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Jim Crow Test

Multiple Choice: Please select the best possible answer.

  1. Which action designed to oppose a political or business policy is closest to the approach used by Martin Luther King, Jr.?
  2. a war protester accepting a jail term rather than registering for the draft
  1. a union picketer assaulting a strikebreaker
  2. a government employee resisting arrest for failure to pay income taxes
  3. dissatisfied workers destroying machinery in their factory
  1. The abolitionist movement, the women’s suffrage movement, and the 1960’s civil rights movement are all examples of reform efforts that
  2. succeeded without causing major controversy
  3. developed significant popular support
  4. achieved their goals without government action
  5. failed to affect the nation as a whole
  1. Which generalization can most accurately be drawn from a study of Supreme Court cases Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education?
  2. The Supreme Court has issued consistent decisions in cases involving rights of the accused
  3. Supreme Court decisions are accepted without public controversy
  4. The Justices believe that social issues are best left for state courts to decide
  5. The Supreme Court has helped to determine public policy
  1. The major goal of the civil rights movement of the 1960’s was to
  2. establish a separate political state for African Americans
  3. gain passage of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution
  4. end segregation based on race
  5. permit unlimited immigration to the United States
  1. An original purpose of affirmative action programs was to
  2. increase educational and employment opportunities for women and minorities
  3. improve the Amencan economy by guaranteeing that employees will be highly skilled
  4. decrease social welfare costs by requiring recipients of public assistance to work
  5. reduce the Federal deficit by increasing government efficiency
  1. When necessary to achieve justice, which method did Martin Luther King, Jr., urge his followers to employ?
  2. using violence to bring about political change
  3. engaging in civil disobedience
  4. leaving any community in which racism is practiced
  5. demanding that Congress pay reparations to African Americans
  1. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent Federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, during the 1957 school integration crisis, he was exercising his constitutional power as
  2. Chief Legislator
  3. Commander-in-Chief
  4. Chief Diplomat
  5. Head of State
  1. "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

-Brown v. Board of Education

The effect of this Supreme Court ruling was to

  1. establish affirmative action programs in higher education
  2. require the integration of public schools
  3. desegregate the armed forces and the military academies
  4. force states to spend an equal amount on each public school student
  1. After the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, African Americans continued to experience political and economic oppression mainly because
  2. the amendments were not intended to solve their problems
  3. many African Americans distrusted the Federal Government
  4. Southern legislatures enacted Jim Crow laws
  5. poor communications kept people from learning about their legal rights
  1. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed in an effort to correct
  2. racial and gender discrimination
  3. limitations on freedom of speech
  4. unfair immigration quotas
  5. segregation in the armed forces

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
—Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
  1. Using the passage above, which constitutional idea was the basis for this Supreme Court decision?
  2. protection against double jeopardy
  3. freedom of speech
  4. right of assembly
  5. equal protection of the law

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’” —Martin Luther King, Jr. Washington, D.C., 1963

  1. Using the passage above, which step was taken following this speech to advance the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.?
  2. desegregation of the Armed Forces
  3. ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson
  4. elimination of the Ku Klux Klan
  5. passage of new civil rights acts
  1. The changes shown in the chart were most directly the result of the


  1. enactment of voting-reform laws by these southern states
  2. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education
  3. passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
  4. executive branch’s resistance to protecting the civil rights of minorities
  1. The federal voting rights laws passed in the 1950s and 1960s were designed to
  2. return control of voting regulations to the states
  3. remove racial barriers to voting
  4. extend suffrage to American women
  5. prevent recent immigrants from voting
  1. Martin Luther King, Jr. first emerged as a leader of the civil rights movement when he
  2. led the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama
  3. refused to give up his seat on a bus to a white man
  4. challenged the authority of the Supreme Court
  5. was elected as the first black congressman from the South
  1. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court ruled that
  2. states may not secede from the Union
  3. all western territories should be open to slavery
  4. racial segregation was constitutional
  5. slaves are property and may not be taken from their owners

“. . . In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’ It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’ ”. . .

— Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963

  1. Using the above passage, answer the following question. The focus of this passage from Dr. King’s speech was his belief that
  2. equal rights for all were guaranteed by the founders of this nation
  3. Americans had become blind to racial differences
  4. violence was often necessary for the protection of civil liberties
  5. civil rights for African Americans would always be a dream
  1. The program that promotes preference in hiring for African Americans and other minorities to correct past injustices is known as
  2. Title IX
  3. open admissions
  4. affirmative action
  5. Head Start
  1. Which statement best summarizes the beliefs of Booker T. Washington?
  2. The best solution for African Americans was to return to Africa
  3. Social equality for African Americans would be easier to achieve than legal rights
  4. The way to dissolve the barriers of segregation and bring about an end to Jim Crow laws was by active, violent resistance
  5. The most immediate means for African Americans to achieve equality was to expand their opportunities for vocational education.
  1. "Although important strides were made, Reconstruction failed to provide lasting guarantees of the civil rights of the freedmen.” Which evidence best supports this statement
  2. passage of Jim Crow laws in the latter part of the 19th century
  3. ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments
  4. refusal of Southern States to allow sharecropping
  5. passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1866
  1. Which statement about the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois is most accurate?
  2. They differed as to the best way that African Americans could effectively achieve equality
  3. Both demanded programs that would provide for immediate social equality
  4. Both believed that vocational training would provide the most important kind of education for African Americans
  5. Neither wanted the Federal Government to play a major role in protecting the civil rights of African Americans
  1. Base your answer to the question below on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.
    "[The registrar] brought a big old book out there, and he gave me the sixteenth section of the constitution of Mississippi, . . . I could copy it like it was in the book, but after I got through copying it, he told me to give a reasonable interpretation and tell the meaning of the section I had copied. Well, I flunked out." Source: A History of the United States since 1861

The main intent of the literacy test described in the passage was to

  1. encourage reform of the political system
  2. encourage Mississippi residents to learn about their state’s legal system
  3. prevent African Americans from exercising a basic right
  4. enforce the provisions of the United States Constitution
  1. The 14th amendment provides that no "state [shall] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." A direct result of this amendment was that
  2. the process of amending the Constitution became slower and more complex
  3. the guarantees in the Bill of Rights were applied to state actions
  4. every citizen gained an absolute right to freedom of speech and assembly
  5. the power of the Federal Government was sharply reduced
  1. Poll taxes and grandfather clauses were devices used to
  2. deny African Americans the right to vote
  3. extend suffrage to women and 18-year-old citizens
  4. raise money for political campaigns
  5. prevent immigrants from becoming citizens
  1. The poll tax, the literacy test, and the actions of the Ku Klux Klan were all attempts to limit the effectiveness of
  2. the 14th and 15th amendments
  3. the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education
  4. civil rights legislation passed in all states after the Civil War
  5. immigration laws such as the Gentleman’s Agreement and the Chinese Exclusion Act
  1. W.E.B. Du Bois believed that African Americans should attempt to gain equality in the United States by
  2. setting up a separate nation within the United States
  3. entering vocational training programs in separate schools
  4. demanding full and immediate participation in American society
  5. taking over the leadership of the two major political parties