Ch 27 Learning Curve APUSH

What describes the social order in the Southwest for Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans after World War II?

A "caste" system → The social order in the Southwest from Texas to California for Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans after World War II could best be described as a "caste" system not unlike Jim Crow segregation in the South.

What kind of civil rights activism did Ella Baker support?

A strong grassroots movement → Baker strongly believed in the power of "grassroots" movements that depended on democratic conviction rather than charismatic leaders, stating that "strong people don't need strong leaders." Ironically, she trained a number of very charismatic leaders.

Which statement describes the Greensboro sit-ins of the early 1960s?

African American college students led the sit-ins. → The Greensboro sit-ins of 1960 were designed and led by black college students tired of segregation. They targeted a Woolworth's lunch counter and its adherence to local segregation policy. Local whites responded by taunting and threatening the peaceful protesters. Although many black participants were arrested, the movement was widely successful across the South.

In what way did World War II help spur the movement for civil rights after the war?

Antiracist ideology of the fight against the Nazis was carried over to fighting segregation. → In the war against fascism, the Allies sought to discredit racist Nazi ideology. Committed to fighting racism abroad, Americans increasingly condemned racism at home.

What was the key to the legal strategy in Brown v. Board of Education (1954)?

Applying the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the case → The key to the legal strategy the NAACP litigators in Brown v. Board of Education was to use the Fourteenth Amendment's "equal protection" clause to convince the Supreme Court to overturn its 1898 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson.

Where and when did Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous "I Have a Dream" speech?

At Washington, D.C., in 1963 → King's speech was one of the highlights of the August 1963 March on Washington, in which 250,000 people took part. His dramatic speech captured the nation's imagination.

By the late 1960s, as the national Democratic Party endorsed black civil rights, how did southern Democrats respond?

Becoming Republicans → Many southern Democrats followed Strom Thurmond, the segregationist senator from South Carolina, when he renounced the Democrats and became a Republican. The Democratic Party's embrace of civil rights ended the broad-based New Deal coalition of the 1930s and 1940s.

What was a major difference between the Nation of Islam and the Black Power movement?

Black Power was secular, while the Nation of Islam was religious. → The critical difference between these two approaches to black nationalism related to religion. The Nation of Islam rejected Christianity in favor of an apocalyptic brand of Islam in which Allah would banish white "devils" and give the black nation justice. Black Power was a secular movement focused on building African Americans' political and economic power.

In 1967, Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton wrote, "Black people must redefine themselves, and only they can do that. Throughout this country, vast segments of the black communities are beginning to recognize the need to assert their own definitions, to reclaim their history, their culture . . . ." This statement represents an approach to the broad black freedom struggle of the 1960s articulated by advocates for

Black Power. → Secular black nationalists, following the lead of Stokely Carmichael, who along with Charles Hamilton is quoted here, began to call for black self-reliance under the banner of Black Power in 1966. Advocates of Black Power called for African Americans to build economic and political power in their own communities in order to reduce their dependence on white American society.

What event prompted passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

Brutal attacks on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama → In March 1965, the SCLC called for a march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery to protest the murder of a voting-rights activist. As soon as the six hundred marchers left Selma, state troopers attacked them with tear gas and clubs. The scene was shown on national television that night, and the day became known as Bloody Sunday. Calling the episode "an American tragedy," President Johnson went back to Congress and convinced it to pass the Voting Rights Act.

What labor leader became the leading figure of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s?

Cesar Chavez → Labor leader Chavez was the counterpart to Martin Luther King Jr. for the Chicano Movement.

Which statement explains the location of the sites of numerous civil rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960s?

Civil rights actions took place in many places because segregation was widespread. → Civil rights activists had to combat segregation throughout the South.

How did McCarthyism and the hunt for subversives at home hold back the civil rights movement?

Civil rights opponents charged that racial integration was "communistic." → Civil rights critics charged that racial integration was "communistic," and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was banned in many southern states as an "anti-American" organization.

What development signaled the growing political power of African Americans in the late twentieth century?

Election of African Americans as mayors of many cities → By the end of the century, black elected officials had become commonplace in major American cities. There were forty-seven African American big-city mayors by the 1990s, and blacks had led most of the nation's most prominent cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

The Nation of Islam embraced what approach to social justice for African Americans in the early 1960s?

Emphasis on the need to strengthen the black community → Black Muslims in the United States in the early 1960s adopted an approach that fused a rejection of Christianity with a strong philosophy of black self-improvement. Black Muslims preached an apocalyptic brand of Islam, anticipating the day when Allah would banish the white "devils" and give the black nation justice.

