of color, access to accommodations, theatres, public schools, churches, and cemeteries. However, it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in ‘United States vs Harris’ in 1883.

Question 15

Which areas of life were segregated by 1910?

Answer 15

By 1910, sport, hospital, education, prisons etc… had been segregated.

Question 16

Who desegregated the army in 1948?

Answer 16

Truman, Phillip Randolph had threatened to discourage people from signing up for the draft.

Question 17

What was the influence of the NAACP on the Brown vs Topeka ruling?

Answer 17

The Supreme Court used material from the NAACP to inform their ruling.

Question 18

When did the White Citizens Council form?

Answer 18

After the Brown vs Topeka ruling. They were more middle class in membership than the KKK. They pressured businesses not to hire African Americans.

Question 19

Which president sent troops to desegregate Little Rock (1957)?

Answer 19

Eisenhower

Question 20

What was the impact of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)?

Answer 20

The Montgomery Bus Boycott helped to forcefully make the moral case for desegregating buses. The impact of this can be seen by ‘Browder v. Gayle’ (1956) Supreme Court ruling that bus segregation was illegal.

Question 21

What did CORE do?

Answer 21

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) were engaged in Freedom Rides in 1947 and 1961 which challenged Southern segregation at bus terminals. Kennedy integrated interstate transport.

Question 22

What was the impact of the March on Washington?

Answer 22

The March on Washington (attended by an estimate 250,000 people) happened shortly before this CRA was passed, suggesting that it had impact in pressurising federal government. It made a strong moral case for the end to segregation.

Question 23

What was the 1964 Civil Rights Act?

Answer 23

Lyndon B Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act (1964) which outlawed discrimination in businesses, public places, education, and employment. It was the most sweeping civil rights bill of since Reconstruction.

Question 24

What was an economic limitation of the 13th amendment?

Answer 24

Most slaves lacked skills to work in different situations. As a result, many became sharecroppers or tenant farmers.

Question 25

What did the Black Codes do?

Answer 25

They restricted the right of African Americans to compete against whites for work.

Question 26

What did the Freedman’s Bureau do?

Answer 26

It provided food, shelter, hospitals and education for former slaves.

Question 27

How did Marcus Garvey promote black economic development?

Answer 27

He set up a shipping company called the Black Star Line to trade with Africans worldwide. He also established the Negro Factories Corporation to promote manufacture and trade among African Americans.

Question 28

What did executive order 8802 do (1941)?

Answer 28

FDR banned racial discrimination in the nation’s defence industry.

Question 29

What did ‘Griggs vs Duke Power Company’ ruling do? (1971)

Answer 29

This Supreme Court ruling prevented African Americans from implicit discrimination by firms who insisted on high school diploma qualifications for jobs which did not really need them.

Question 30

What did Nixon embrace in his Philadelphia Plan?

Answer 30

Nixon embraced affirmative action, requiring all employers with federal contracts to draft affirmative action to actively promote African Americans.

Question 31

What did the 1972 equal opportunities legislation do?

Answer 31

It extended the provisions of Title VII of the CRA to all firms with 15 or more employees, and increased enforcement for discrimination in employment.

Question 32

What did the 1991 Civil Rights Act do?

Answer 32

It put the burden on the employer to show that any decisions in employment did not derive from racial discrimination.

Question 33

In 1992, what was median African American income as a percentage of median white income?

Answer 33

56%

Question 34

What were the most significant factors politically, socially and economically?

Answer 34

Political: Individuals
Social: Individuals
Economic: Federal

Question 35

What were the most important turning points, politically, socially, economically?

Answer 35

Political: 1965
Social: 1964
Economic: 1970s

Question 36

What percentage of white and AA children could not write in 1870?

Answer 36

White 15%
African American 90%

Question 37

What was ‘Browder Vs Gayle’ (1956)?

Answer 37

The Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional.

Question 38

What was Swann vs Mecklenburg? (1971)

Answer 38

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of busing programs that aimed to speed up the racial integration of public schools in the United States.