Civil Rights in the 1950s

Question 1

When was the American Civil War?

Answer 1

1861-1865

Question 2

What was the Civil War fought over?

Answer 2

Slavery

Question 3

What did the Southern States forming during the civil war?

Answer 3

The Confederate States of America

Question 4

13th amendment

Answer 4

Abolition of slavery

Question 5

14th amendment

Answer 5

Citizenship for all black Americans, equal protection

Question 6

15th amendment

Answer 6

Right to vote

Question 7

Equal employment

Answer 7

Civil rights act of 1866

Question 8

When did the Jim Crow Laws begin to appear?

Answer 8

1877

Question 9

The Deep South

Answer 9

Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana

Question 10

The South

Answer 10

Deep South + Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida

Question 11

How were black Americans unfairly defied of voting?

Answer 11

Poll tax, literacy test and the grandfather clause

Question 12

What was the ruling of Plessy vs Ferguson (1896)

Answer 12

Segregation is legal so long as both sides are equal, “separate but equal”

Question 13

When was Linda Brown rejected by Summer Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas

Answer 13

1951

Question 14

When did the Supreme Court rule that segregation in education was unconstitutional?

Answer 14

17th May 1954

Question 15

What were the positive consequences of Brown vs Topeka?

Answer 15

• NAACP
• Increased awareness of Black American Civil Rights
• Restored hope to civil rights campaigns
• Set a legal precedent used in other desegregation rulings

Question 16

What were the negative consequences of Brown vs Topeka?

Answer 16

• Integration affected children’s learning
• Too long
• “White flight” lead to further segregation
• White racists caused backlash

Question 17

Who was Emmet Till?

Answer 17

A 14-year-old black American from Chicago

Question 18

What did Emmet Till do that may have provoked his murder?

Answer 18

Told other teenagers he had a white girlfriend and May have whistled at or flirted with a grocery store owner Carolyn Bryant on 24th August 1955

Question 19

When was Emmet Till abducted and by whom?

Answer 19

On the 28th August 1955 by Carolyn’s husband and her brother

Question 20

When was Emmet Till’s body discovered?

Answer 20

31st August 1955

Question 21

What did Emmet Till’s murder do?

Answer 21

Media publicity and confirmed systemic racism in the South

Question 22

When we’re 9 students denied entry to the previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas?

Answer 22

4th Sept 1957

Question 23

What happened if the 12th Sept 1957?

Answer 23

President Eisenhower met with Governor Faunus to try to persuade him to allow to students entry

Question 24

What happened on the 23rd Sept 1957?

Answer 24

The police successfully accompanied the students into the school

Question 25

What happened on the 25th Sept 1957?

Answer 25

The Little Rock Nine finally attended classes

Question 26

When did high schools in Little Rock close because the state court was fighting the Supreme Court over desegregation?

Answer 26

Sept 1958

Question 27

When did high schools in Little Rock reopen and continue integrating?

Answer 27

August 1959

Question 28

What was the significance of Federal Intervention in Little Rock?

Answer 28

- Did not solve entrenched racism - Backed up the Supreme Court - Impactful in the short term

Question 29

What was the significance of the Supreme Court in Little Rock?

Answer 29

Weak without support and could raise opposition in local areas

Question 30

What was the significance of the media publicity of Little Rock?

Answer 30

- Useful in generating Global Awareness - Could catapult individuals to National attention - Very important in forcing government action - Used to thwart changes

Question 31

What was the significance of the MBB?

Answer 31

- First large-scale, long-term protest by Black Americans in a Southern city - Established that the federal courts were now more reliably pro civil rights - Only impactful in transport, other areas still segregated - Brought MLK to prominence and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was set up in the aftermath, therefore it was seen by many as a starting point of the civil rights movement - Significant backlash when integrated buses started - Showed the power of mass, non-violent protest

Question 32

When and why was the KKK re-established?

Answer 32

1954 in reaction the Brown vs Topeka

Question 33

What were the methods of the KKK?

Answer 33

Intimidation, lynchings, shootings and bombings

Question 34

Who were the KKK's targets?

Answer 34

Black Americans and civil rights activists

Question 35

When did several African Americans get arrested for refusing to give up their seats to white Americans?

Answer 35

Claudette Colvin March 1955, Aurelia Browder April 1955 and Rosa Parks 1st Dec 1955

Question 36

Why did the MIA rally around Rosa Parks?

Answer 36

She had 20 years of activism experience and a role as secretary of the local NAACP, well-connected, respected and principled resistance. In addition Colvin was pregnant at 15

Question 37

What date was Rosa Parks' trial?

Answer 37

5th Dec 1955

Question 38

Who called from all African Americans to boycott the buses on the day of Rosa Parks' trial?

Answer 38

The Women's Political Council

Question 39

Where was the Montgomery Improvement Association set up?

Answer 39

The Holt Street Baptist Church

Question 40

What were the MIA's demands?

Answer 40

- Bus drivers to treat all passengers with respect; Black Americans should not have to stand up for white people; Black American drivers to be recruited to drive in mostly black routes

Question 41

When did the boycott end?

Answer 41

20th Dec 1956 (381 days)

Question 42

When was MLK's house bombed?

Answer 42

30th Jan 1956

Question 43

When we're 90 leaders of the MIA imprisoned and when we're they trialed?

Answer 43

Arrested 22nd Feb 1956, trialed 14th March 1956

Question 44

What were the causes of the civil rights act of 1957?

Answer 44

Johnson's effective political dealings prevented filibustering of the bill again as in 1956

Question 45

What were the clauses of the civil rights act of 1957?

Answer 45

- It set up the US commission on Civil Rights to investigate how African Americas were prevented from voting - Allowed federal courts to prosecute states that tried to prevent people from voting

Question 46

What were the impacts and significance of the civil rights act of 1957?

Answer 46

- An import first step by Congress in trying to improve civil right through the law - Had little direct impact on civil rights demonstrating the limited effect of Supreme Court action on its own - Encourage civil rights campaigners to push for further laws - Acknowledge that many African Americans were unable to vote and something should be done about it