Key legislation/court rulings

Question 1

Civil Rights Act 1964

Answer 1

banned discrimination in voting, public services and work. Equal Opportunities Commission created to enforce this.

Question 2

Voting Rights Act 1965

Answer 2

Banned any attempt to stop people voting because of their race. Provisions are put in place for five years federal enforcement of this. Enforcement provisions have to be reconfirmed with extensions in 1970, 1975, 1982 and 2007.

Question 3

Brown vs Board of Education 1954

Answer 3

Justice Warren asserted that ‘separate but equal’ had no place in education, and that provision for black children was clearly not equal. Ruled that schools should be desegregated. However, he set no time frame, meaning that many southern states simply ignored the ruling.

Question 4

Plessy vs Ferguson 1896

Answer 4

Supreme Court rules that segregation is constitutional, as long as provision is ‘separate but equal’.

Question 5

Brown II 1955

Answer 5

Supreme Court attempts to consolidate its earlier ruling by adding a vague time frame- ‘with all deliberate speed’. Still not enough to prompt certain states to take action to desegregate schools.

Question 6

Murray vs Maryland 1936

Answer 6

University of Maryland’s law school is desegregated

Question 7

Gaines vs Canada 1938

Answer 7

Supreme Court orders University of Missouri to take black students

Question 8

1946 Morgan vs Virginia

Answer 8

Supreme Court overturns a Virginia state law segregating buses and trains that moved from one state to another

Question 9

1948 Shelly vs Kraemer

Answer 9

Bans regulations that bar black people from buying houses in an area in any state

Question 10

1950 Sweatt v Painter

Answer 10

Desegregates graduate and professional schools in Texas.

Question 11

Southern Manifesto 1956

Answer 11

102 Southern Congressmen sign the Southern Manifesto, condemning Brown vs Board of Education

Question 12

Civil Rights Act 1957

Answer 12

Sets up a Civil Rights Commission and gives the federal justice department more rights to supervise voter registration.

Question 13

Civil Rights Act 1960

Answer 13

Makes it a crime to obstruct federal orders (such as school desegregation) by threat of force, and authorizes federal referees for voting.

Question 14

Emergency School Aid Act 1970

Answer 14

Gives funding to schools that are desegregating or struggling after desegregating. There is a second Act two years later.

Question 15

Swann vs Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education

Answer 15

Upholds the policy of busing children out of poor areas to desegregated schools.

Question 16

Education Amendments Act 1972

Answer 16

Restricts busing by giving more money to inner-city schools for improvements.