US Civil rights

Question 1

What was NAACP membership in 1942?

Answer 1

• 450,000
• multi racial

Question 2

What did the Morgan v. Virginia case result in?

Answer 2

• 1946
• the Supreme Court ruled segregation of interstate buses illegal

Question 3

What did the Brown v. Board of Education do?

Answer 3

• 1954
• ruled ‘separate but equal’ education unconstitutional

Question 4

How was the Brown v. Board Act not implemented?

Answer 4

• 1956 - no Southern schools integrated
• mob violence in Little Rock Arkansas in 1957

Question 5

How was Morgan v. Virginia not followed?

Answer 5

• 1947 Congress for Racial Equality sat in the wrong sections of interstate buses and faced discrimination (multi racial participation)

Question 6

What did the NAACP do?

Answer 6

• challenged Jim Crow laws using 14th and 15th amendments

Question 7

What did the Smith v. Allwright case do?

Answer 7

• Supreme Court ruled law preventing black people from voting in primary elections unconstitutional

Question 8

Smith v. Allwright case drawbacks

Answer 8

• Poll tax, literacy tests still prevented Black Americans from voting
• Didn’t legalises voting in secondary elections

Question 9

What did the Executive Order 9808 do?

Answer 9

• implemented by Truman in 1946
• created the Committee on Civil Rights (first of its kind) which then created the landmark report in 1948 ‘To Secure Rights’
• report proposed anti-lynching laws and abolition of poll tax

Question 10

What did the Executive Order 9980 do?

Answer 10

Created the Fair Employment Board

Question 11

What did the Executive Order 9981 do?

Answer 11

• Desegregated the armed forces in 1948
• However armed forces weren’t officially integrated until 1948

Question 12

Why was Truman so active whilst promoting civil rights?

Answer 12

• Introduced executive orders before 1948 election as a result of splitting of Democrat party
• Truman therefore received 2/3 of black votes
• however could be out of sense of morality post WW2?

Question 13

Popular African American sportsmen

Answer 13

• Jackie Robinson - first black Major League Baseball player in 1947, his number 42 never used again out of respect
• Jesse Owens - won the 100m and long jump in 1936 Berlin Olympic Games

Question 14

How were popular black sportsmen not treated equally?

Answer 14

• FDR didn’t welcome Jesse Owen’s into the White House after winning gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games
• despite the achievements of Jackie Robinson, sport remained segregated and black stars received unequal pay and abuse from white fans

Question 15

Who was the first black American to win an Oscar?

Answer 15

• Hattie McDaniel in 1940 for her supporting role as ‘Mammy’ in Gone with the Wind

Question 16

How were black musicians disadvantaged in the 50s?

Answer 16

• Nat King Cole, Chuck Berry and Little Richard were popular music artists
• However found it difficult to tour in the Deep South in late 1950s

Question 17

How were black Americans prevented from voting in the South?

Answer 17

Poll tax, grandfather clause and intimidation from groups like the KKK

Question 18

Life not improving for illegal migrants

Answer 18

• 1953 - more than 3m illegal migrants were deported across the border
• those who stayed lived 1/3 below the poverty line

Question 19

Life for Native Americans in the 1950s

Answer 19

• National Congress of American Indians in 1944 - represented tribes at a national level
• however in 1953 Native American’s land was terminated

Question 20

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Answer 20

• 1955
• lasted a year
• led by MLK