1. Name: ________________________________________________
Period: __________
Date: _____________________
General: Students will understand the significance of civil rights in the 1950s (after
World War II).
1. Define the following terms.
a. Termination: promotion of assimilating Native Americans into the
mainstream of American life
b. NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
2. Explain what the following people did during the 1950s.
a. Jackie Robinson: first African American to break the color line in baseball
b. Thurgood Marshall: African American lawyer in the Brown vs. Board of
Education case
c. Martin Luther King. Jr.: Baptist minister and spokesperson for the protest
movement
3. What role did President Harry S. Truman play in civil rights?
a. Recognized that as President of the USA he had to take action
b. Looking for equality of opportunity for all human beings
c. July 1948: banned discrimination in the hiring of federal employees
d. End to segregation and discrimination in the armed forces
4. Why is Jackie Robinson so important to civil rights?
a. Record of standing up against racial injustice
b. Example to others for how to deal with racial injustice
c. Fostered pride in African Americans across the country
d. Opened the way for other African Americans to follow him into
professional sports
5. How did Jackie Robinson’s fight for civil rights prepare him for his baseball
career?
a. Ability to rise above the injustices when he served in the army during
World War II
b. Gained a mental toughness from his experiences
c. Faced prejudice from fans, opponents on the field, and his own teammates
d. Behaved with dignity
6. Why did the civil rights movement accelerate after World War II?
a. Thousands of African Americans had served in the war and experienced a
new sense of freedom in the north
b. Believed that the time had come for the nation to live up to its creed that
all are equal before the law

2. 7. What is the NAACP and how did the civil rights activists protest?
a. NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
b. Launched a series of court cases
c. Organized nonviolent protests including bus boycotts
8. What is the significance of the NAACP launching a series of court cases?
a. Fight for equal rights
b. Outlaw segregation in schools
c. Provided legal representation and aid to members
d. Challenged discrimination in public accommodations, housing,
employment, and voting
9. What is the Plessy vs. Ferguson case and why is it significant?
a. Supreme Court decision that held that upheld the notion that racial
segregation was constitutionally legal under the “separate but equal”
doctrine
b. The States were to provide equal accommodations for both races, but that
rarely happened
c. Decision validated the practice of segregation and led to the increase of
racist Jim Crow laws
10. What are Jim Crow laws?
a. State and local laws
b. Mandated racial segregation in all public facilities
c. This separation led to conditions for African Americans that tended to be
inferior to those provided for white Americans
11. What is the significance of Brown vs. Board of Education?
a. Oliver Brown sued the Topeka, Kansas Board of Education to allow his
eight-year-old daughter to attend an all white school
b. Reached Supreme Court ruling
c. Thurgood Marshall argued on behalf of Brown
d. May 17, 1954: Supreme Court ruled unanimously that “separate facilities
are inherently unequal”
e. One year later, the Court ruled that local school boards should move to
desegregate “with all deliberate speed”

3. 12. What impact did the Brown vs. Board of Education have on the country?
Positive Negative
a. Outlawed Jim Crow laws
b. Black children were able to attend
public schools
a. President Eisenhower privately
disagreed with the Brown ruling, but
would not publically make a stand
b. Caused fear and angry resistance in
southern whites
c. Change did not happen immediately
d. All black school closed and those
teachers could not find jobs
e. White children moved to private
schools
13. What is the significance of Little Rock and how did President Eisenhower react?
Cause Effect
a. The Brown vs. Board of
Education ruling caused fear and
angry resistance
b. Caused confrontation at Central
High School on Little Rock,
Arkansas
c. Governor Orval Faubas declared
that he couldn’t keep order if
integration occurred
d. Faubes Posted Arkansas National
Guard at the school to turn away
nine African American students
who tried to enter
a. President Eisenhower had to react
to the issue of segregation for it
could no longer be avoided
b. The governor’s actions were a
direct challenge to the constitution
and the President’s authority
c. The National Guard was put under
federal command to protect the
nine African American children
turned away from the school
14. What is the significance of the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
a. Began when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man in
December of 1955
b. Parks held her ground and was arrested and ordered to stand trial for
violating the segregation laws
c. Fifty African American leaders met and organized a boycott of the entire
bus system by distributing leaflets announcing the boycott
d. Lasted one year
e. Fifty thousand African Americans walked, rode bicycles, or joined car
pools to avoid city buses
f. Supreme Court ruled bus segregation was unconstitutional
g. Produced new generation of leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr.

4. 15. What part did Martin Luther King, Jr. play in the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
a. Became the spokesperson for the protest movement
b. Oversaw the success of the bus boycott
c. Believed in and introduced nonviolent protest as a means of achieving
equality for minority groups
16. How did the Native Americans push for civil rights?
a. Had a unique situation to fight for
b. Federal government managed reservations
c. Termination: sought to eliminate Native American reservation altogether
and promoted assimilation in to the US society
d. Native Americans found that assimilation did more harm than good
e. Native Americans sent a petition to the government stating the Native
Americans’ pride in their heritage
f. Termination policy discarded in time, but the problems of poverty,
discrimination, and little real political representation