What development during the Mississippi Freedom Summer strengthened the resolve of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party?

Four civil rights activists were murdered for registering black voters. → The murders strengthened the resolve of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which had been founded during Freedom Summer.

What problem made it difficult for Native Americans to make a strong effort for civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s?

Great diversity made it difficult for Native Americans to unify. → Numbering nearly 800,000 in the 1960s, native people were exceedingly diverse—divided by language, tribal history, region, and degree of integration into American life.

How did Malcolm X's views shift after he broke with the Nation of Islam in 1964?

He began to emphasize interracial class struggle. → After a 1964 trip to the Middle East where he saw Muslims of all races worshiping together, Malcolm X began to talk about the need for a class struggle that united poor whites and blacks, shifting away from his earlier militant black nationalism.

How did Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd respond to the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954?

He called for massive resistance in the South. → Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd issued a call for "massive resistance."

How did Martin Luther King respond to the turmoil that wracked American cities in the 1960s?

He expanded his vision and began to tackle the deeper issues of poverty and racism. → Faced with urban rioting, King realized that civil rights was not enough to solve African Americans' problems. He expanded his vision to confront the deeper problems of poverty and racism in America as a whole and planned a massive movement called the Poor People's Campaign.

What was the alleged reason for the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi in the summer of 1955?

He spoke to a white woman. → Till reportedly said "Bye, baby" to the white woman in the grocery store, who then called her husband. He and a friend appeared at Emmett Till's relatives' house that night, seized him and took him away, and killed him.

Which statement describes President John F. Kennedy's approach to the civil rights movement?

He supported civil rights activists reluctantly. → Kennedy's main focus was foreign relations, and he worried about losing vital support from southern white congressmen if he pushed for civil rights. Growing violence against civil rights activists made him take a strong stand, however.

Which statement describes President Eisenhower's view of civil rights?

He thought the Brown decision was a mistake and did not champion civil rights. → President Eisenhower was no champion of civil rights, but neither was he an ardent segregationist. He thought the Brown decision a mistake and was unhappy about the prospect of using federal power to enforce integration. In the Little Rock crisis, however, Eisenhower did just that, sending federal troops to support integration of Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.

What prompted Martin Luther King Jr.'s rise to national prominence?

His leadership in the Montgomery bus boycott → The Montgomery bus boycott catapulted King to national prominence.

What concern challenged Mexican American civil rights activists but not African American civil rights activists in the 1960s?

Immigration policy → Immigration policy was a concern for Mexican American civil rights activists but not a problem addressed directly by African Americans.

Which conclusion can be drawn from this map, which shows the sites of numerous civil rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960s?

In the decade after the Brown case, civil rights activism shifted from the courts to mass action. → The map clearly indicates that the Brown case was a very important early victory in 1954. It also clearly shows that most of the later struggles and victories focused not on judicial or legal developments, but on mass action.

Which group gained media attention in 1969 by occupying the deserted federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay?

Indians of All Tribes → This organization embraced the concept of Red Power and staged escalating protests to draw attention to Indian concerns. It gained a great deal of attention when it occupied the deserted penitentiary on Alcatraz Island and proclaimed that it would purchase the island for "twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red cloth."1

Which statement describes California's Alien Land Law, which was successfully challenged in the late 1940s?

It discriminated against Japanese Americans. → California's Alien Land Law prohibited Japanese immigrants from owning land. The Japanese American Citizens League filed lawsuits to strike down the law as unconstitutional, thereby enlarging the scope of the civil rights movement.

Which statement identifies the historical significance of this World War II-era photograph?

It illustrates an early civil rights victory that came during World War II. → This image documents the civil rights victory that gave African Americans increased access to jobs in defense industries during World War II. For African American women, this was the first time they could find factory jobs that paid a decent wage and move out of the low-paid menial agricultural or domestic occupations in which they had previously been trapped.

The case of Mendez v. Westminster School District was important for what reason?

It laid the groundwork for broader challenges to racial inequality. → In 1947, five Mexican American fathers in California sued a local school district for placing their children in separate Mexican schools. The case, Mendez v. Westminster School District, never made it to the Supreme Court, but the Ninth Circuit Court ruled such segregation unconstitutional, thus paving the legal groundwork for future inequality cases.

What was the significance of the pressure that senior civil rights leaders put on John Lewis of SNCC to moderate the language of his speech at the 1963 March on Washington?

