Paper 1 Civil Rights movement in the United States

Question 1

What were the nature and characteristics of discrimination during the civil rights movements in the US?

Answer 1

• Racisim and violence against African Americans; the Ku Klux Klan (KKK); disenfranchisement
• segregation and education; Brown vs. Board of Education decision (1954); Little Rock (1957)
• Economic and sicail discrimination; legacy of the Jim Crow Laws

Question 2

What was the KKK?

Answer 2

either of two distinct U.S. hate organizations that employed terror in pursuit of their white supremacist agenda. One group was founded immediately after the Civil War and lasted until the 1870s. The other began in 1915 and has continued to the present.

Question 3

What role did disenfranchisement have during the Civil Rights movement?

Answer 3

designed to thwart the objective of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, enacted in 1870 to protect the suffrage of freedmen.

Question 4

What was the Brown vs. Board of Education decision (1954)?

Answer 4

Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States

Question 5

What was Little Rock (1957)?

Answer 5

The desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas

Question 6

What were the Jim Crow law and how did they continue to effect the Civil Rights Movements in the US?

Answer 6

Jim Crow laws were state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation

Question 7

What were the protests and actions taken?

Answer 7

non-violent: Montgomery bus boycott (1955-1956); Freedom Rides (1961); Freedom Summer ( 1964)

legislative changes: Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965)

Question 8

What was the Montgomery bus boycott (1955-1956)?

Answer 8

Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.

Question 9

What were the Freedom Rides (1961)?

Answer 9

The Congress of Racial Equality came up with the idea to put blacks and whites in small groups on commercial buses, and they would deliberately violate the segregation laws of the deep South.

Question 10

What was Freedom Summer (1964)?

Answer 10

Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi.

Question 11

What is the Civil Rights Acts (1964)?

Answer 11

prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin

Question 12

What is the Voting Rights Act (1965)?

Answer 12

This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting

Question 13

Who were three of the key actors in the Civil Rights Movements?

Answer 13

Martin Luther King Jr; Malcolm X; Lyndon B Johnson

Question 14

Who was Martin Luther King Jr?

Answer 14

an American Baptist minister and activist who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

Question 15

Who was Malcolm X?

Answer 15

an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community

Question 16

Who was Lyndon B Johnson?

Answer 16

was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969

signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Question 17

What were the Key Groups during the Civil Rights Movements?

Answer 17

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP); Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims)

Question 18

What was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP)?

Answer 18

works to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes

Question 19

What was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)?

Answer 19

is a civil rights organization founded in 1957, as an offshoot of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which successfully staged a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery Alabama’s segregated bus system

Question 20

What was the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)?

Answer 20

It was made up mostly of Black college students, who practiced peaceful, direct action protests

Question 21

What was the Nations of Islam (black muslims)?

Answer 21

African American movement and organization, founded in 1930 and known for its teachings combining elements of traditional Islam with Black nationalist ideas. The Nation also promotes racial unity and self-help and maintains a strict code of discipline among members.