Civil Rights AP Classroom

"Current sit-ins and other demonstrations are concerned with something much bigger than a hamburger.... Whatever may be the difference in approach to their goal... students, North and South, are seeking to rid America of the scourge of... discrimination—not only at lunch counters, but in every aspect of life."

Ella Baker, "Bigger Than a Hamburger," Raleigh, NC, 1960

The tactics described in the excerpt best represent which of the following?

A) Filing legal challenges

B) Using nonviolence

C) Learning self-defense

D) Petitioning government officials

B) Using nonviolence

"Current sit-ins and other demonstrations are concerned with something much bigger than a hamburger.... Whatever may be the difference in approach to their goal... students, North and South, are seeking to rid America of the scourge of... discrimination—not only at lunch counters, but in every aspect of life."

Ella Baker, "Bigger Than a Hamburger," Raleigh, NC, 1960

The events described in the excerpt contributed most directly to the

A) desegregation of the armed services

B) ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

C) passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

D) Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

C) passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

"Current sit-ins and other demonstrations are concerned with something much bigger than a hamburger.... Whatever may be the difference in approach to their goal... students, North and South, are seeking to rid America of the scourge of... discrimination—not only at lunch counters, but in every aspect of life."

Ella Baker, "Bigger Than a Hamburger," Raleigh, NC, 1960

The excerpt best serves as evidence of which of the following developments during the 1960s?

A) New demands for economic rights by Latino Americans

B) Efforts to combat racism in the labor movement

C) Increased conflict over the role of women in society

D) Growing pressure to eliminate racial inequalities in society

D) Growing pressure to eliminate racial inequalities in society

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black community. We believe that Black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2. We want full employment for our people. We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the White American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living. . . .

6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service. We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized. . . .

8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails. We believe that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

Black Panther Party, Ten-Point Program, 1966

The opinions expressed in the excerpt are most similar to those of the American Indian Movement in that both groups

A) believed that the United States should not be involved in foreign wars or other entanglements

B) asserted that state and local governments should have more power than the United States government

C) argued that the United States had a responsibility to provide compensation for past injustices

D) claimed that the United States had a responsibility to enact laws to limit environmental pollution

C) argued that the United States had a responsibility to provide compensation for past injustices

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black community. We believe that Black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2. We want full employment for our people. We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the White American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living. . . .

6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service. We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized. . . .

8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails. We believe that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

Black Panther Party, Ten-Point Program, 1966

In which of the following ways did public attitudes toward the Civil Rights movement change as a result of sentiments such as those expressed in the excerpt?

A) White approval declined as a result of the perception that aggressive policies like those of the Black Panthers resulted in urban unrest.

B) Liberal feminists adopted the tactics of the Black Panthers in order to increase the influence of their movement.

C) Young people increasingly rejected the platform of the Black Panthers in favor of nonviolent tactics.

D) The federal government responded by enacting social welfare programs favored by the Black Panthers.

A) White approval declined as a result of the perception that aggressive policies like those of the Black Panthers resulted in urban unrest.

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black community. We believe that Black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2. We want full employment for our people. We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the White American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living. . . .

6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service. We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized. . . .

8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails. We believe that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

Black Panther Party, Ten-Point Program, 1966

The sentiments expressed in the excerpt best reflect which of the following divisions within the Civil Rights movement?

A) Optimism among White people in the United States that racial discrimination was being eliminated

B) Growing support among young activists in the Civil Rights movement for nonviolent protest

C) Frustrations among Civil Rights activists that social and political change was not occurring fast enough

D) Tensions within the federal government over the best way to combat communist influence in Civil Rights movements

C) Frustrations among Civil Rights activists that social and political change was not occurring fast enough

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black community. We believe that Black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2. We want full employment for our people. We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the White American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living. . . .

6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service. We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized. . . .

8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails. We believe that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

Black Panther Party, Ten-Point Program, 1966

Which of the following best describes the historic situation in the 1960s that prompted the emergence of social and political reform movements such as the Black Panther Party?

A) The United States sought to limit the influence of communism at home and abroad.

B) The United States allied with other nations to combat fascism and militarism in Europe and East Asia.

C) The United States attempted to reinvigorate its economy following economic crises brought on by the Great Depression.

D) The United States became increasingly divided as conflicts within and between liberal and conservative movements intensified.

