Civil Rights

Question 1

Plessy v Ferguson

Answer 1

The 1896 Supreme Court case that established the constitutionality of racial segregation and the idea of “separate but equal.”

Question 2

Brown v Board of Education

Answer 2

1954 Supreme Court ruling reversing the policy of segregation from Plessy v Ferguson, declaring that seperate can never be equal and a year later ordered the integration of all public schools with all deliberate speed

Question 3

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Answer 3

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

Question 4

Freedom Riders

Answer 4

1961 Group of civil rights workers who took bus trips through southern states in 1961 to protest illegal bus segregation. Police arrested riders for violating local racist laws, but they often first let white mobs attack them without helping.

Question 5

March on Washington

Answer 5

1963 August - 200,000 demonstrators converged on the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. King’s speech and to celebrate Kennedy’s support for the civil rights movement. (putting pressure on the federal government to pass civil rights legislation)

Question 6

Civil Rights Act

Answer 6

A 1964 federal law that authorized federal action against segregation in public accommodations, public facilities, and employment.

Question 7

Selma March

Answer 7

A march that was attempted three times to protest voting rights, with many peaceful demonstrators injured and killed. Led by MLK. Resulted in Voting Rights Act.

Question 8

Voting Rights Act

Answer 8

A 1965 law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African American suffrage. Under the law, hundreds of thousands of African Americans were registered and the number of African American elected officials increased dramatically. Encouraged greater social equality and decreased the wealth and education gap

Question 9

Rosa Parks

Answer 9

Refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. After she was jailed, the Montgomery bus boycott was organized.

Question 10

Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Answer 10

Nonviolent leader of the civil rights movement and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Question 11

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 11

southern state laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites (grandfather clause, poll tax, literacy tests, separate but equal, etc)

Question 12

Lunch Counter Sit-Ins

Answer 12

protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at “whites only” lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000 participated in sit-ins across the South. Their success prompted the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

Question 13

NAACP

Answer 13

Organization which fought for civil rights for African Americans, mainly through court cases (behind the Brown v. Board of Education case)

Question 14

Black Power

Answer 14

term used by black leaders in the late 1960s
-frustrated with the lack of results from nonviolence

Question 15

Black Panther Party

Answer 15

group founded in 1966 which demanded economic and political rights and was prepared to use violence

Question 16

Legal Segregation

Answer 16

separation of races by law (e.g. Jim Crow laws in the South)

Question 17

Unofficial Segregation

Answer 17

separation of races in practice or for economic reasons, but not enforced by law (e.g. black ghettoes in cities in the North)

Question 18

Affirmative Action

Answer 18

1960’s policy giving preference to minority and female applicants (in hiring for government jobs, college scholarships, etc.) to make up for past injustices. One of the most debated liberal vs. conservative issues.

Question 19

Segregation

Answer 19

forced separation (of bathrooms, schools, busses, etc)., usually by race

Question 20

Taking a Knee

Answer 20

The protests against racial injustice and police brutality that began in 2016 in the National Football League (NFL) with quarterback Colin Kaepernick during the national anthem

Question 21

BLM

Answer 21

a political and social movement protesting against racially motivated violence against black people. It used street demonstrations and social media after the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin and the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin