Name____________ Block____
Civil Rights and Liberalism Unit Test
Part I. Matching
Match each of the following descriptions on the left with the most appropriate term on the right.
Place the letter of the term by its corresponding description.
__l_ 1.) The unofficial name for legislation first
introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson
during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964.
This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to
a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent.
_a__ 2.) Author of the Feminine Mystique and cofounder of the National Organization for Women (NOW)
_j__ 3.) Organization formed to give younger blacks
more of a voice in the civil rights movement after
growing frustrating with the rate of progress in Dr.
King’s movement.
a.) Betty Friedan
b.) Congress for Racial Equality (CORE)
c.) Earl Warren
d.) Freedom Summer
e.) James Meredith
f.) Medicare
g.) Medicaid
__g_ 4.) Program designed to provide healthcare for
individuals and families with low incomes or limited
resources.
h.) Rosa Parks
__e_ 5.) Participant in SNCC’s Freedom Rides of the
early 1960’s. Would later move away from Dr. King’s
message of non-violence to favor self-defense and
retaliation. Coined the term “Black Power”.
j.) Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee
_d__ 6.) Campaign launched in June 1964 to register as
many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi.
l.) War on Poverty
_i__ 7.) Series of violent actions by the gay community
in New York City in response to police raids.
_c__ 8.) Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court that
preside over the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
i.) Stonewall
k.) Watts
Part II. Multiple Choice
Choose the best answer choice for each question below and write the letter of your answer choice
in the space next to the number of the question.
_c__ 9.) The growing popularity of which technology led to the national awareness of the
plight of blacks in the South?
a.) Commercial airlines
b.) Radio
c.) Television
d.) Telegraph
_c__ 10.) A significant reason that the Medicare proposal was able to overcome opposition
and win congressional approval was because it
a.) it was labeled as "welfare."
b.) strictly regulated the fee structure of doctors and hospitals.
c.) made benefits available to all elderly Americans, regardless of economic need.
d.) shifted responsibility for paying a large proportion of medical charges from the government
to the patient.
_a__ 11.) Sit-in movements at lunch counters across the south were organized by which
group?
a.) Black students
b.) Black women
c.) Church leaders
d.) White students
Questions 12-13 refer to the excerpt below
“We, men and women who hereby constitute ourselves as the National Organization for Women,
believe that the time has come for a new movement toward equality for all women in America,
and towards a full equal partnership of the sexes ….
NOW Bill of Rights
Equal Rights Constitutional Amendment
Enforce Law Banning Sex Discrimination in Employment
Maternity Leave Rights in Employment and in Social Security Benefits
Tax Deduction for Home and Child Care Expenses for Working Parents
Child Care Centers
Equal and Unsegregated Education
Equal Job Training Opportunities and Allowances for Women in Poverty
Rights of Women to Control Their Reproductive Lives”
— National Organization for Women, June 1966
_b__ 12.) The 1966 NOW statement, although broadened during the conference, most
emphasized which of the following?
a.) Child care
b.) Empowerment of wives
c.) Job opportunities
d.) Reproduction rights
___ 13.) Which of the NOW Bill of Rights goals did the movement most clearly fail to
achieve?
a.)
b.)
c.)
d.)
Child care services
Equal Rights Amendment
Equal and unsegregated education
A tax deduction for parents
_c__ 14.) The incident that is credited with beginning the Montgomery Bus Boycott was
________
a.) Brown v. Board of Education
b.) Martin Luther King Jr.’s I have a dream speech
c.) The arrest of Rosa Parks
d.) The assassination of Medgar Evers
__b_ 15.) His decision to desegregate the armed forces was the first among notable federal
actions in the Civil Rights Movement
a.) Dwight D. Eisenhower
b.) Harry S. Truman
c.) John F. Kennedy
d.) Lyndon B. Johnson
_c__ 16.) Although he lost by a landslide, Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign
was significant because:
a.) his criticism of the Vietnam War helped escalate anti-war protests across the nation.
b.) a Democrat had not lost so convincingly since Herbert Hoover defeated Al Smith in 1928.
c.) it launched a new conservative movement that questioned the growth of the federal
government in to Americans’ daily lives.
d.) it was the first election in which the major candidates debated one another on national
television.
_c__ 17.) Which of the following is the best explanation of the result of the 1965 march
from Selma to Montgomery?
a.) Race riots were sparked in cities across the country.
b.) Blacks faced a national backlash as they were seen to be demanding too much.
c.) National pressure forced Congress to pass the most comprehensive voting rights
legislation to date.
d.) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his supporters were immediately arrested and put in jail for
civil disobedience.
_d__ 18.)
“How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code
that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony
with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law
that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just.
Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because
segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of
superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of
the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I it" relationship for an "I thou" relationship
and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically,
economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said
that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his
awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954
decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation
ordinances, for they are morally wrong.”