D) The United States became increasingly divided as conflicts within and between liberal and conservative movements intensified.

"One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to now there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghetto. There has been only a civil rights movement whose tone of voice was adapted to an audience of liberal whites. It served as a sort of buffer zone between them and angry young blacks. . . .

"An organization which claims to speak for the needs of a community—as does the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—must speak in the tone of that community, not as somebody else's buffer zone. . . .

"The need for psychological equality is the reason why SNCC today believes that blacks must organize in the black community. Only black people can convey the revolutionary idea that black people are able to do things themselves. Only they can help create in the community an aroused and continuing black consciousness that will provide the basis for political strength."

Stokely Carmichael, "What We Want," 1966

The ideas expressed in the excerpt could best be used to support which of the following perspectives at the time?

A) Violence is the best means for African Americans to change their status.

B) Integration should be rejected as the primary goal of the African American rights movement.

C) Separatism would not help African Americans achieve a more powerful political voice.

D) Economic inequality accounts for the persistence of racial discrimination.

B) Integration should be rejected as the primary goal of the African American rights movement.

"One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to now there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghetto. There has been only a civil rights movement whose tone of voice was adapted to an audience of liberal whites. It served as a sort of buffer zone between them and angry young blacks. . . .

"An organization which claims to speak for the needs of a community—as does the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—must speak in the tone of that community, not as somebody else's buffer zone. . . .

"The need for psychological equality is the reason why SNCC today believes that blacks must organize in the black community. Only black people can convey the revolutionary idea that black people are able to do things themselves. Only they can help create in the community an aroused and continuing black consciousness that will provide the basis for political strength."

Stokely Carmichael, "What We Want," 1966

The ideas expressed in the excerpt arose most directly in reaction to which of the following?

A) A Supreme Court decision that ordered the desegregation of public schools

B) Persecution of African American labor union organizers during the Red Scare

C) Discrimination and disenfranchisement that continued despite legislative gains

D) An increase in conservative political activism by Black evangelical churches

C) Discrimination and disenfranchisement that continued despite legislative gains

We believe that the Negro should adopt every means to protect himself against barbarous practices inflicted upon him because of color.

"We believe in the freedom of Africa for the Negro people of the world, and by the principle of Europe for the Europeans and Asia for the Asiatics, we also demand Africa for the Africans at home and abroad....

"We strongly condemn the cupidity of those nations of the world who, by open aggression or secret schemes, have seized the territories and inexhaustible natural wealth of Africa, and we place on record our most solemn determination to reclaim the treasures and possession of the vast continent of our forefathers."

Marcus Garvey, Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, adopted at the first convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), August 1920

Which of the following later movements held ideas closest to those expressed by Garvey in the excerpt?

A) A. Philip Randolph's organizing of Black railroad workers into the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

B) Thurgood Marshall and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's legal efforts to desegregate schools in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

C) Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, efforts to win equal rights for African Americans through nonviolent civil disobedience

D) Malcolm X's Black nationalism emphasizing racial pride and economic self-sufficiency

D) Malcolm X's Black nationalism emphasizing racial pride and economic self-sufficiency

bar graph of black migration in the 1900's

(Source: Adapted from data in James N. Gregory, The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America, 2005.)

The overall trend in African American migration depicted on the graph most directly contributed to the

A) spread of the youth counterculture nationwide

B) expansion of a new interstate highway system throughout the country

C) fragmentation of culture throughout the United States

D) White resistance to integrated communities in the North

D) White resistance to integrated communities in the North

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to rouse the conscience of the community over its injustices, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for the law."

The quotation above is from

A) Booker T. Washington

B) Marcus Garvey

C) Langston Hughes

D) Martin Luther King, Jr.

E) Stokely Carmichael

D) Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam," April 4, 1967

King's ideas in the excerpt most directly represent which of the following shifts in thinking among Civil Rights leaders in the second half of the 1960s?

A) Refocusing the agenda on segregation in the South

B) Deepening concerns about persistence of inequality

C) Growing support for Great Society social programs

D) Increasing reliance on the Supreme Court to protect individual rights

B) Deepening concerns about persistence of inequality

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

Martin Luther King, Jr., "Beyond Vietnam," April 4, 1967

The reference to "the world revolution" in the excerpt most directly refers to which of the following developments in international affairs following the Second World War?

