Segregation and Civil Rights in WWII America Quiz

Civil Rights Movement

• The Black Panthers, led by Huey Newton, were willing to use violence to fight for their rights when necessary.
• In 1957, the Little Rock Crisis occurred when Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas ordered the National Guard to prevent nine African Americans from entering Little Rock High School, prompting President Eisenhower to deploy federal troops to escort them.
• Despite laws being made in favor of civil rights, the Little Rock Crisis showed that many Americans were still prejudiced against African Americans.

Resistance to Change

• Many southerners resented the changing society due to civil rights rulings and worked to maintain segregation.
• The Congressional bloc of southern Democrats used their power to block civil rights laws from being passed.

Freedom Rides

• In 1961, civil rights activists organized Freedom Rides to bring attention to unenforced laws preventing discrimination in interstate transportation.
• Several Freedom Riders were arrested, beaten, and jailed in cities across the South, successfully bringing national attention to their cause.

March on Washington

• In 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was organized to advocate for equality for African Americans.
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech, advocating for an inclusive society where people were judged by the content of their character, not their color.
• The March on Washington moved Congress and the American people to sympathize with the civil rights cause.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Following the March on Washington, Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through Congress the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• The law prevented employers from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
• The President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity was created to ensure fair employment among government agencies.

Voting Rights

• The 15th Amendment allowed citizens of all ethnicities to vote, but poll taxes and literacy tests were used to prevent African Americans from voting.
• The 24th Amendment forbade the use of poll taxes or other types of taxes to prevent people from voting.
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prevented the use of literacy tests, taxes, or any other measures that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

Shirley Chisholm

• Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman to be elected to Congress, run for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, and appear in a U.S. presidential debate.
• She represents the culmination of the civil rights movement.

Discrimination During WWII

• During WWII, America was seen as the champion of freedom around the world, but African Americans were not treated equally in their own country.
• Segregation was used to keep African Americans separate from the society that whites enjoyed.

Brown v. Board of Education

• In the Plessy v. Ferguson trial (1896), the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was constitutional as long as facilities were "separate-but-equal".
• Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP argued that segregation was unequal and violated the 14th Amendment, leading to the desegregation of schools in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Bus Boycotts

• In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus and move to the back, leading to her arrest and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• The boycott lasted over a year, and the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the city of Montgomery had violated the 14th Amendment, ordering the desegregation of buses.

Competing Tactics

• Civil rights groups used different strategies to bring about change, including:
  • NAACP, led by Thurgood Marshall, using lawyers to win rights through the legal system.
  • Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC), led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.