AP US History · Topic 8.10
The African American Civil Rights Movement (1960s) Practice
Part of Period 8: 1945–1980.
Practice questions
26
Sample questions
5 of 26 — sign in to practice the rest with adaptive difficulty and mastery tracking.
Sample 1difficulty 2/5
"Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome." — Lyndon B. Johnson, "American Promise" Address to Congress, March 15, 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 differed from earlier civil rights laws by:
- A
Requiring the integration of professional sports leagues
- B
Banning all forms of private discrimination
- C
Establishing busing as a federal mandate
- Dcheck_circle
Authorizing federal examiners to register voters and suspending literacy tests in covered jurisdictions
Why
Unlike the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts, which produced minimal voter registration gains, the VRA imposed direct federal oversight (Section 5 preclearance, Section 4 coverage formula) and ended literacy tests in covered states.
- A
Sample 2difficulty 2/5
Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy emphasized
- A
Armed revolution against the federal government
- B
Black withdrawal from American political life
- Ccheck_circle
Nonviolent resistance and Christian love, inspired by Gandhi
- D
Strict racial separatism and economic nationalism
Why
His leadership in the SCLC and "I Have a Dream" speech (1963) made him an icon.
- A
Sample 3difficulty 3/5
"We are tired of being treated as second-class citizens. The growers say we are like agricultural implements. The grape strike is a fight for the soul of California. Nonviolence is our strength. We hope our suffering will inspire others to act. Together we will build a union for farm workers, by farm workers, of farm workers." — Cesar Chavez, 1968
Chavez's nonviolent philosophy drew on
- A
Ayn Rand's individualism
- B
Black nationalist separatism
- Ccheck_circle
Catholic social teaching and Gandhian-King traditions
- D
Marxist-Leninist class war strategy
Why
Chavez fused Catholic spirituality with Gandhian nonviolence and Kingian civil rights tactics, evident in his pilgrimages and fasts.
- A
Sample 4difficulty 3/5
"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'" — Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 1963
The Birmingham campaign that produced this letter was led by which organization?
- Acheck_circle
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- B
The Nation of Islam
- C
The Black Panther Party
- D
The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)
Why
King co-founded SCLC in 1957, and it organized the 1963 Birmingham campaign with local leader Fred Shuttlesworth's Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.
- A
Sample 5difficulty 3/5
"We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other 'tangible' factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does." — Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education, May 17, 1954
Activists in the decade after Brown most often argued that the ruling required which additional federal action?
- A
Repeal of the Fourteenth Amendment to broaden equal protection
- Bcheck_circle
Active enforcement of desegregation through federal troops or marshals when states resisted
- C
Termination of all federal aid to private schools
- D
Constitutional amendment to mandate busing nationwide
Why
Massive resistance in the South (e.g., Little Rock 1957, Ole Miss 1962) led civil-rights leaders to demand federal enforcement, which Eisenhower and Kennedy provided with troops and marshals. The other choices misstate the legal framework.
- A