A) Decolonization and the emergence of nationalist movements in Asia and Africa

B) The beginning of the Cold War in Europe

C) United States support for anticommunist regimes in Latin America

D) United States efforts to create a national energy policy

A) Decolonization and the emergence of nationalist movements in Asia and Africa

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was 'well timed' in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. . . . We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.' We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter."

Martin Luther King, Jr., African American leader, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 1963

"The White man knows that the Black revolution is worldwide. . . . So I cite these various revolutions, brothers and sisters, to show you that you don't have a peaceful revolution. You don't have a turn-the-other-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution. The only kind of revolution that's nonviolent is the Negro revolution. The only revolution in which the goal is loving your enemy is the Negro revolution. It's the only revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater, a desegregated park, and a desegregated public toilet.... That's no revolution. Revolution is based on land.... Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality. . . . A revolutionary wants land so he can set up his own nation, an independent nation."

Malcolm X, African American leader, "Message to the Grass Roots," 1963

In noting that he had "yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was 'well timed,'" Martin Luther King, Jr., was most likely arguing against

A) African American activists who asserted that King's tactics were taking too long to produce results

B) Civil Rights activists who believed that more thought should be given to the precise timing of boycotts, demonstrations, and direct actions

C) environmental activists who believed that the struggle for more effective conservation measures should take precedence over the Civil Rights movement

D) White Americans who argued that African Americans should be more patient and that civil rights should not be brought about by civil disobedience tactics

D) White Americans who argued that African Americans should be more patient and that civil rights should not be brought about by civil disobedience tactics

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was 'well timed' in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. . . . We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.' We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter."

Martin Luther King, Jr., African American leader, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 1963

"The White man knows that the Black revolution is worldwide. . . . So I cite these various revolutions, brothers and sisters, to show you that you don't have a peaceful revolution. You don't have a turn-the-other-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution. The only kind of revolution that's nonviolent is the Negro revolution. The only revolution in which the goal is loving your enemy is the Negro revolution. It's the only revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a desegregated theater, a desegregated park, and a desegregated public toilet.... That's no revolution. Revolution is based on land.... Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality. . . . A revolutionary wants land so he can set up his own nation, an independent nation."

Malcolm X, African American leader, "Message to the Grass Roots," 1963

At the time the excerpts were written, Martin Luther King, Jr., disagreed with Malcolm X in that King believed that

A) confrontation would be an effective means of achieving change

B) the most desirable outcome of Civil Rights activism would be equal rights and racial integration

C) Civil Rights activism has its roots in earlier historical patterns

D) moderation and conciliation would hamper African Americans

B) the most desirable outcome of Civil Rights activism would be equal rights and racial integration

shaded map of states with segregated schools

What conclusions about school segregation in 1954 can be drawn from the map above?

A) Only the states that made up the old Confederacy still practiced segregation in public schools.

B) School segregation was a national problem, not one confined to a single region.

C) Every state in the Union had local laws outlining positions on school segregation.

D) States with the smallest populations generally supported school segregation.

E) Northern states were free of segregation of any kind by 1954.

B) School segregation was a national problem, not one confined to a single region.

southern sates shaded by county of school segregation map

In response to the situation depicted in the map, most civil rights leaders in the 1960s did which of the following?

A) Focused their direct activism in the North and the Upper South

B) Abandoned legal strategies because they had been ineffective in desegregating schools

C) Urged stronger federal action to compel states to enforce civil rights protections

D) Adopted a militant platform centered on separatism and Black Power

C) Urged stronger federal action to compel states to enforce civil rights protections

southern sates shaded by county of school segregation map

The situation depicted in the map had the most in common with which of the following earlier processes?

A) Patterns of residential segregation in the antebellum South

B) Sectional conflict between the North and the South during the mid-nineteenth century

C) Federal attempts to guarantee rights for formerly enslaved people during Reconstruction

D) African American migration patterns during and after the First World War

C) Federal attempts to guarantee rights for formerly enslaved people during Reconstruction

southern sates shaded by county of school segregation map

Which of the following was a reason for the patterns depicted on the map?

A) States and counties in the Deep South responded more favorably to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topekaruling than did those in the Upper South and Texas.

B) Many counties and states actively resisted implementing the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

C) Economic difference among states and counties created unintentional racial segregation in schools.

D) The Civil Rights movement focused more on desegregating public transportation than desegregating

B) Many counties and states actively resisted implementing the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.