Civil Rights

Question 1

What was the result of the 1954 Supreme Court case named Brown vs the Board of Education?

Answer 1

They ruled that separate did not mean equal so schools were ordered to desegregate. The ruling was very broad and left plenty of room for school districts to evade the purpose of the ruling.

Question 2

In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat (after a long day at work) to a white man she was arrested. What was the result?

Answer 2

Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955-56.

Question 3

When did the military end segregation?

Answer 3

After WWII in 1948.

Question 4

When did Major League Baseball desegregate?

Answer 4

1947

Question 5

Who led the Montgomery Bus Boycott? What were some of his concerns and how did he address them?

Answer 5

Martin Luther King Jr., winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was afraid the boycott would run out of steam before it succeeded but it did succeed after 381 days of boycott. He got church leaders to have church meetings and to organize carpools. He also made use of press coverage. The organizers would stage a protest where hostility and injustice were particularly high. This would lead to conflict. The Press would cover it and “people of goodwill” would be so horrified by what they saw that they would recognize change was needed and public opinion started supporting the Civil Rights demands.

Question 6

What does NAACP (pronounced, “n double a cp”) stand for? Who started it?

Answer 6

“The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.” It was founded in 1909 as an interracial organization to advance justice for African Americans. W.E.B. Dubois was one of its founders and Martin Luther King Jr was one of its leaders.

Question 7

Who were the Freedom Fighters?

https://www.americanchampions365.com/2018/03/04/march-4-1961-the-original-13-freedom-fighters/

Answer 7

A group of 13 Americans, 7 Black and 6 White, who tried to travel by bus from Washington DC to New Orleans, LA to commemorate the anniversary of Brown vs BoE and to resist segregated accommodations for public transportation. Their buses were confronted by violent mobs and one of the buses was bombed. The Freedom Fighters were arrested and jailed for attempting to use a whites only restroom. Later Freedom Fighters worked to get blacks registered to vote. Three of them (white) were killed by the KKK.

Question 8

Who inspired Martin Luther King? Why?

Answer 8

Mahatma Ghandi. Through non-violent actions, Ghandi succeeded in leading the people of India to Independence from England. He stressed that as long as your opponent had a conscience, non-violence would lead to a conversion and resolution of injustice.

Question 9

In Atlanta, Georgia, desegregation occurred peacefully. Atlantians said their city was “too busy to hate.” Name at least two activists who called Atlanta home.

Answer 9

Rep John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr, Ralph Abernathy, Coretta Scott King, and Stacey Abrams (?)

Question 10

Who was Jesse Jackson?

Answer 10

He is the founder of Rainbow/PUSH. Jackson has been a civil rights leader since the 60’s. He served as a shadow Senator for DC and ran for president in the Democratic primaries of 1984 and 1988. He was the most recognized African American politician until Barack Obama.

Question 11

What is the SCLC?

Answer 11

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It was an offshoot of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It’s purpose was to confront segregation through civil dissent. It coordinated civil rights efforts across the south.

Question 12

Who were the “Big Five”?

Answer 12

The five civil rights organizations at the forefront of the national civil rights movement. They are:
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
the National Urban League (NUL),
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),
and the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)

Question 13

Name a famous document written by Martin Luther King, Jr. Name a famous speech delivered by MLK,

Answer 13

“Letter From Birmingham Jail” (August 1963)

“I Have a Dream” (August 1963)

Question 14

Why in 1960 did John F Kennedy drag his heels rather than go on and sign the Civil Rights Act?

Answer 14

Until the 1960’s the southern states were Democratic. He was afraid the South would turn away from the Democrats if a Democratic administration signed the Act. He was right. (but that doesn’t mean he should have avoided it.)

Question 15

What did the Soviet Union do regarding the Civil Rights Movement.

Answer 15

They used it as propaganda to convince African countries (that were just being born) to avoid democracy because the United States was hypocritical.

Question 16

Who was Malcolm X and who were the Black Panthers?

Answer 16

The FBI investigated and maintained “lists” of many civil rights activists and peace activists. In the case of Malcolm X, many say they framed him and had him imprisoned on false charges. Many also say that the FBI was responsible for his assassination.
The Black Panthers formed as an activist group watching, documenting, and sometimes obstructing violent police conduct. The FBI decided to label them as a terrorist group. The Black Panthers upheld that blacks were better than whites which scared many whites.

Question 17

Name three acts of Congress that address racial inequality.

Answer 17

Civil Rights Act (1964)
Voting Rights Act (1965)
Immigration Reform Act (1965)

Question 18

When did Martin Luther King, Jr die? How? Where? Why was he there?

Answer 18

Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis TN. He was standing on his hotel balcony the day after his “I Have Seen the Promised Land” speech. He was in Memphis to support a strike organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The slogan for the strike was, “I Am a Man.” The strike began because two sanitation workers were crushed to death when a garbage truck malfunctioned. Many complaints had been filed about the equipment used by the sanitation workers but they were ignored. Workers could not file official requests for repairs because no means was provided by the city to do that.

Question 19

Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that non-violence would eventually change the hearts of those who were intent on discrimination. However many black people became impatient with his methods and were fed up with defacto racism regardless of new laws. During the “Long Hot Summer” of 1967 this impatience boiled over into race riots. What precipated most of them?

Answer 19

Most of the riots in 1967 shared the same triggering event: a dispute between Black citizens and white police officers that escalated to violence.

Question 20

What was the Kerner Report (1967)? What were its findings?

Answer 20

President Johnson set up the Kerner Commission, a committee of 11 people to investigate the riots of the “Long Hot Summer”. Their findings were, ““White racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of WWII.”

Question 21

Name at least three events that set back the initial accomplishments of the Civil Rights movement leading to a renewal of “boiling” unrest today?

Answer 21

White Flight–cities became more segregated
Black leaders leaving inner cities–lack of leaders to keep the movement going
White backlash against affirmative action
War on Drugs–new way to prevent blacks from voting and getting gainful employment
Supreme Court diluted The Voting Rights Act
Citizens United–big corporations can make or break elections
Election of Donald Trump–destroyed faith in democracy and the uprise of White Supremacy
1978 Supreme Court outlawed parts of Affirmative Action and quotas