Fight for Desegregation: Brown v. Board of Education

Question 1

How many Justices agreed with the decision?

Answer 1

All 9

Question 2

What did they decide?

Answer 2

Intentionally segregated classrooms were unconstitutional.

Question 3

What did they base their decision on?

Answer 3

The 14th amendment: Equal protection of the law.
The system makes black children feel inferior.
The doll test. (Experiment about which doll was more beautiful.)

Question 4

Who was the chief Justice?

Answer 4

Earl Warren

Question 5

What was the criticism of the decision?

Answer 5

• Wanted judges to look at only the basic meaning of the text. No drawing inferences.
• Judial activism-when rulings are based on personal/political reasons instead of legal reasons.

Question 6

What did Rosa Parks do?

Answer 6

Refused to give up her bus seat in 1955 and was arrested.

Question 7

Montgomery Bus Boycott?

Answer 7

Led by 26 year old MLK

The supreme court ruled the segregation of public transportation is unconstitutional.

Question 8

Who were the “Little Rock Nine?”

Answer 8

A group of 9 African American students who were selected to start the integration process in schools.

Question 9

What happened to the Little Rock Nine

Answer 9

Angry mobs formed. Insults shouted @ the group of them. (Everybody but Elizabeth Eckford was together)
Elizabeth Eckford was alone and surrounded until a white woman pulled her away and sent her to her mothers work place. Mobs did not stop.

Question 10

What did Eisenhower do?

Answer 10

Ordered integration at first, thought the mobs had stopped. The federal govt finally sent troops to escort students.

Question 11

What was the significance of the events?

Answer 11

The first time the Gov’t had intervened in an integration situation.

Question 12

What were “Sit-In Campaigns?”

Answer 12

College students would sit at segregated lunch counters. Non-Violent protests.

Question 13

SNCC

Answer 13

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee:

Founded by MLK so they could organize civil rights protests in the south. Wanted religious affiliation.

Question 14

SCLC

Answer 14

Southern Christian Leadership Conference: Formed so young blacks could have their own voice. More radical than SNCC. Ella Baker helped found. Had to do a lot w/ voting rights in the south.

Question 15

Four steps outlined in MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Answer 15

Collection of Facts
Negotiation
Self-Purification
-Non-violent but direct actions.

Question 16

Main influences on MLK’s approach to protest?

Answer 16

Ghandi, His father, Abe Lincoln, Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy

Question 17

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Answer 17

• Put into law by Lyndon Baines Johnson
• Banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, etc.
• Banned unequal application of voter registration laws
• Banned segregation in schools and public areas

Question 18

Who was Medger Evers

Answer 18

• Secretary for NAACP

- Shot in the back after organizing a store boycott

Question 19

Freedom Summer?

Answer 19

1964
Mississippi. SNCC went down to try and convince black people to register to vote (less than 10% of black pop was registered.)
Established “Freedom Schools”

Question 20

Goodman, Cheney, and Schwerner?

Answer 20

The murdered members of SNCC during Freedom Summer (2 white, 1 black)

Question 21

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Answer 21

Prohibited gov from denying vote based on race

15th Amendment

Question 22

After 1965, MLK focused on…

Answer 22

Poverty
Vietnam War (LBJ not pleased)
Northern Discrimination (Chicago)
People thought MLK was misguided by “mixing civil rights with war”