It showed that a generational split was developing in the movement. → Fearing the speech would alienate white supporters, Rustin and others implored Lewis to tone down his rhetoric. With only minutes to spare before he stepped up to the podium, Lewis agreed. He delivered a more conciliatory speech, but his conflict with march organizers signaled an emerging rift in the movement.

Which statement assesses the state of racial segregation on the eve of the postwar civil rights movement?

It was a nationwide problem. → Racial segregation was a national, not a regional, problem. While African Americans found greater freedom in the North and West, racial discrimination was also deeply entrenched there.

Which statement assesses President Harry Truman's call for racial equality in 1948?

It was the boldest call for racial equality since Reconstruction. → When Truman sent a message to Congress asking for the abolition of poll taxes and the restoration of the Fair Employment Practices Commission, he made the most aggressive and politically boldest call for racial equality by a leader of a major political party since Reconstruction.

What term was used to describe the system of institutionalized segregation common in the South?

Jim Crow → Segregation was commonly known as Jim Crow in the South.

Which change in America was set in motion by the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s?

Jim Crow segregation ended. → The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s achieved a permanent end to the system of Jim Crow segregation that had ruled the South since the 1890s.

How did African American activists influenced by the Black Power movement respond to President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty?

Joining it → Many Black Power activists joined Johnson's War on Poverty. They set up day care centers, ran community job training programs, and worked to improve housing and health care in inner-city neighborhoods all over the United States. Black Power activists' demands for strengthening the black community meshed well with Johnson's vision for antipoverty and community action programs.

Which activist inspired Martin Luther King's commitment to a nonviolent approach to social change?

Mahatma Gandhi → Martin Luther King embraced the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, who led India's independence movement and advocated nonviolence. He also worked with Bayard Rustin, who had used nonviolence in the Fellowship of Reconciliation in the 1940s.

Which sport did Jackie Robinson integrate in 1947?

Major league baseball → In 1947, Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. This was a symbolic victory for the African American civil rights struggle against segregation, and one of the few major gains made by blacks in the 1940s.

Which case resulted in the Supreme Court striking down segregation in universities?

McLaurin v. Oklahoma → In 1950, Thurgood Marshall argued the case of McLaurin v. Oklahoma, in which the Supreme Court ruled that universities could not segregate black students from others on campus.

Unable to achieve legislative reform in the U.S. Congress in the 1950s, due to the power of southern Democrats, African American civil rights activists focused their efforts in which of the following bodies?

Northern state legislatures → During the 1950s, African American civil rights activists focused their efforts in state legislatures in northern states with large black populations. New York and New Jersey passed fair employment legislation in 1945. By 1955, Illinois and Michigan had also passed similar legislation.

The Young Lords were members of which ethnic community?

Puerto Ricans → The Young Lords worked to help the Puerto Rican community.

What was the chief accomplishment of the push by Native Americans for civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s?

Raising awareness of Indian problems and getting a government response

What was a consequence of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

Sharp increase in the number of blacks able to vote → The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended literacy tests and other measures that most southern states used to prevent blacks from registering to vote. Together with the adoption in 1964 of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed the poll tax in federal elections, the Voting Rights Act allowed millions of blacks to register and vote for the first time.

What was a key conclusion of the 1968 Kerner Commission Report?

Shut out of white-dominated society, poor African Americans felt they had no stake in society and believed violence was their only way to push back. → The Kerner Commission Report did not excuse the brick-throwing, fire-bombing, and looting of the urban riots of the 1960s, but it placed them in sociological context. Shut out of white-dominated society, impoverished African Americans felt they had no stake in the social order. Pushed to the margins, many believed that violence was their only way to push back.

Martin Luther King Jr. joined dozens of other black ministers from the across the South to found which organization in 1957?

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) → King and dozens of other black ministers, including Ralph Abernathy, formed the SCLC in 1957. The organization lent the moral and organizational strength of the black churches to the civil rights movement.

This map, which illustrates internal migration in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, supports which conclusion?

Southern blacks' migration into northern and western cities gave them new political clout. → The map shows that there was massive migration of southerners during the twentieth century. Millions of African Americans left the southern states and headed to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, while hundreds of thousands went to California, Washington, and Oregon. This migration gave millions who had been disfranchised in the South new access to the vote and to political influence in the North. Those new black voters helped to make the civil rights victories of the 1960s possible.

African American activists from which groups formed the heart of the Black Power movement in 1966?

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) → SNCC activist Stokely Carmichael began to call for black self-reliance under the banner of Black Power in 1966, and many other SNCC and CORE activists followed his lead.

