Deck 20: We Shall Overcome

Question 1

The mother of which teenage boy,who was murdered in 1955 for whistling at a white woman,insisted on publicizing the image of his corpse to force the world to recognize the crime committed against him?

A)Emmett Till
B)Medgar Evers
C)Michael Schwerner
D)Andrew Goodman

Answer 1

Emmett Till

Question 2

Arthurine Lucy and Charlayne Hunter both gained renown for

A)their tenures as president of the NAACP.
B)their participation in the desegregation of colleges.
C)their work on the legal team which secured victory in Brown v.Board of Education case.
D)their role in forming the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

Answer 2

their participation in the desegregation of colleges.

Question 3

Which of the following statements about the Montgomery Bus Boycott is LEAST accurate?

A)It rejuvenated a civil rights movement which had been deflated by the limitations placed on the Brown decision and by attacks on the NAACP.
B)It represented the first successful example of mass nonviolent resistance in U.S.history.
C)It represented a triumph for those in the civil rights movement who championed moderation and gradualism.
D)It directly challenged laws which had not been declared unconstitutional by the courts.

Answer 3

It represented a triumph for those in the civil rights movement who championed moderation and gradualism.

Question 4

After winning the affiliation of more than 80,000 voters,the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

A)succeeded in winning the state's governorship and several seats in the state congress plus when in the U.S.House of Representatives.
B)convinced the National Democratic Convention that it was the true representative of Mississippi Democrats.
C)failed to gain substantial recognition from the National Democratic Convention but did further the careers of some members.
D)accepted a compromise from the National Democratic Committee which allowed the MFDP to hold four at-large seats.

Question 5

Before her arrest in 1955,Rosa Parks

A)had been active in the civil rights movement for a decade.
B)had been a humble seamstress with no political involvement.
C)had been shunned by the black community for her profligate ways.
D)had opposed direct action against discrimination for fear of violent backlash.

Question 6

Who gained national renown in 1964 as an unseated MFDP delegate for the testimony she offered about the personal violence she suffered while trying to exercise her constitutional rights?

A)Fannie Lou Hamer
B)Victoria Gray
C)Annie Devine
D)Ella Baker

Question 7

The Montgomery Bus Boycott ended with

A)a Supreme Court decision affirming the segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional.
B)the government of the city of Montgomery succumbing to the demands of the boycotters on its own accord.
C)bus companies deciding to restore their business by integrating despite city and state statutes.
D)the boycotters claiming a moral victory after a 381-day effort which proved their determination but effected no lasting change to the law.

Question 8

A conference in mid April 1960 led to the creation of which civil rights organization?

A)SNCC
B)SCLC
C)MIA
D)CORE

Question 9

The four students (Blair,McCain,McNeill,and Richmond)successfully launched the tactic of lunch counter sit-ins in

A)Nashville,Tennessee.
B)Greensboro,North Carolina.
C)Montgomery,Alabama.
D)Tallahassee,Florida.

Question 10

Charlie Cobb of SNCC originated what concept which was put into practice in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964?

A)adding protest songs to marches
B)starting "freedom schools" to expand black children's educational opportunities
C)organizing the Medical Committee for Human Rights to provide greater healthcare to black Mississippians
D)establishing the Mississippi Project to provide legal services to black Mississippians and civil rights volunteers

Question 11

To test the Supreme Court decision Morgan v.Commonwealth of Virginia in 1947,the Congress of Racial Equality

A)attempted to enroll a black student in an all-white public university.
B)boarded southbound buses in the front seats.
C)sat at whites-only lunch counters and ordered meals.
D)sent a black delegation to a state convention of the Virginia Democrats.

Question 12

The Albany Movement of 1961 failed for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A)the political clout of local segregationists ensured that the federal government would not intervene.
B)the local police chief shrewdly undermined the protests by advising his men not to use open violence and by distributing arrested protestors across numerous jails.
C)the movement focused too narrowly on desegregation and ignored other pressing issues such as unemployment and police brutality.
D)the movement itself began to fracture,as SNCC,SCLC,and the NAACP began to turn against each other.

