This document contains 16 multiple choice questions about civil rights movements in the 1950s United States. It addresses key events, organizations, individuals and court cases such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr., the Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools, and the NAACP's launching of legal challenges to racial discrimination. Native American civil rights issues are also discussed, such as the federal government's termination policy aimed at eliminating reservations.

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:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
__
b. NAACP:
___________________________________________________________
_
2. Explain what the following people did during the 1950s.
a. Jackie Robinson: ____________________________________________
b. Thurgood Marshall:
___________________________________________________________
_
c. Martin Luther King. Jr.:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
__
3. What role did President Harry S. Truman play in civil rights?
a. Recognized that as President of the USA he had to take
_____________________
b. Looking for __________________________________________ for all
human beings
c. July 1948: banned discrimination in the hiring of federal employees
d. End to __________________________________________in the armed
forces
4. Why is Jackie Robinson so important to civil rights?
a. Record of standing up against ___________________________________
b. _____________________ to others for how to deal with racial injustice
c. Fostered _____________________ in African Americans across the
country
d. Opened the way for other African Americans to follow him into
__________________________________________

2. 5. How did Jackie Robinson’s fight for civil rights prepare him for his baseball
career?
a. Ability to _____________________ the injustices when he served in the
army during World War II
b. Gained a __________________________________________ from his
experiences
c. Faced _____________________ from fans, opponents on the field, and
his own teammates
d. Behaved with _____________________
6. Why did the civil rights movement accelerate after World War II?
a. Thousands of African Americans had _____________________ in the war
and experienced a new sense of _____________________ in the north
b. Believed that the time had come for the nation to live up to its creed that
___________________________________________________________
_ before the law
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 __________________________________________
c. Organized __________________________________________ including
__________________________________________
8. What is the significance of the NAACP launching a series of court cases?
a. Fight for __________________________________________
b. Outlaw _____________________ in schools
c. Provided __________________________________________ 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
__________________________________________doctrine
b. The States were to
__________________________________________accommodations for
both races, but that rarely happened

3. 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
__________________________________________
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. __________________________________________ argued on behalf of
Brown
d. May 17, 1954: Supreme Court ruled unanimously that
___________________________________________________________
_
e. One year later, the Court ruled that local school boards should move to
desegregate __________________________________________________
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
________________________________________
with the Brown ruling, but would not
_____________________ make a stand
b. Caused fear and angry _____________________
in southern whites
c. Change did not happen _____________________
d. All black school closed and those teachers could
not find jobs
e. White children moved to private schools

4. 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
_____________________ occurred
d. Faubes Posted Arkansas
_____________________________
_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
_____________________
b. The governor’s actions were a
__________________________
to the constitution and the
President’s authority
c. The National Guard was put
under
___________________________
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 __________________________________________ refused
to give up her seat to a white man in December of 1955
b. Parks held her ground and was _____________________ 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 _____________________ announcing the
boycott
d. Lasted _____________________
e. _____________________ African Americans walked, rode bicycles, or
joined car pools to avoid city buses
f. Supreme Court ruled bus segregation was _____________________
g. Produced new _____________________ of leaders including Martin
Luther King, Jr.
15. What part did Martin Luther King, Jr. play in the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
a. Became the _____________________ for the protest movement
b. _____________________ the success of the bus boycott
c. Believed in and introduced
__________________________________________as a means of
achieving equality for minority groups

5. 16. How did the Native Americans push for civil rights?
a. Had a _____________________ situation to fight for
b. Federal government _____________________ reservations
c. Termination: sought to eliminate Native American reservation altogether
and promoted _____________________ in to the US society
d. Native Americans found that assimilation did more
_____________________
e. Native Americans sent a petition to the government stating the Native
Americans’ _____________________ in their heritage
f. Termination policy discarded in time, but the problems of poverty,
discrimination, and little real political representation

6. 16. How did the Native Americans push for civil rights?
a. Had a _____________________ situation to fight for
b. Federal government _____________________ reservations
c. Termination: sought to eliminate Native American reservation altogether
and promoted _____________________ in to the US society
d. Native Americans found that assimilation did more
_____________________
e. Native Americans sent a petition to the government stating the Native
Americans’ _____________________ in their heritage
f. Termination policy discarded in time, but the problems of poverty,
discrimination, and little real political representation