🚫 Opposition to the Civil Rights Movement

Question 1

White Citizens’ Councils (WCC)-1954

Answer 1

• Formed after the Brown v. Board ruling (1954).
• Made up of middle-class white Southerners, including local politicians and businessmen.
• Used economic pressure (e.g. firing Black workers, refusing loans or services) to punish activists.
• Opposed school integration and civil rights laws.

Question 2

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)-1950s and 1960s

Answer 2

White supremacist group revived in the 1950s and 60s.
• Used terror and violence: beatings, lynchings, bombings, arson.
• Targeted civil rights workers, Black churches, and schools.
• Often linked to local police or officials who looked the other way.

Question 3

Violence and intimidation attacks?

Answer 3

Bombing of churches and homes – e.g. the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (1963), where 4 Black girls were killed.
• Murders of activists – e.g. Emmett Till (1955), Medgar Evers (1963), and the 3 Freedom Summer workers (1964).
• Police often failed to act or were part of the violence.

Question 4

Southern politicians and law enforcement?

Answer 4

Governors like Orval Faubus (Arkansas) and George Wallace (Alabama) actively resisted desegregation.
• Used state laws, legal loopholes, and National Guard to block integration (e.g. Little Rock 1957).
• Police brutality – seen in Birmingham (1963) and Selma (1965), where peaceful protesters were attacked.