How did television affect the nation's debate over civil rights in the postwar civil rights movement?

TV coverage of violent white supremacists discredited segregation. → When television networks covered early desegregation struggles, such as the 1957 integration of Little Rock High School, Americans across the country saw the violence of white supremacy firsthand.

Which piece of legislation outlawed racial discrimination in employment?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 → In June 1964, Congress approved the most far-reaching civil rights law since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion, national origin, and sex and established the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission to implement the prohibition against job discrimination.

What did President Franklin Roosevelt create in 1941 when he issued Executive Order 8802?

The Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) → Feeling the pressure from A. Phillip Randolph's threat of a massive march of blacks on Washington, D.C., demanding equality in defense industry jobs, FDR signed Executive Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination in defense industries. The resulting Fair Employment Practices Commission remained weak but was a first step toward federal action to end discrimination in government employment.

What conclusion can be drawn from this map, which depicts the effects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on voter registration in the South?

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 nearly doubled the number of black voters in these states. → The map indicates that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had a substantial impact on the ability of black voters to register and participate in the political process. The totals listed in the white inset show that more than 1.7 million new black voters registered after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 took effect.

What did the U.S. Supreme Court rule in the case of Smith v. Allwright (1944)?

The all-white primary was unconstitutional. → In the case of Smith v. Allwright (1944), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the all-white primary was unconstitutional.

Which factor proved most decisive in propelling African American demands for justice after World War II?

The growing black vote in northern cities → The growing black vote in northern cities proved a decisive motivator for African American efforts to demand justice. During World War II, more than 1 million African Americans had migrated to northern and western cities, where they joined the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. This newfound political leverage awakened northern liberals, who became allies of civil rights advocates.

What was the significance of 1960s nationalist groups such as the Black Panthers and the Young Lords Organization?

Their community-organizing efforts produced a new generation of leaders. → These groups proved to be particularly important because their committed organizing efforts nurtured a new generation of leaders, many of whom entered politics and continued to push for social change.

Why did President Harry Truman decide to address racial inequality with executive action?

There was no support for civil rights in Congress. → With no support for civil rights in Congress, Truman turned to executive action and appointed a Presidential Committee on Civil Rights in 1946.

Which statement describes Mexican American civil rights activists in the 1960s?

They faced significant challenges in the United States due to language barriers, poverty, and uncertain legal status. → Although Mexican American activists drew extensively from the black civil rights model, their struggle for racial equality created divisions within their ranks between assimilationists and separatists. The Mexican American community faced particular problems, though, because of poverty, a language barrier with mainstream America, and the legalities involved with immigration.

For what purpose did Huey Newton and Bobby Seale establish the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, in 1966?

To protect African Americans from police violence and harassment → Seale and Newton founded the Black Panthers specifically for the purpose of protecting African Americans from police violence. They also opposed the Vietnam War and declared their affinity for Third World revolutionary movements and armed struggle.

Why did some residents of Corpus Christi, Texas, establish the American GI Forum in 1948?

To protest the poor treatment of Mexican American soldiers and veterans → The group was founded to protest the poor treatment of Mexican American soldiers and veterans. The veterans argued that they had fought for democracy and deserved to benefit from it. Ultimately, the group's agenda broadened and demanded political and economic justice for the larger Chicano community.

What was the immediate goal of the March on Washington in 1963?

To show support for a civil rights bill → To marshal support for President John F. Kennedy's civil rights bill, civil rights leaders adopted a tactic that A. Philip Randolph had first advanced in 1941: a massive demonstration in Washington. Under the leadership of Randolph and Bayard Rustin, a quarter of a million people came to the capital.

Why did Malcolm X form the Organization of Afro-American Unity in 1964?

To work with traditional civil rights groups → In 1964, Malcolm X formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity to work with traditional civil rights groups and to promote black pride.

What lesson did civil rights protesters learn when Attorney General Robert Kennedy dispatched federal marshals to protect the Freedom Riders?

Violent white resistance would force the government to take action. → Civil rights activists learned the value of nonviolent protests that provoked violent white resistance since it forced the federal government to take a stand on behalf of law and order—and civil rights.

Why were there "hate strikes" in Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago during World War II?

White workers refused to labor with black workers. → White workers engaged in "hate strikes" in these cities during the war because they refused to work with black workers, an example of the resistance to black equality in northern cities.

Black neighborhoods in downtown areas of northern states were known as

ghettos. → As segregation spread in northern cities, black poverty increased, leading to the concentration of African Americans in rundown areas called ghettos that were characterized by high rent, low wages, and poor city services.