—“Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., April 1963
What audience is King most likely addressing in this passage?
a.) Moderate blacks
b.) Klu Klux Klan members
c.) Politicians
d.) Religious leaders
_a__ 19.) Which of the following represent important aspects of the “Great Society”
program?
a.) anti-poverty laws, housing and urban development
b.) federal writers project, development of the Tennessee Valley
c.) large defense expenditures, changing the voting age to 18
d.) support for South Vietnam, the interstate highway system
_a__ 20.) Cesar Chavez created the United Farm Workers Organization Committee
(UFWOC) in 1966 primarily to
a.) improve working conditions for migrant laborers
b.) increase farm income
c.) provide legal assistance to illegal aliens
d.) secure voting rights for Mexican Americans
_d__ 21.) Which of the following best reflects the loss of faith by younger AfricanAmericans in the non-violent civil rights movement after the March to Montgomery?
a.) The conversion of Malcolm X to the Black Muslims
b.) The events that started the Watts riots in Los Angeles
c.) The reaction to the Kerner Commission’s findings on racism
d.) The shift in tactics of SNCC under Stokely Carmichael
_a__ 21.) The Alabama police commissioner whose violence against civil rights protesters
horrified the nation was
a.) Bull Conner
b.) George Wallace
c.) Earl Warren
d.) Robert Weaver
_d__ 22.) John F. Kennedy billed his domestic policy program as the __________
a.) Alliance for Progress
b.) Era of Equality
c.) Great Society
d.) New Frontier
_b__ 23.) Coordinate efforts by SNCC to send its member on missions across the Deep
South to end segregated public transportation were called ___________
a.) Freedom Summer
b.) Freedom Rides
c.) Greyhound diplomacy
d.) Rolling sit-ins
__b_ 24.) Local opposition across the southern states to the the Brown v. Board of Education
ruling came to be known as ___________
a.) Massive Retaliation
b.) Massive Resistance
c.) Mutual Deterrence
d.) The Separate Education Movement
_a__ 25.) The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965:
a.) based aid on the economic conditions of students rather than the needs of schools
themselves
b.) led to a quadrupling of federal aid for education from 1964 to 1967
c.) made it illegal to provide separate but equal educations for black and white students
d.) provided funds for private schools but not public ones
_a__ 26.) Which of the following best reflects President Lyndon Johnson’s actions in the
area of civil rights?
a.) He stepped away from his southern traditions and vigorously supported civil rights and
voting rights laws.
b.) To maintain traditional Democratic support in the “Solid South,” he delayed civil rights
legislation to a large degree.
c.) He helped begin the civil rights movement with his historic order to desegregate the armed
forces.
d.) He supported a voting rights bill, but vetoed a civil rights bill, arguing that such a matter is
left to the states by the Constitution.
Questions 27-28 refer to the excerpt below
“Does segregation of children in public schools sole on the basis of race even though the
physical facilities and other “tangible” factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority
group of equal education? We believe that it does.
“[I]n finding that a segregated law school for Negroes could no provide them equal
educational opportunities, this court relied in large part on ‘those qualities which are incapable of
objective measurement but which make for greatness in a law school.’
“Such considerations apply with added force to children in grade and high schools. To
separate them from others of similar age and qualifications sole because of the their race
generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts
and minds in a way unlikely to be undone.…
“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has
no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the
plaintiffs….[are] deprived of equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.”
— Supreme Court, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, May 17, 1954
_d__27.) The Brown decision was controversial for a variety of reasons, but which of the
following is most evident in this selection?
a.) Most of all-black schools were not physically equal
b.) The decision was based on tangible, physical, factors
c.) The Court condemned segregated schools only in the South
d.)The Court used psychological evidence to support their case
_c__ 28.) Which of the following best describes the initial reaction to the Brown decision?
a.) Southern leaders supported the decision, but voters did not
b.) President Eisenhower provided active support for the decision
c.) Resistance was widespread and initially few schools integrated
d.) It was implemented with little opposition in larger cities.
Part III. Short Answer
Choose three of the following questions. Please be detailed and specific. These responses are
intended to be short but should be in complete sentences. Questions continue on the next page. (3
points each)
29. What was the Voting Rights Act of 1975? Why was it important?
The Voting Rights Act was legislation aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and
local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the
15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the
franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in
U.S. history.
30. How did young people energize the civil rights movement in the 1960s?
Young people brought an attitude of urgency to the movement. They wanted change to
come quickly, not in decades. They organized sit-ins and other activities to speed change
and build on the momentum of the 1950s.
31. Why do you think the freedom riders chose the route that they did? What did the freedom
rides accomplish?
The entire route was in the segregated South and provided many opportunities to oppose
segregation.
The freedom rides let to desegregation of interstate public transportation and related
facilities in the South.
32. Why was the March on Washington a symbolic and appropriate choice for a civil rights
demonstration?
It was symbolic and appropriate because Washington, D.C., is the site of the U.S.
government, which had the power to pass new laws to protect the rights of all Americans.
33. How did the concept of black power differ from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, approach to civil
rights?
Black power advocates believed that African Americans should use their economic and
political resources collectively to become self-reliant and independent of white influence,
instead of trying to gain acceptance from whites
Part IV. Essay
Directions: Answer the following prompt in the remaining space or on a separate sheet of paper.
You are advised to spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing this essay. Cite relevant
historical evidence in support of your claim and present your arguments llearfully and logically.
Analyze the ways in which the Great Society programs of the 1960’s are alike
and/or different than the New Deal programs of the 1930’s.
Rubric- Adapted from the AP U.S. History Long Essay Rubric
Section
Thesis
Argumentation Development
Components
Student Score
Presents a thesis that makes a
historically defensible claim and
responds to all parts of the prompt. 2
points
Describes similarities and differences
among historical individuals, events,
developments, or processes 2 points
Explains the reasons for similarities and
differences among historical
individuals, events, developments, or
processes 2 points
Evidence
Addresses the topic of the question
with specific and accurate examples of
relevant evidence 2 points
Utilizes specific examples of evidence
to appropriately back-up thesis or
historical argument 2 points
Synthesis
Extends the argument by explaining
connections between the argument
ONE of the following:
-A development in a different historical
period
-A course theme or approach that is not
the focus of the essay
-A different discipline or field of inquiry
2 points
TOTAL