The Civil Rights Movement Quiz

1. Rosa Parks is famous for refusing to do what in 1955?

1. Attend a segregated school
2. Eat at a segregated lunch counter
3. Give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger
4. Pay a poll tax

2. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech at which event?

1. The March on Selma
2. The March on Washington
3. The Memphis Sanitation Strike
4. The Montgomery Bus Boycott

3. What were 'Jim Crow laws'?

1. Federal laws banning discrimination
2. Laws about voting rights
3. Laws against public protest
4. State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern USA

4. The Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruled what?

1. Bus segregation was legal
2. Poll taxes were constitutional
3. Racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional
4. Segregated schools were legal if equal

5. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed by which US president?

1. Dwight D. Eisenhower
2. John F. Kennedy
3. Lyndon B. Johnson
4. Richard Nixon

6. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed following violence against marchers in which city?

1. Atlanta
2. Birmingham
3. Montgomery
4. Selma

7. What was the 'sit-in' protest strategy used at lunch counters?

1. Blocking segregated buses by sitting in the road
2. Occupying segregated lunch counters and refusing to leave when denied service
3. Sitting in front of polling stations
4. Sitting in front of segregated schools

8. Malcolm X advocated for civil rights through what approach that differed from Martin Luther King Jr.?

1. Black self-determination and self-defence, criticising integration
2. Integration through voting
3. Nonviolent protest and civil disobedience
4. Working within the Democratic Party

9. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963 killed four young girls in which city?

1. Atlanta
2. Birmingham
3. Montgomery
4. Selma

10. What was the NAACP?

1. National Action Against Civil Prejudice
2. National Alliance Against Coloured Persecution
3. National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People
4. Negro American Association for Civil Progress

11. Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who did what in 1961?

1. Marched from Selma to Montgomery
2. Registered Black voters in Mississippi
3. Rode interstate buses into the South to challenge segregation
4. Sat in at segregated lunch counters

12. On what date was Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated?

1. April 4, 1968
2. February 21, 1965
3. June 5, 1968
4. November 22, 1963

13. What did Thurgood Marshall do before becoming the first Black Supreme Court Justice?

1. Founded the NAACP
2. Led the March on Washington
3. Successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education for the NAACP
4. Was Martin Luther King's legal adviser

14. The 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' was written by whom?

1. Fred Shuttlesworth
2. John Lewis
3. Malcolm X
4. Martin Luther King Jr.

15. The Black Power movement is associated with which raised gesture at the 1968 Olympics?

1. An athlete kneeling on the podium
2. Athletes refusing to collect their medals
3. Two athletes raising crossed fists
4. Two athletes raising their right fist and left fist respectively in a black glove

16. The phrase 'We Shall Overcome' became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. It was adapted from what?

1. A gospel and labour union song
2. A poem by Langston Hughes
3. A speech at the March on Washington
4. A speech by Frederick Douglass

17. Which constitutional amendment (1964) abolished poll taxes in federal elections?

1. 13th Amendment
2. 14th Amendment
3. 15th Amendment
4. 24th Amendment

18. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr. in which year?

1. 1954
2. 1957
3. 1960
4. 1963

19. Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black teenager murdered in 1955 in Mississippi. Why was his open-casket funeral significant?

1. His mother insisted on an open casket to show the world what racists had done to her son
2. It drew thousands of marchers
3. It was attended by President Eisenhower
4. It was the first civil rights event broadcast on national television

20. John Lewis, who marched with King and was beaten on Bloody Sunday, later served for decades as what?

1. A Member of the US House of Representatives from Georgia
2. A Senator
3. A Supreme Court Justice
4. US Secretary of State