Biology

History

Literature

Philosophy

Shakespeare

SparkNotes

History Study Guides

The Civil Rights Era

Quiz

Overview

Summary of Events

Key People & Terms

The Failure of Reconstruction: 1877–1900

Twentieth-Century Roots: 1900–1950

Early Legal Victories: 1938–1957

Nonviolent Protest: 1960–1963

Political Action: 1963–1965

Black Power: 1952–1968

Study Questions & Essay Topics

Quiz

Suggestions for Further Reading

◄ PREVIOUS
Study Questions & Essay Topics

NEXT ►
Suggestions for Further Reading

The Civil Rights Era (1865–1970)

Quiz

1. Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois disagreed on the issue of racial equality in that

(A) Washington fought for social and economic equality, whereas Du Bois fought primarily for social equality

(B) Du Bois fought for both social and economic equality, but Washington fought for only economic equality

(D) Du Bois fought for political equality in the South, whereas Washington fought for political equality in the North

2. Whose writings and practices inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and other nonviolent civil rights protesters?

(A) James Meredith

(B) Mohandas Gandhi

(D) Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. Kennedy demonstrated his support for the civil rights movement most clearly when he

(A) Used federal troops to desegregate the University of Mississippi

(B) Used federal troops to desegregate public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas

(D) Attended Malcolm X's funeral

4. All of the following civil rights organizations employed nonviolent methods of protest except

(A) The SNCC

(B) The SCLC

(D) The Black Panthers

5. Which earlier decision did the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision reverse?

(A) Milliken v. Bradley

(B) Roe v. Wade

(D) Dred Scott v. Sanford

6. The Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that

(A) Affirmative action constituted reverse discrimination

(B) Poll tax requirements for voting in federal elections were illegal

(D) Companies could not use intelligence tests to screen potential employees

7. During what event did Martin Luther King Jr. first become a nationally prominent figure?

(A) The Selma campaign

(B) Freedom Summer

(D) The Montgomery bus boycott

8. “Revolution is bloody, revolution is hostile, revolution knows no compromise, revolution overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way. And you, sitting around here like a fly on the wall, saying, 'I'm going to love these folks no matter how much they hate me.'” The “you” in this speech probably refers to

(A) Malcolm X

(B) Martin Luther King Jr.

(D) W. E. B. Du Bois

9. “In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” These words were most likely spoken by

(A) Martin Luther King Jr.

(B) Stokely Carmichael

(D) Elijah Muhammad

10. “Whoever heard of a revolution where [protesters] lock arms . . . singing, 'We Shall Overcome'? You don't do that in a revolution. You don't do any singing—you're too busy swinging.” This speech was probably made by

(A) Marcus Garvey

(B) Martin Luther King Jr.

(D) W. E. B. Du Bois

11. Violence against peaceful civil rights protesters in Selma, Alabama, prompted the

(A) March on Washington

(B) Passage of the Voting Rights Act

(D) Watts riots

12. Which president supported the civil rights movement the least?

(A) Harry Truman

(B) Dwight Eisenhower

(D) Lyndon B. Johnson

13. What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 do?

(A) Outlawed literacy tests

(B) Sent federal authorities to the South to help blacks register to vote

(D) All of the above

14. Malcolm X was initially affiliated with the

(A) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

(B) Southern Christian Leadership Conference

(D) National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

15. What did Executive Order 9981 do?

(A) Desegregated the military

(B) Gave blacks the right to vote

(D) Outlawed racial discrimination in factories during wartime

16. Lyndon B. Johnson threw his support behind the civil rights movement so he could

(A) Escalate the Vietnam War

(B) Unify the Democratic Party

(D) None of the above

17. During what event did Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous “I have a dream” speech?

(A) The Selma campaign

(B) The Birmingham campaign

(D) The Montgomery bus boycott

18. Blacks in Montgomery, Alabama, boycotted public transportation for a year after

(A) Ku Klux Klansmen burned a local church

(B) Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat on a bus to a white man

(D) The Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education ruling

19. Who was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court?

(A) Clarence Thomas

(B) Earl Warren

(D) James Meredith

20. In the early twentieth century, civil rights activist Marcus Garvey pushed for

(A) Resettling all American blacks in Africa

(B) Additional constitutional amendments to protect black rights

(D) A national minimum wage for all workers, regardless of race

21. Jackie Robinson made headlines in 1947 when he

(A) Formed the NAACP

(B) Became the first black U.S. senator

(D) Became the first black man to play for a Major League Baseball team

22. All of the following statements accurately characterize the civil rights movement between 1940 and 1970 except

(A) More and more activists advocated the use of violence after the mid-1960s

(B) Martin Luther King Jr. served as the movement's unofficial leader from 1955 until his assassination

