Unit 5 - The Civil Rights Movement, 1954-68

Question 1

What event did the Civil Rights movement start with?

Answer 1

The Brown v Board of Education ruling.

Question 2

What event did the Civil Rights movement end with?

Answer 2

The assassination of MLK.

Question 3

Name important civil rights activists of the time.

Answer 3

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Question 4

Who was Earl Warren?

Answer 4

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1943 to 1953.
He convinced the other justices to overturn Plessy v Ferguson.

Question 5

What is the Brown 2 case?

Answer 5

A declaration by the Supreme Court demanding the speedy integration of all public schools.

Question 6

When was the Brown v Board of Education ruling passed?
What ruling did it overturn?

Answer 6

1954. It overturned Plessy v Ferguson of 1896.

Question 7

What was CORE and what did they stand for?

Answer 7

Freedom Riders of the Congress of Racial Equality.
They tested the implementation of Supreme Court rulings by highlighting racial discrimination on interstate buses and trains.

Question 8

Why did a Supreme Court ruling not mean automatic implementation of the decision?

Answer 8

Because the federal and state governments needed to implement the decisions made by the court.

Question 9

What did the 1956 Browder v Gayle case rule on?

Answer 9

It declared segregation of passengers on public transport in cities unconstitutional.

Question 10

Who started the Montgomery Bus Boycott? Which figure rose to national prominence due to it?

Answer 10

Rosa Parks stated it.
Martin Luther King Jr rose to national prominence.

Question 11

What was the Montgomery Improvement Association?

Answer 11

An organisation to ensure the bus boycott was effective.
It organised car lifts for black Americans so they wouldn’t need to use the buses. This created severe financial difficulties for the bus company.

Question 12

When was the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

Answer 12

1955

Question 13

Why did the Montgomery Bus Boycott receive national support?

Answer 13

Because the spokesperson, MLK, had a moderate and non-violent message and his oratory was eloquent.

Question 14

When did MLK give his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech?

Answer 14

August 28, 1963.

Question 15

When did MLK receive the Nobel Peace Prize?

Answer 15

1964.

Question 16

What was the SCLC?

Answer 16

Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It wanted to fight for black American’s rights in a non-violent way.

Question 17

What were the three main aims of the SCLC?

Answer 17

-To encourage white Americans to participate in the organisation to bring change
-To encourage all black Americans to seek justice and reject injustice
-To encourage the use of non-violent protest

Question 18

Why was the SCLC’s Crusade for Citizenship campaign of 1958-1960 ineffective?

Answer 18

Limited funds and poor organisation.

Question 19

Name two SCLC protest examples.

Answer 19

-Albany, Georgia (1961-62)
-Birmingham, Alabama (April and May 1963)

Question 20

Briefly outline the Albany, Georgia SCLC protest of 1961-62.

Answer 20

Police arrested everyone peacefully and even MLK was released quickly after his fine was paid by an anonymous donor. The protest didn’t get much attention due to the non-violent response of law enforcement.

Question 21

Briefly outline the Birmingham, Alabama SCLC protest of 1963.

Answer 21

The police violently broke up protesters with water cannons and dogs. This was recorded and shown on TV across the country. MLK was arrested and wrote ‘A Letter from Birmingham Jail’. The impact of the events made MLK a national civil rights figure.

Question 22

What was the SNCC?

Answer 22

The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. The youth wing of the civil rights movement.
Their protest received widespread media attention and led directly to the desegregation of lunch counters across the South.

Question 23

What was CORE? Give some details.

Answer 23

Congress of Racial Equality.
It was created in 1942 in Chicago. They believed in non-violent protest, the Freedom Rides gave them national attention.

Question 24

Explain the tactics of the SNCC, CORE and the SCLC.

Answer 24

Non-violent protests. However, law enforcement often reacted violently. These events were filmed and shown on television and in the media to create outrage and bring awareness. They wanted to show that segregation was being enforced in the South unconstitutionally.

Question 25

Who introduced and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Answer 25

Kennedy introduced it, and Lyndon Johnson passed it in his honour.

Question 26

What important appointment to the Supreme Court did Lyndon Johnson make?

Answer 26

He nominated Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice.

Question 27

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do?

Answer 27

It ended legal segregation in the US. It attacked du jure and de facto segregation and forbade racial discrimination in any federally funded programme. It also forbade discrimination due to race, sex, colour, religion or national origin.
It marked the end of Jim Crow.

Question 28

When was the Voting Rights Act passed?
What did it do?

Answer 28

1965.
It gave African Americans full voting rights and eliminated literacy tests.
Poll taxes had been outlawed in 1964.

Question 29

Briefly explain the Freedom Summer of 1964.

Answer 29

literacy test and poll taxes still kept African American voter numbers low. During this summer, the SNCC organised committees across the South to encourage voter registration.

Question 30

Briefly outline the March from Selma to Montgomery, 1965.

Answer 30

A march led by MLK and the SCLC to put pressure on the Johnson administration to introduce legislation giving black Americans equal voting rights.
Protesters were attacked by the Alabama State Troopers in what is now known as ‘Bloody Sunday’.

Question 31

What did the Fair Housing Act of 1968 do?

Answer 31

It was implemented the day after MLK’s assassination. It forbade discrimination when renting or buying a house, but did not include owner-occupied or owner-managed units (still allowed de-facto discrimination).
It had a limited impact on desegregated housing across the country.
The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 attempted to deal with these issues.

Question 32

Who led the SNCC when the organisation became more radical and aligned with the black nationalism movement in the summer of 1965?

Answer 32

Stokely Carmichael and James Foreman.

Question 33

When did CORE definitively abandon non-violent protest and aligned itself with the movement of Black Power?

Answer 33

1968.

Question 34

Name some differences between Malcolm X and MLK.

Answer 34

MLK was from the South, but Malcolm X wasn’t.
Malcolm X was Muslim and supported violent protests. He supported racial separatism and MLK didn’t.

Question 35

When did Malcolm X break away from the Nation of Islam?

Answer 35

1964.

Question 36

When was Malcolm X assassinated?

Answer 36

February 1965.

Question 37

When was MLK assassinated?

Answer 37

1968.

Question 38

What were MLK’s last campaigns?

Answer 38

The failure in Chicago, 1966
The Vietnam War protests
The Poor People’s Campaign, 1967

Question 40

When and where were the Black Panthers founded?

Answer 40

1966 in California.
They were mainly present in urban areas like Oakland, Boston, Chicago and New York.

Question 41

How was the Black Panther party leadership broken?

Answer 41

By the FBI through arrests, imprisonment and assassinations.

Question 42

How did Martin Luther King Jr’s death affect leadership in the civil rights movement?

Answer 42

It made it apparent that the movement lacked leadership. Union in the movement disappeared and radicalised groups abandoned non-violent protest. The SCLC became irrelevant.

Question 43

Briefly explain the Little Rock case of 1957.

Answer 43

9 African American students arrived at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas and were met by an angry, screaming crowd. They were denied entry by the National Guard.
They were finally admitted and protected by the 101st Airborne Division, sent by President Eisenhower.

Question 44

Briefly explain the James Meredith case of 1962.

Answer 44

He was the first black student to be admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi. He completed his degree in one year to be protected during his stay at the university (he was protected by the federal government).