Question 13

All of the following women were plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against Montgomery city officials challenging the constitutionality of segregation on public buses EXCEPT

A)Aurelia Browder.
B)Rosa Parks.
C)Susie MacDonald.
D)Claudette Colvin.

Question 14

The infamous segregationist Eugene "Bull" Connor was the police commissioner of which southern city?

A)Selma
B)Birmingham
C)Montgomery
D)Atlanta

Question 15

With regard to its origins and organization,the Montgomery Bus Boycott

A)was orchestrated and organized by the NAACP.
B)stemmed from the arrest of Rosa Parks,though several other black women had been arrested for the same crime the same year.
C)was a secular movement which represented a break from earlier black protests in which churches had played central roles.
D)was the brainchild of Martin Luther King,Jr.,who inspired several women to court arrest by defying the law to set the boycott in motion.

Question 16

Which executive secretary of SCLC was also known as the "political and spiritual midwife" of SNCC?

A)Fannie Lou Hamer
B)Victoria Gray
C)Annie Devine
D)Ella Baker

Question 17

Which of the following statements about the COFO-led Freedom Summer of 1964 is LEAST accurate?

A)The movement represented a shift toward more militant,all-black protests.
B)The movement led to the creation of a Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge that state's racially exclusive Democratic Party.
C)The movement was intended to combine the participation of northerners with the grassroots participation of Mississippians.
D)Although a number of organizations participated,SNCC took the most prominent role of all of them.

Question 18

Which of the following statements about the Selma-to-Montgomery March is LEAST accurate?

A)The march was inspired by the death of a SNCC worker as well as the general absence of black voting rights.
B)The march was initially met with murderous violence from white police and onlookers.
C)Southern President Johnson refused to take action to protect the protestors,insisting that it was a local affair.
D)By the time the march came to an end,its numbers had swelled to about 50,000 participants.

Question 19

Which of the following statements about the Birmingham Movement is LEAST accurate?

A)It succeeded despite the local police force's refusal to be baited into using violence to disperse the protestors.
B)It initially began as a local effort to desegregate public facilities through the courts.
C)It focused on attacking the city's white economic power structure through boycotts and mass demonstrations.
D)It brought children into the civil rights movement as active protestors.

Question 20

Martin Luther King,Jr.became the leader of which organization which coordinated the Montgomery Bus Boycott?

A)NAACP
B)SCLC
C)CORE
D)MIA

Question 21

In the late 1960s and early 1970s,civil rights legislation helped to bring about all of the following changes EXCEPT

A)an explosion in the number of southern blacks who were registered to vote.
B)an effective solution to the structural problems of racial inequality and poverty.
C)a drastic increase in the number of African Americans holding southern and federal offices.
D)the effective desegregation of the vast majority of southern schools.

Question 22

The Twenty-fourth Amendment helped to guarantee blacks' voting rights by banning

A)grandfather clauses.
B)literacy tests.
C)poll taxes.
D)comprehension tests.

Question 23

The first conflict in which black soldiers officially served as an integral part of a desegregated military was the

A)First World War.
B)Second World War.
C)Korean War.
D)Vietnam War.

Question 24

The Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969,which played a crucial role in upholding the constitutionality of civil rights legislation,is known by the name of what man,who served as its chief justice during that period?

A)Charles H.Hamilton
B)Earl Warren
C)Thurgood Marshall
D)Herbert Brownell

Question 25

The first civil rights bill since Reconstruction was signed into law by which president?

A)Truman
B)Eisenhower
C)Kennedy
D)Johnson

Question 26

Which of the following statements about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is LEAST accurate?

