Civil Rights in the 1950s & 1960s Flashcards
All 20 cards in this deck
What happened at Greensboro, North Carolina, on 1 February 1960?
Four Black college students sat at a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter and refused to leave when they were refused service. The sit-ins spread to over 50 cities and SNCC was founded in April 1960.
Why did the Freedom Riders ride interstate buses into the South in 1961?
To test the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals was illegal, by travelling in mixed-race groups.
What was King's Birmingham campaign (April–May 1963)?
Marches and sit-ins against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Police chief Bull Connor's use of dogs and fire hoses on peaceful protesters was televised worldwide.
What was the March on Washington (28 August 1963)?
A peaceful, multi-racial march of about 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial, where King made his 'I have a dream' speech. It put pressure on the Kennedy administration to pass civil rights laws.
What did the Civil Rights Act (1964) do?
Made segregation in public places and discrimination in employment illegal on grounds of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. Proposed by Kennedy, it was pushed through Congress by Johnson.
What did the Voting Rights Act (1965) do?
Ended literacy tests and other barriers to registration, and allowed federal officials to register voters. Johnson introduced it after the Selma marches and Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Who was Malcolm X and what did he believe?
The leading spokesman of the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims), who rejected integration and non-violence and argued for Black separatism, Black pride and self-defence (later summed up in his phrase 'by any means necessary', after he left the Nation of Islam in 1964).
How did Malcolm X's attitude change after 1964?
After leaving the Nation of Islam and making the pilgrimage to Mecca he accepted that Black and white people could work together. He was assassinated by Nation of Islam members in February 1965.
Who was Stokely Carmichael?
The SNCC leader who popularised the slogan 'Black Power' in 1966, after becoming frustrated with non-violence and the slow progress of civil rights.
What were the two main types of method used by the Black Panther Party?
Armed patrols to monitor and confront the police over brutality, and community social programmes such as free breakfasts for children.
What were the Jim Crow laws?
State and local laws in the Southern states that enforced racial segregation, keeping Black and white Americans apart in schools, buses, restaurants, parks and other public places.
What was the NAACP and how did it campaign?
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; it challenged segregation and unfair education through legal cases in the courts, e.g. its lawyers won Brown v. Topeka (1954).
What did the Supreme Court rule in Brown v. Topeka (1954)?
That segregation in state schools was unconstitutional, overturning the doctrine of 'separate but equal' in education.
How did Governor Orval Faubus try to stop desegregation at Little Rock High School in 1957?
He used the Arkansas National Guard to block the nine Black students (the Little Rock Nine) from entering the school.
What did Rosa Parks do on 1 December 1955, and why was it significant?
She refused to give up her bus seat and move to the back, and was arrested; as a well-respected NAACP member her brave example united people and encouraged others to campaign for desegregation.
What was the SCLC?
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, set up in 1957 with Martin Luther King as its president, to coordinate non-violent protest against segregation through Black churches in the South.
What happened to Emmett Till in 1955?
The Black teenager was murdered in Mississippi after being accused of whistling at a white woman in a store; his killers were acquitted by an all-white jury, showing how dangerous the South was.
What was the outcome of the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
The Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was illegal, and Montgomery's buses were desegregated in December 1956 after 381 days.
What did the Civil Rights Act of 1968 do?
It banned discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing. It was passed days after Martin Luther King's assassination.
What was 'de facto' segregation in the Northern states?
Segregation that existed in practice rather than by law, created by poverty, poor housing and employment patterns in the city ghettos.