(D) The failure of the sit-in tactic effectively ended the civil rights movement

23. Which methods did the NAACP primarily employ in order to achieve civil rights goals?

(A) Nonviolent methods of protest such as the sit-in tactic

(B) Violence to push for social change

(D) Religious tactics to encourage churches to support the movement

24. The Civil Rights Act of 1957

(A) Was a landmark law in the history of the movement

(B) Was passed after the brutal Selma campaign

(D) Had no significant impact

25. Eisenhower sent federal troops to desegregate public high schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 mainly because

(A) He personally agreed with the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

(B) Governor Faubus's use of the National Guard to prevent integration challenged federal authority

(D) All of the above

26. Which organization did Martin Luther King Jr. found?

(A) The SCLC

(B) The SNCC

(D) The NAACP

27. What was President Eisenhower's response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision?

(A) He fully supported it

(B) He publicly denounced it

(D) He said nothing

28. The Twenty-Fourth Amendment

(A) Prohibited segregation in all public places

(B) Outlawed poll taxes as a requirement for voting in federal elections

(D) Lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen

29. What happened during the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964?

(A) Civil rights activists boarded interstate buses in the South to protest racial segregation

(B) White activists from the North held voter registration drives in the South

(D) Martin Luther King Jr. led 200,000 people in the March on Washington

30. In which city did the most infamous and destructive race riots of the mid- to late 1960s occur?

(A) Los Angeles

(B) Detroit

(D) Baltimore

31. The SNCC was launched to organize more protests like

(A) The Montgomery bus boycott

(B) The Freedom Rides

(D) The Selma campaign

32. Although blacks had been struggling for equality for more than a century, the push for equality picked up momentum in the mid-twentieth century for all of the following reasons except

(A) More than a million blacks served in the Allied forces during World War II

(B) Millions of blacks moved to the North during the Great Depression

(D) Eisenhower made civil rights one of his primary goals

33. Who assassinated Malcolm X?

(A) Members of the SNCC

(B) Rivals within the Nation of Islam

(D) The CIA

34. What did Stokely Carmichael advocate?

(A) Black Power

(B) Nonviolent protests

(D) A war on poverty

35. The SNCC differed from the SCLC in that

(A) The SCLC advocated the use of violence, whereas the SNCC did not

(B) The SNCC organized students, whereas the SCLC organized churches

(D) The SCLC was a full-fledged political party, whereas the SNCC was merely a grassroots student movement

36. All of the following were true of the Black Panthers except

(A) They advocated Black Power and the use of violence

(B) They operated as a political party

(D) They wore black and carried guns

37. Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam preached a philosophy most similar to that of

(A) Marcus Garvey

(B) Martin Luther King Jr.

(D) W. E. B. Du Bois

38. What was the main reason Lyndon B. Johnson promoted civil rights?

(A) He wanted to distract the public from the war in Vietnam

(B) He wanted to unite the Democratic Party after Kennedy's assassination

(D) All of the above

39. What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do?

(A) Outlawed racial discrimination in most public places

(B) Sent federal election officials to the South to register more black voters

(D) Was more a symbolic act of Congress than a significant piece of civil rights legislation

40. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 differed from all previous pieces of civil rights legislation and Supreme Court decisions in that it

(A) Specifically protected blacks' right to vote in federal elections

(B) Banned segregation in federal offices

(D) Said that there was no scientific justification for racial discrimination

41. Most modern historians regard the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century as a continuation of the longer struggle for racial equality that began during

(A) Reconstruction

(B) The Great Depression

(D) The Roaring Twenties

42. What was the de facto motto of civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s?

(A) “We Shall Overcome”

(B) “Liberty and Justice for All”

(D) “Live and Let Live”

43. Which best describes President Kennedy's attitude toward the civil rights movement?

(A) He fully supported it

(B) He rejected it outright

(D) He initially seemed not to care, then fully supported it

44. Why did Malcolm Little change his surname to “X”?

(A) To represent his spiritual transformation after becoming a Muslim

(B) To represent the black people's ancestry lost due to slavery

(D) Because he hated his parents

45. James Meredith was the first African-American

(A) Student to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas

(B) Student to attend the University of Mississippi

(D) Secretary of state

46. What did Rosa Parks protest in 1955?

(A) A black code

(B) A poll tax

(D) A blue law

47. The “black power” movement was begun by disgruntled members of the

(A) SCLC

(B) SNCC

(D) Black Panthers

48. CORE was similar to the SCLC in that both organizations

(A) Were founded by Martin Luther King Jr.

(B) Pushed for civil rights in the courts

(D) Had no religious affiliations

49. What was the Southern Manifesto?

(A) The petition signed by dozens of southern congressmen and senators to protest the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

(B) The title of Malcolm X's bold manifesto denouncing white supremacy

(D) The title of a passionate speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. during the Selma campaign

50. Martin Luther King Jr. was

(A) An auto worker

(B) A politician

(D) A minister