USH: CH 21 Test Review
Civil Rights
1954 – 1968
CH Objective: to understand the African American struggle for civil
rights during the 1950s & 1960s
CH Opener: activism, new legislation, & the Supreme Court advance
equal rights for African Americans – but disagreements among civil rights
groups lead to a violent period for the civil rights movement
Section 1: Taking on Segregation:
Main Idea: activism & a series of Supreme Court decisions advanced
equal rights for African Americans in the 1950s & 1960s
Why it Matters Now: landmark Supreme Court decisions beginning in
1954 have guaranteed civil rights for Americans today
Terms & Names to Identify:
1. Thurgood Marshall:
2. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka:
3. Rosa Parks:
4. Martin Luther King, Jr:
5. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC):
6. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC):
7. sit-in:
(1)-explain how legalized segregation deprived African
Americans of their rights as citizens
*The Segregation System:
-Plessy v. Ferguson:
-Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlawed segregation
-in 1883, all-white Supreme Court declares Act unconstitutional
-1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling: separate but equal constitutional
-many states pass Jim Crow laws separating the races
-facilities for blacks always inferior to those for whites
-Segregation Continues into the 20th Century:
-after Civil War, African Americans go north to escape racism
-North: housing in all-black areas, whites resent job competition
-A Developing Civil Rights Movement:
-WWII creates job opportunities for African American
-need for fighting men makes armed forces end discriminatory
policies
-FDR ends government, war industries discrimination
-returning black veterans fight for civil rights at home
(2)-summarize civil rights legal activity & the response
to the Plessy & Brown cases
*Challenging Segregation in Court:
-The NAACP Legal Strategy:
-Professor Charles Hamilton Houston leads NAACP legal campaign
-focuses on most glaring inequalities of segregated public
education
-places team of law students under Thurgood Marshall
-win 29 out of 32 cases argued before Supreme Court
-Brown v. Board of Education:
-Marshall’s greatest victory is Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka
-in 1954 case, court unanimously strikes down school segregation
**VIDEO**:
*Reaction to Brown Decision:
-Resistance to School Desegregation:
-within 1 year, over 500 school districts desegregate
-some districts, state officials, pro-white groups actively resist
-Court hands down Brown II, orders desegregation at “all deliberate
speed”
-Eisenhower refuses to enforce compliance; considers it impossible
-Crisis in Little Rock:
**VIDEO**:
(3)-trace Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s civil rights
activities, beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott
-the Montgomery Bus Boycott:
**VIDEO**:
*Martin Luther King & the SCLC:
-Changing the World with Soul Force:
-King calls his brand of nonviolent resistance “soul force”
-civil disobedience, massive demonstrations
-King remains nonviolent in face of violence after Brown decision
-From the Grassroots Up:
-King, others found Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC)
-by 1960, African-American students think pace of change too slow
-join Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
(4)-describe the expansion of the civil rights movement
*The Movement Spreads:
-Demonstrating for Freedom:
-SNCC adopts nonviolence, but calls for more confrontational
strategy
-influenced by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to use sit-ins:
-refuse to leave segregated lunch counter until served
-first sit-in at Greensboro, NC Woolworth’s shown nationwide on TV
-in spite of abuse, arrests, movement grows, spreads to North
-late 1960, lunch counters desegregated in 48 cities in 11 states
Section 1 Comprehension:
1. Turn to page 707 and create the spider diagram for question number 2.
Complete.
Section 2: The Triumphs of a Crusade:
Main Idea: civil rights activists broke through racial barriers – their
activism prompted landmark legislation
Why it Matters Now: activism pushed the federal government to end
segregation & ensure voting rights for African Americans
Terms & Names to Identify:
1. freedom riders:
2. James Meredith:
3. Civil Rights Act of 1964:
4. Freedom Summer:
5. Voting Rights Act of 1965:
(1)-identify the goal of the freedom riders
(2)-explain how civil rights activism forced President
Kennedy to act against segregation
(3)-state the motives of the 1963 March on Washington
(4)-describe the tactics tried by civil rights
organizations to secure passage of the Voting Rights
Act
-Freedom Summer:
-Selma Campaign:
-Voting Rights Act of 1965:
Section 3: Challenges & Changes in the Movement:
Main Idea: disagreements among civil rights groups & the rise of black
nationalism created a violent period in the fight for civil rights
Why it Matters Now: from the fight for equality came a resurgence of
racial pride for African Americans, a legacy that influences today’s
generations
Terms & Names to Identify:
1. de facto segregation:
2. de jure segregation:
3. Malcolm X:
4. Nation of Islam:
5. Stokley Carmichael:
6. Black Power:
7. Black Panthers:
8. Kerner Commission:
9. Civil Rights Act of 1968:
10. affirmative action:
(1)-compare segregation in the North with segregation
in the South
*African Americans Seek Greater Equality:
-Northern Segregation:
-de facto segregation exists by practice, custom; problem in North
-de jure segregation is segregation required by law
-WWII black migration to Northern cities results in “white flight”
-1960s, most urban blacks live in slums; landlords ignore
ordinances
-black unemployment twice as high as white
-many blacks angry at treatment received from white police officers
-Urban Violence Erupts:
-mid-1960s, numerous clashes between white authority, black
civilians
-many result in riots
-many whites baffled by African-American rage
-blacks want, need equal opportunity in jobs, housing, education
-money for War on Poverty, Great Society redirected to Vietnam
War
(2)-identify the leaders who shaped the Black Power
movement
?Compare & contrast the civil rights strategies of Malcolm X & Martin
Luther King, Jr. Whose strategies do you think were more effective?
Explain & support your response.
-Black Power:
-CORE, SNCC become more militant; SCLC pursues traditional
tactics
-Stokely Carmichael, head of SNCC, calls for Black Power:
-African Americans control lives, communities, without whites
-Black Panthers:
-Black Panthers fight police brutality, want black self-sufficiency
-preach ideas of Mao Zedong; have violent confrontations with
police
-provide social services in ghettos, win popular support
?Why was the public reaction to the Black Panthers mixed?
?Why did some leaders of the SCLC disagree with SNCC tactics?
(4)-summarize the accomplishments of the civil rights
movement
-Causes of violence:
-Kerner Commissioner names racism as main cause of urban
violence
-Civil Rights Gains:
1. Civil Rights Act of 1968:
2. school:
3. movies / television:
4. increased voter registration:
-Unfinished Work:
-forced busing, higher taxes, militancy, riots reduce white support
-white flight reverses much progress toward school integration
-unemployment, poverty higher than for whites
-Affirmative Action – extra effort to hire, enroll discriminated groups
-1960s, colleges, companies doing government business adopt
policy
-late 1970s, some criticize policy as reverse discrimination
Section 3 Comprehension:
1. What were some of the causes of urban rioting in the 1960s?
2. How did Malcolm X alienate Black Muslims?
3. What happened in cities across America after King’s assassination?