Racial Tension in the 50s and 60s

Question 1

What year did the Brown v. Board case happen?

Answer 1

1951

Question 2

What was the NAACP?

Answer 2

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

Question 3

What happened in Brown v. Board?

Answer 3

1. Oliver Brown took the Board of Education of Topeka to court. He was unhappy that his daughter had to walk two miles to a Black school, when there was a white school that was closer.
2. He lost the case.

Question 4

What was the outcome of Brown v. Board?

Answer 4

In May 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that every education board in America had to end segregation in schools.

Question 5

Why was the impact of Brown v. Board limited?

Answer 5

Some states refused - 2 years later, in 1956, there was still not a single African-American child attending a white school in 6 southern states.

Question 6

When was the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

Answer 6

1955-56

Question 7

When did Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat?

Answer 7

1st December 1955

Question 8

What happened to Rosa Parks?

Answer 8

She was arrested and jailed. She was the secretary for her local NAACP, and news of her arrest spread fast.

Question 9

What happened in respoonse Parks’ arrest?

Answer 9

Leaders in Montgomery, including MLK Jr., called for a bus boycott.

Question 10

How long did the Montgomery bus boycott last?

Answer 10

381 days

Question 11

What was the outcome of the Montgomery bus boycott?

Answer 11

The Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were illegal.

Question 12

Who was Martin Luther King?

Answer 12

A Baptist minister who fought for the rights of African-Americans - he led the Civil Rights movement and believed in peaceful protest

Question 13

What happened in 1960?

Answer 13

4 Black students in Greensboro, NC at in a “whites only” lunch counter and refused to move. This led to more “sit-ins” across the South.

Question 14

Within a year and a half, how many people staged sit-ins in the South?

Answer 14

70,000

Question 15

What were freedom rides?

Answer 15

Civil rights campaigners sat in “whites only” areas of buses where local authorities had refused to desegregate them

Question 16

What happened in May 1963?

Answer 16

King organised a non-violent march in Birmingham, Alabama.

Question 17

How many people took part in the march in Birmingham?

Answer 17

30,000

Question 18

How did authorities respond to the march in Birmingham?

Answer 18

Violence - police used tear gas, arrested civilians, etc.

Question 19

Who ordered the violence at Birmingham?

Answer 19

Police chief Eugene “Bull” Connor

Question 20

What happened in August 1963?

Answer 20

200,000 protestors march at Washing.ton, DC. King gives his iconic “I have a dream” speech

Question 21

How many people marched at Washington DC?

Answer 21

200,000

Question 22

What happens in 1968?

Answer 22

MLK is murdered by a white racist.

Question 23

What happened in Little Rock, Arkansas?

Answer 23

In 1957, 9 African-American students tried to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock. Soldiers were sent by the Governor of Arkansas to prevent them from entering.

Question 24

What happened in response to the events at Little Rock?

Answer 24

The students/Black citizens of Little Rock took the Governor of Arkansas to court. They won the case and the school was desegregated.

Question 25

By 1960, how many Black students were attending mixed-race schools?

Answer 25

Only 2500 out of 2 million

Question 26

When was the Civil Rights Act passed?

Answer 26

1964

Question 27

What did the 1964 Civil Rights Act do?

Answer 27

Outlaw discrimination based on race and gender in employment, and ended segregation in public placed

Question 28

From 1965-68, what happened?

Answer 28

There were riots in most of America's major cities

Question 29

Why did some people reject peaceful protest?

Answer 29

They argued it was too slow to bring about change.

Question 30

What new movement began to arise in the 1960s?

Answer 30

The Black Power movement

Question 31

What was the Nation of Islam?

Answer 31

A religious/political organisation.

Question 32

What did the Nation of Islam believe?

Answer 32

1. They argued for separatism, and that white society was racist and corrupt. 2. They rejected Christianity as a "white religion" and urged Black Americans to follow Islam.

Question 33

What did Malcolm X argue?

Answer 33

He encouraged African-Americans to be proud of their identity and defend themselves "by any means necessary"

Question 34

What did Malcolm X do in 1964?

Answer 34

He left the Nation of Islam and adopted more tolerant, less militant views

Question 35

What was the Black Panther Party?

Answer 35

An organisation formed in 1966 - it rejected the ideas of peaceful protest and argued that AAs needed more protection.

Question 36

What happened in 1968?

Answer 36

A new Civil Rights Act was passed.

Question 37

What did the 1968 Civil Rights Act state?

Answer 37

It made it illegal to "by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate or interfere with anyone... by reason of race, colour, religion or national origin."

Question 38

What is the 1968 Civil Rights Act also known as? Why?

Answer 38

"The Fair Housing Act" - it criminalised racial discrimination when buying and renting houses or other property

Question 39

What did MLK admit before his assassination?

Answer 39

He began to understand the limitations of nonviolent protest against violent oppressors.

Question 40

What did MLK say about violence?

Answer 40

"I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. ... But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard."