8.6: Civil Rights Movements in the 1940s and 1950s

Question 1

TACTICS

Answer 1

• during Reconstruction, many promises made to blacks
• Jim Crow Laws and voter suppression instead
• activists pressured gov to make good on promises

Question 2

EXECUTIVE ORDER 9981 [1948]

Answer 2

• passed by Truman
• desegregated armed forces
• enforced only in 1950 because Truman scared of losing southern support

Question 3

COMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS

Answer 3

• created by Truman
• recommended 9981
• abolish poll taxes
• federal protection from lynching

Question 4

24TH AMENDMENT [1962]

Answer 4

• abolished poll tax

Question 5

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION [1954]

Answer 5

• Oliver Brown’s daughter had to attend black school 1+ mile away and not white school around corner
• argued above = violation of “equal protection under law” 14th Amendment
• integration rejected in lower courts
• climbed to Supreme Court
• Plessy v. Fergusson overturned unanimously
• separate education facilities = inherently unequal
• ordered all schools be integrated with “all deliberate speed”
• South honed in on “deliberate” to stall

Question 6

SOUTHERN MANIFESTO

Answer 6

• argued Brown decision = gross abuse of Supreme Court power
• some states shut down schools in order to uphold rights

Question 7

LITTLEROCK NINE [1956]

Answer 7

• Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called national guard to prevent entry of black students into Little Rock High School
• Eisenhower sent federal troops to protect nine