C8 - Racial Tension and Civil Rights Campaigns

Question 1

What is civil rights?

Answer 1

Equal opportunities with regards to access to employment, housing and education, as well as the right to vote and be free of racial discrimination.

Question 2

What was the Brown v Board of Education case?

Answer 2

• in 1951, in Topeka, Kansas, Mr Brown took the local education board to court for not allowing his daughter to attend the local ‘whites only’ school
• he was helped in his case by the NAACP
• he lost the case but appealed to the Supreme Court
• in May 1954, the Chief Judge declared that every education board had to end segregation in schools.

Question 3

What were the results of Brown v Topeka?

Answer 3

• within weeks, many cities and towns began to ‘de-segregate’ their schools
• however, the Supreme Court did not set a date as to when the de-segregation had to occur by, so many schools just avoided doing it
• in Mississippi, a White Citizens Council was created to ensure segregation would remain
• by 1956, not a single African-American child was attending a school where there white students in 6 southern states.

Question 4

What was the Montgomery bus boycott?

Answer 4

• 1 Dec 1955, Rosa Parks refused to move from the ‘whites only’ section of a segregated bus.
• she was arrested and news of this spread fast
• MLK led a boycott of all city buses. The boycott lasted many months and was very damaging to the bus company, because African Americans had supplied 75% of their business
• some of the protestors received threatening phone calls and their homes were vandalised, but King urged them to remain peaceful (non-violent direct action)
• almost a year after Parks refused to give up her seat, the Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were illegal

Question 5

What happened to the Little Rock Nine?

Answer 5

• in Sep 1957, nine African American pupils tried to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
• Arkansas had refused to de-segregate their schools and Central High School remained a school for white children
• the governor of Arkansas sent National Guard soldiers to prevent the black children from entering the school. A large, hostile crowd greeted the children
• the African Americans of Little Rock took the governor to court and won. The soldiers were forced to leave and the pupils had the right to go to the school

Question 6

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1957 do?

Answer 6

It gave African Americans the right to vote.

Question 7

What was the March on Birmingham (Alabama)?

Answer 7

May 1963, a non-violent protest March through one of the most segregated cities in America - Birmingham, Alabama. The police, under orders from police chief Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor, attacked the protestors with dogs, water cannons, tear-gas, electric cattle prods and batons. The arrest of hundreds of protestors, including 900 children was shown on TV. President Kennedy sent troops to restore order and he ordered Birmingham city council to end segregation.

Question 8

What was the March on Washington?

Answer 8

28 Aug 1963 - around 250,000 protestors (including around 50,000 white people) marched in Washington, DC to hear MLK’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech

Question 9

What happened in the March on Selma?

Answer 9

March 1965 - King organised a March from Selma to Birmingham. When the marchers reached the outskirts of Selma they were brutally attacked by the police. The day became known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.

Question 10

What were sit-ins?

Answer 10

African American students, sometimes accompanied by white students, would sit in the ‘whites only’ section of cafés or restaurants and refuse to leave. In 1960 and 1961, around 70,000 campaigners has staged sit-in protests around the US.

Question 11

What were freedom rides?

Answer 11

African American and white civil rights campaigners would sit next to each other in the ‘whites only’ sections of buses. They didn’t have much trouble in the North, but in the South some protestors were beaten up. One bus was even set on fire.

Question 12

What was the SCLC?

Answer 12

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was created by MLK to train civil rights activists in non-violent protest techniques, how to handle the media, the police and the law.

Question 13

What was the SNCC?

Answer 13

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was set up by African American and white students who were deeply moved by the Civil Rights Movement. The played a large role in the sit-in protests.

Question 14

What was CORE?

Answer 14

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was an interracial American organisation established by James Farmer in 1942 to improve race relations and end discriminatory policies.

Question 15

What did the Civil Rights Act (1964) do?

Answer 15

LBJ introduced this act which outlawed racial discrimination in employment and segregation in public places.

Question 16

When was the voting rights act?

Answer 16

1965 (but only passed into law by Congress in 1986)

Question 17

When was the Fair Housing Act and what did it do?

Answer 17

1968 - it made racial discrimination illegal when buying and renting houses and other property.

Question 18

What was the Black Panther party?

Answer 18

An extreme militant group that rejected King’s non-violent ideas. They argued that African-Americans needed to protect themselves from white racists, using violence if necessary. They had around 5000 members by 1968.

Question 19

What was the Nation of Islam (also known as Black Muslims)?

Answer 19

A group which wanted separatism (keeping the races apart). They said that white society was racist and corrupt. They rejected Christianity as a white man’s religion, urging African Americans to follow Islam.

Question 20

Who was Malcolm X?

Answer 20

The best known member of the Nation of Islam. He was a key figure in the Black Power movement. He was assassinated at a speech in 1965.