U.S. History Practice Test: The Civil Rights Movement
- Civil Rights Movement
- 10 questions
- 12 minutes
These 10 questions cover the struggle for equal rights for African Americans from the 1950s to the late 1960s. Match each event to its place and year: many questions turn on where something happened.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
What did the Supreme Court decide in Brown v. Board of Education (1954)?
Correct answer: C
The Court ruled unanimously that separate schools are inherently unequal, overturning the "separate but equal" rule from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Ending segregation on Montgomery's buses came with a separate ruling in 1956.
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Question 2
Rosa Parks's arrest in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955 led directly to
Correct answer: A
Black residents refused to ride Montgomery's buses for about 381 days, and Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a leader. The boycott ended after the Supreme Court ruled bus segregation unconstitutional.
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Question 3
In 1957, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to
Correct answer: D
Arkansas's governor had used the National Guard to keep the students out, so Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the court order. The students became known as the Little Rock Nine.
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Question 4
In February 1960, four Black college students began a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in
Correct answer: B
The students sat at the whites-only counter and politely asked for service, and the protest spread to many other cities. Selma is known for the 1965 voting rights marches.
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Question 5
What were the Freedom Rides of 1961?
Correct answer: A
Black and white riders traveled together to see if Southern bus stations obeyed Supreme Court rulings against segregation. Mobs attacked them, and one bus was firebombed in Alabama.
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Question 6
Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in August 1963 at
Correct answer: C
About 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for jobs and freedom, and King spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The march helped build support for the civil rights bill.
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Question 7
Which of these did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do?
Correct answer: D
The act outlawed segregation in public accommodations and banned job discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Voting at 18 came with the 26th Amendment in 1971.
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Question 8
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed after the marches in Selma, Alabama,
Correct answer: B
The law suspended literacy tests and let federal examiners register voters in places with a history of discrimination. Black voter registration in the South rose sharply in the following years.
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Question 9
What did the 24th Amendment (1964) ban in federal elections?
Correct answer: A
A poll tax was a fee charged for voting, and it kept many poor Black and white citizens from the polls. Literacy tests were targeted by the Voting Rights Act a year later.
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Question 10
Thurgood Marshall argued Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court and later became
Correct answer: C
Marshall led the NAACP's legal team and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967. The first African American senator was Hiram Revels in 1870.
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