AP US History · Topic 6.4
The New South Practice
Part of Period 6: 1865–1898.
Practice questions
11
Sample questions
5 of 11 — sign in to practice the rest with adaptive difficulty and mastery tracking.
Sample 1difficulty 2/5
"The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is, in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth, and in power... But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind." — Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
Harlan's dissent rests primarily on which constitutional principle?
- Acheck_circle
Equal protection of the laws regardless of race
- B
The Tenth Amendment's reservation of powers to the states
- C
Federal supremacy over state commerce regulation
- D
The privileges and immunities of state citizenship
Why
Harlan invokes a "color-blind" Constitution, arguing that legally enforced racial classifications violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause regardless of whether facilities are nominally equal.
- A
Sample 2difficulty 3/5
"Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation in places where they are liable to be brought into contact do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other... If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane." — Justice Henry Billings Brown, Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
Brown's reasoning established which constitutional doctrine?
- A
Racial classifications required strict judicial scrutiny
- B
Private discrimination violated the Thirteenth Amendment
- C
Federal civil rights laws preempted state segregation statutes
- Dcheck_circle
Separate but equal facilities satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment
Why
Plessy enshrined "separate but equal," allowing states to mandate segregation as long as facilities were nominally equal — a doctrine that stood until Brown v. Board (1954).
- A
Sample 3difficulty 3/5
"Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation in places where they are liable to be brought into contact do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other... If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane." — Justice Henry Billings Brown, Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
The decision most directly contributed to:
- Acheck_circle
The legal entrenchment of Jim Crow segregation across the South
- B
The expansion of federal civil rights enforcement under Cleveland
- C
An immediate Black migration to industrial cities of the Midwest
- D
Repeal of the Fifteenth Amendment in southern states
Why
Plessy gave constitutional cover to a wave of southern segregation laws and disenfranchisement measures already underway in the 1890s.
- A
Sample 4difficulty 3/5
"In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem." — Booker T. Washington, Atlanta, 1895
Washington spoke one year before which Supreme Court ruling?
- A
U.S. v. Cruikshank limiting Klan prosecutions
- B
Civil Rights Cases striking the 1875 act
- Ccheck_circle
Plessy v. Ferguson upholding 'separate but equal'
- D
Williams v. Mississippi approving literacy tests
Why
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) constitutionalized segregation, the legal landscape that framed Washington's strategy.
- A
Sample 5difficulty 3/5
"The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is, in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth, and in power... But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind." — Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
Harlan's reasoning differs from the Plessy majority opinion most fundamentally because the majority held that
- Acheck_circle
Legally mandated separation of the races did not imply inequality
- B
The Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to state actions
- C
Railroads were exempt from federal regulation under the Commerce Clause
- D
Congress lacked authority to pass civil rights statutes
Why
The Plessy majority (Justice Brown) reasoned that "separate but equal" accommodations did not stamp Black Americans with a badge of inferiority. Harlan rejected this premise as a legal fiction.
- A