Civics 500
Ch. 6 Questions- The Civil Rights Movement
discussion” questions answered before class)
(note: extra credit for “class
1. Copy the 14th Amendment’s text here (blue book, in the Constitution):
2. What are the three main subclauses/guarantees of rights in the 14th amendment
that citizens of the states are entitled to? (recopy here)
a.
b.
c.
3. What court case eviscerated the 14th amendment, returning the states to the
Dred Scott decision? How did this affect guarantee “a” above? (class
discussion)
4. What year was Plessy v. Ferguson? What precedent did it establish? (class)
5. What is selective incorporation? How was it used to guarantee rights? (class)
6. The Court Fight in Chafe Ch. 6: how did the cases Missouri ex. Rel. Gaines,
Sweatt v. Painter, and McLaurin v. Board of Regents attack the precedent set
in Plessy v. Ferguson? What was that precedent? (148-151)
7. How was legal segregation finally overturned in Brown v. Board of
Education? (151-153)
8. Why was Brown seen as so potentially effective? Why was this promise not
realized? How did President Eisenhower have such a dramatic effect on
implementation? What lingering effects of his approach do we see today?
(153-157; the last question is your opinion/observation)
9. Due to Eisenhower’s reaction, how did the South respond to Brown? What
recent movie sugarcoats these events on the football field? (157-161; popculture knowledge)
10. How was Mongomery different? Why did that movement happen, after
Brown was passed? How was the KKK treated at the end of this movement?
(161-165)
11. How did students approach the Civil Rights movement? Why do you think
that many southern Civics and American History classes still refer to the Civil
War as The War of Northern Aggression? (165-168; class)
12. How did the movement spread? How did the SCLC and SNCC differ in their
approaches? What tensions did this cause? (168-174)
13. According to Chafe’s conclusion, how did whites and blacks differ, in general,
in their approach for Black civil right demands? (174-176)
14. How was the privately-owned South ultimately desegregated, and what does
ketchup have to with it? (class)
15. What is de jure vs. de facto segregation? How is it currently at play in
Greenwich High School? What implication does this have for our society
today? How was this racial/cultural split played out, in part, in the election of
2004? (class)