America 3.2 Racial Tension and Developments in the Civil Rights Campaign

Question 1

What happened in the case ‘Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 1954’. Who helped in the case? (AM 3.2)

Answer 1

• 1951, father of Linda Brown took the board to court.
• National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.
• Lost the case, but appealed to the supreme court.
• Supreme court declared educational segregation illegal.

Question 2

What happened in the Montgomery bus boycotts? (AM 3.2)

Answer 2

• 1st December 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to move out a whites only seat.
• News spread, MLK organised a bus boycott,
• 75% of their business was African-Americans, lost lots of money.
• Supreme court desegregates buses almost a year later.

Question 3

What happened in Little Rock, Arkansas? (AM 3.2)

Answer 3

• September 1957, 9 African-American students refused entry to school.
• National guard called in to stop the students.
• President sends troops to escort them in.

Question 4

What happened with the 1957 Civil Rights Act? (AM 3.2)

Answer 4

• Gave African-Americans voting rights.
• Little enforcement,
• Showed government to longer put up with being ignored by states.

Question 5

What happened in the protests at Alabama (1963), Washington (1963), and Selma (1965)? (AM 3.2)

Answer 5

• MLK organised protest. Police attack. 900 children arrested. Kennedy sends in army to restore order.
• MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech given to 250,000.
• MLK organised march, attacked by Selma police. ‘Bloody Sunday’.

Question 6

What were the sit-ins (1960/61)? What were the freedom rides? (AM 3.2)

Answer 6

• Black/White students sit in white only restaurants. 70,000 more people campaign like this.
• Black/White campaigners sit in white-only bus sections together to desegregate them.

Question 7

What laws helped the rights of African-Americans? (AM 3.2)

Answer 7

• 1964 Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in employment and public places.
• 1965 Voting Rights Act ended voting discrimination.
• 1967, Mixed-Race marriages made legal.
• 1968 Fair Housing Act made discrimination in property illegal.

Question 8

What did the Nation of Islam want? Why did Malcom X leave them? (AM 3.2)

Answer 8

• Separatism. Rejected Christianity for Islam, blamed corruption on white society.
• Left because of their extreme views, set up Organisation of Afro-American Unity in 1964.

Question 9

Who were the Black Panther Party? (AM 3.2)

Answer 9

-Extreme militant group with 5000 members in 1968. Argued African-Americans should use violence to fight back.