A)Following the assassination of President Kennedy,the act was swept through Congress without meaningful opposition.
B)In order to hasten the desegregation of public schools,the U.S.Office of Education was authorized to actively assist local communities in that process.
C)It required that any program receiving federal monies had to abolish discriminatory practices or lose its funding.
D)It gave the U.S.Attorney General greater power to protect against discrimination in schools,public facilities,and the ballot box.

Question 27

Which of the following statements about black housing in the North in the postwar period is LEAST accurate?

A)Official federal policy was to bar any racial discrimination in selling or renting property subsidized by federal money,but this policy was often ignored.
B)The migration of black Americans to northern cities was accompanied by the migration of white American from the cities to the suburbs.
C)The relegation of blacks to segregated ghettoes was maintained in part by the active,sometimes violent,resistance of white communities against the settling of black residents in their neighborhoods.
D)The relegation of blacks to segregated ghettos was accomplished in part by the banks' policy of redlining,which was the refusal to extend loans to prospective black homeowners.

Question 28

In the years surrounding the 1963 March on Washington,African Americans in the North and West

A)participated in the civil rights movement in the South but found no cause for complaint in their own regions.
B)had become so powerful politically that they were able to abandon direct forms of protest and focused on solving their problems through the ballot box.
C)continued to participate actively in protest movements aimed against de facto segregation and discrimination in the North.
D)played little role in the civil rights movement,which remained an almost exclusively southern phenomenon.

Question 29

On June 23,1963,approximately 125,000 people participated in a "Walk to Freedom," capped by a speech by Martin Luther King,Jr.,in which city?

A)Atlanta
B)Montgomery
C)Baltimore
D)Detroit

Question 30

The Cold War affected the civil rights movement in all of the following ways EXCEPT

A)it led to the break-up of some civil rights movements and alliances due to purges of supposed communists.
B)it inspired civil rights activists to call on the U.S.government to fulfill its self-proclaimed role as leader of the free world by extending freedom to all its people.
C)it compelled presidents like Harry Truman to lash out against the civil rights movement and to dig in his heels against legislation intended to provide equal rights to blacks.
D)it gave opponents of black rights,particularly in the South,with the opportunity to smear civil rights organizations as "communist" without having to deal with the substance of the organizations' stances.

Question 31

Which of the following statements about black Americans' electoral power in the 50s and 60s is LEAST accurate?

A)In some northern states and cities,black voters represented a significant electoral bloc which could swing close elections.
B)Despite the gains they made in state offices and appointed positions,African Americans failed to win any seats in the U.S.Congress.
C)Several dozen black politicians served in northern state legislatures during this period,but none served in southern ones.
D)African Americans were appointed to a number of prominent federal positions during this period,including solicitor general and circuit court judge.

Question 32

Which leader of the militant Cambridge Movement in Maryland,who brandished rifles in the face of white mobs,exemplified the tradition of black women who adopted means other than nonviolence to secure their rights?

A)Victoria Gray
B)Ella Baker
C)Gloria Richardson
D)Septima Clark

Question 33

What role did the Justice Department play in the Freedom Rides of 1961?

A)From the beginning,it reluctantly guaranteed to protect the riders in the exercise of their constitutional rights.
B)It ignored the riders' plight and left them prey to mob violence.
C)It regarded the riders as radical agitations and sent federal agents to block their progress.
D)It stepped in to protect the riders and guarantee their rights only after they had been viciously attacked by mobs.

Question 34

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 did all of the following EXCEPT

A)establish protections for the voting rights of native Hawaiians.
B)suspend the use of literacy tests in many regions.
C)allow the federal government to register voters directly.
D)reduce the federal voting age from 21 to 18.

Question 35

Which of the following statements BEST describes President Kennedy's stance on civil rights?

A)At the beginning of his presidency he moved slowly on civil rights,but became more active in later years.
B)From the beginning of his presidency,he made the advancement of civil rights his first priority.
C)At the beginning of his presidency,he focused on advancing civil rights,but abandoned the cause in the face of southern resistance.
D)Despite his campaign promises,Kennedy never took an active role in advancing the cause of civil rights.