Peaceful protests and their impact, 1963–65 Flashcards

All 8 cards in this deck

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 was Freedom Summer (1964)?

A campaign, led mainly by SNCC, to register Black voters in Mississippi, using white student volunteers from the North and setting up Freedom Schools.

What were the Mississippi murders (1964)?

Three civil rights workers — Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner — were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan during Freedom Summer. The case gained national publicity because two of them were white.

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.

How did President Kennedy respond to the Birmingham campaign in June 1963?

In a TV address on 11 June 1963 he called civil rights a moral crisis for the nation and announced that he would ask Congress for a major civil rights bill.

Give two ways President Johnson got the Civil Rights Bill through Congress in 1964.

He presented it as a memorial to the murdered Kennedy, and used his long experience in Congress and his standing as a Southerner to win votes, overcoming a filibuster by Southern Democrats.