Origins of the civil rights movement (1)

Question 1

What did African Americans fight for during the 1950s and 1960s?

Answer 1

During the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans fought for equal rights in the Civil Rights Movement, using mass non-violent protests.

Question 2

Some activists felt that this did not go far enough and the Black Power Movement called for greater ______.

Answer 2

assertiveness

Question 3

What did the Native Americans call for?

Answer 3

Native American protesters spoke of ‘Red Power’ and insisted on the name ‘Native American’ rather than ‘Indian’.

Question 4

What did Mexican-Americans call for?

Answer 4

Mexican-Americans demanded bilingual and bicultural education, and asked to be called ‘Chicanos’.

Question 5

What did the gays protest against? (4)

Answer 5

Gay rights activists protested against:

• employment discrimination
• unequal law enforcement
• harassment of individuals
• raids on gay bars.

Question 6

What was the 1960s defined by?

Answer 6

The 1960s were therefore a decade when ordinary men and women took to the streets in many parts of the world to protest against the policies of their governments and to demand change in their society. In the West these protests brought about important changes and reforms.

Question 7

African Americans formed about ___ of the total American population. In the 1950s many African Americans lived in the _____ states of the USA where segregation laws discriminated against them and prevented them from ____.

Answer 7

10%
southern
voting

Question 8

In the 1950s and 1960s a Civil Rights Movement emerged that used non-violent tactics to demand equality and an end to ____.

Answer 8

segregation

Question 9

What had African Americans been freed from?

Answer 9

African Americans had been freed from slavery during the American Civil War (1861-65).

Question 10

What were African Americans granted after they were freed?

Answer 10

For a short while after the Civil War, new laws were passed which gave them political rights, including the right to vote. But these rights were gradually taken away when conservative whites regained political control in the southern states of the USA They passed laws which took away the voting rights of African Americans and enforced strict segregation laws.

Question 11

Who made sure Jim Crow Laws were followed?

Answer 11

An extremist, white supremacist secret society, called the Ku Klux Klan, used violence and terror to make sure these segregation laws were followed.

Question 12

What was the NAACP? (2)

Answer 12

• An association called the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was formed in 1909 to fight against segregation and discrimination.
• Over the years the NAACP campaigned against inequality in issues such as the right to vote and access to housing.

Question 13

What was CORE?

Answer 13

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was formed in 1942 and over time the membership of both organizations grew steadily.

Question 14

During the Second World War many African Americans found skilled work in ____ industries and over a million fought in the US army. Many of them returned after the war determined to work for change and an end to ____.

Answer 14

wartime

segregation

Question 15

What was the important moment in the campaign for cicvil rights in the 1950s?

Answer 15

An important moment in the campaign for civil rights came in the 1950s, when the NAACP challenged segregation in the public education system in a case called Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka..

Question 16

What was the case of Brown vs the board of education?

Answer 16

Linda Carol Brown was a black child in Topeka, Kansas. The local all-white primary school refused to allow her to register and enrol there, even though she had to pass it every day to walk to the all-black school some distance away. The NAACP took her case to the Supreme Court which ruled, in 1954, that segregation in the public school system was illegal.

Question 17

Did schools desegregate after the Supreme Court ruled, that segregation in the public school system was illegal?

Answer 17

In spite of this important ruling, most schools in the southern states remained segregated. Other facilities (such as libraries, restaurants and buses) were also segregated. Although it was the policy of the federal government to end segregation, this was not properly enforced.

Question 18

Intimidation by white racists prevented blacks from registering as ____.

Answer 18

voters