The influence of Gandhi and passive resistance and Forms of protest through civil disobedience (3)

Question 1

Who influenced MLK’s policies?

Answer 1

Martin Luther King’s policy of nonviolent resistance was influenced by the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi in India.

Question 2

Gandhi had developed his theories of _______ (or soul force) during a 20-year stay in South Africa, where he led non- violent protests against discrimination against the Indian community here.

Answer 2

satyagraha

Question 3

What did Gandhi demonstrate when he returned India?

Answer 3

When he returned to India, he demonstrated the power of nonviolent resistance in the struggle against British rule in India.

Question 4

When did India become independent?

Answer 4

In 1947 India became independent after a determined struggle by the nationalist movement, using tactics such as strikes, marches and refusing to obey unjust laws.

Question 5

The following were key features of the beliefs and actions of the Civil Rights Movement: (3)

Answer 5

• a belief in nonviolent protest using acts of civil disobedience
• mass action through various forms of peaceful resistance: challenging the state laws through the courts, marches, newspaper petitions, sit-ins, songs, voter registration campaigns, and so on
• multi-racial integration.

Question 6

Why was Rosa Parks important? (2)

Answer 6

• It was the action of a single woman, Rosa Parks, who moved the battle for equal rights from the law courts to the people in the streets.
• In 1955, while traveling on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. This was in open defiance of a law that was in place in the southern states at the time. She was arrested, and convicted of breaking the segregation laws.

Question 7

What did the black community of Montgomery form?

Answer 7

The black community of Montgomery formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and organized a boycott of the city’s bus system.

Question 8

Who was elected at the first president of the MIA?

Answer 8

Martin Luther King Jr, then a local minister in Montgomery, was elected as the first president of the MIA.

Question 9

How long did the boycott lose and how much did the bus company lose?

Answer 9

The boycott lasted for a year, with people either walking to work or sharing lifts, and the bus company lost 65% of its profits.

Question 10

What did white racists try to do in regards to the boycott?

Answer 10

White racists tried to crush the boycott by setting churches in black communities on fire, and the police even arrested the black leaders, including King.

Question 11

What did the Supreme Court rule in terms of Rosa Parks?

Answer 11

Meanwhile civil rights lawyers fought the case of Rosa Parks in court. Eventually, in December 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was against the Constitution of the USA.

Question 12

How did Rosa Parks inspire others?

Answer 12

The action of Rosa Parks inspired other people to realize that they too could stand up for their rights. Parks spent most of her life fighting against injustice. She died in 2005 at the age of 92.

Question 13

Did the bus boycott in Montgomery end segregation in southern states?

Answer 13

Despite the success of the bus boycott in ending segregation on the buses in Montgomery, most facilities in the southern states remained segregated.

Question 14

By the end of the 1950s, many African Americans were impatient for ____. Many of them were inspired to fight for freedom and equality for black people in the US by the ____-________ movement and the establishment of newly independent states in Africa at the time.

Answer 14

Change

anti-colonial

Question 15

What did black and white students form?

Answer 15

Black and white students formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to support the Civil Rights Movement.

Question 16

What happened in January 1960 in terms of SNCC students in Greensboro, North Carolina?

Answer 16

In January 1960, SNCC students in Greensboro, North Carolina, staged a ‘sit-in’ at a lunch counter in a department store where black customers were allowed to shop, but were not allowed to use the restaurant facilities. Although they were abused and attacked, they refused to move. Soon students were holding sit-ins all over the town.

Question 17

What other protests did the SNCC students inspire? (2)

Answer 17

• Their example was followed by 70,000 students in other states, who held similar protests in segregated facilities. They organised kneel- ins’ in churches, ‘read-ins’ in public ‘play-ins’ in city parks, and wade-ins’ on beaches.
• Their courage inspired others to become involved in the struggle. Soon thousands more, black and white, joined in a massive campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to demand the desegregation of public facilities. They persisted despite violence and intimidation by southern authorities and white racists.

Question 18

What did many other civil rights activists such as members of CORE and SNCC do?

Answer 18

Other civil rights activists were members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Members of CORE and the SNCC became ‘freedom riders’, traveling on interstate buses to force the integration of buses and bus stations all over the south. They aimed to create media attention and force the federal government to do more to promote civil rights. Many of them were savagely attacked by groups of angry whites, who set fire to buses and attacked the freedom riders. However, they succeeded in the end in getting federal support and the interstate bus system was desegregated.

Question 19

The Civil Rights Movement consisted of many different organizations - some local and some national. The main ones were: (4)

Answer 19

SCLC
SNCC
CORE
NAACP

Question 20

What was the SCLC?

Answer 20

SCLC - Southern Christian Leadership Conference, established in 1957 by Martin Luther King Jr and other ministers.

Question 21

What was the SNCC?

Answer 21

SNCC - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, formed by students in North Carolina in 1960; played a leading role in organizing sit-ins, freedom rides and the Washington march.

Question 22

What was CORE?

Answer 22

CORE - Congress of Racial Equality, formed in Chicago in 1942 to fight racial inequality; also played a leading role in organizing sit-ins, freedom rides and other Civil Rights protests.

Question 23

What was NAACP?

Answer 23

NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, formed in 1909, tackled issues through the courts.

Question 24

Who was James Meredith?

Answer 24

The Civil Rights Movement won another victory when James Meredith became the first black student to enrol at the formerly white University of Mississippi. When he arrived to enrol at the university, he was accompanied by 500 federal marshals, who were there to ensure that there was no violence. But they were attacked by thousands of white students and other angry white southerners. Two people were killed and 160 marshals injured before 5 000 army troops arrived to restore order. Meredith was protected by marshals throughout his year of study at the university.

Question 25

What happened in the ‘Freedom Summer of 1964’?

Answer 25

In the ‘Freedom Summer of 1964’ black and white Civil Rights campaigners from the more liberal northern states went to Mississippi to open’ Freedom Schools’ and to encourage African Americans to register as voters.

Question 26

What did the freedom schools teach?

Answer 26

The Freedom Schools taught basic literacy and black history, and emphasizing black pride and achievements.

Question 27

What was the result of the Freedom Schools action?

Answer 27

As a result of their efforts they registered 60,000 new black voters. But there was a violent reaction to their efforts: black churches were bombed, hundreds of Freedom Summer workers were beaten and arrested, and six were murdered.