Deck 6: Civil Rights

Question 1

Segregation is the

A) illegal means of minimizing the political power of minorities.
B) discrimination by a corporation against the disabled or the elderly.
C) integration of races in the public schools.
D) separation of genders in housing, use of accommodations, employment, or education.
E) separation of races in housing, use of accommodations, employment, or education.

Answer 1

separation of races in housing, use of accommodations, employment, or education.

Question 2

The efforts of civil rights leaders demonstrate a belief that American politics is not only about self-interest, but also about

A) amassing a large federal reserve.
B) its international image.
C) morality and the common good.
D) politicians' concern for reelection.
E) restoring the principles of the Articles of Confederation.

Answer 2

morality and the common good.

Question 3

In its modern sense, the term civil rights refers to the

A) freedom to live one's life and engage in the political process free from discrimination.
B) right of all citizens to challenge a judicial decision in civil court.
C) personal freedoms that the government may not legitimately infringe.
D) right to bring suit against the government in civil court.
E) rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

Answer 3

freedom to live one's life and engage in the political process free from discrimination.

Question 4

By 1804, which states had abolished slavery or passed laws providing for gradual emancipation?

A) The thirteen original states
B) All the northern states
C) All the southern states
D) All the states admitted since the Constitution was signed
E) Only Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York

Question 5

The price of slaves was declining in the 1780s because

A) of a prevailing sense that slavery was immoral.
B) state legislatures had regulated the prices of slaves.
C) the cotton industry was growing.
D) the federal government had passed several anti-slavery laws.
E) there was a downturn in the tobacco market.

Question 6

What contributed to the renewed profitability of slavery in the 1790s?

A) Increasing demand for tobacco
B) Invention of the cotton gin
C) Kansas-Nebraska Act
D) Missouri Compromise
E) Reintroduction of the international slave trade

Question 7

How did the Missouri Compromise seem to indicate a commitment to having a majority of free states rather than slave states?

A) Many states were expected to enter the Union from the territory north of Missouri's southern border, which the Compromise declared free.
B) The Missouri Compromise made slavery illegal in all but the original 13 states, most of which were already free.
C) The Missouri Compromise outlined a plan for gradual emancipation staggered throughout the existing states.
D) The Missouri Compromise promised a Constitutional amendment making slavery illegal within fifty years.
E) The Southern states agreed to admit no more slave states.

Question 8

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) documented the author's life as a(n)

A) abolitionist.
B) cotton farmer.
C) orator.
D) slave.
E) teacher.

Question 9

In 1837, John C. Calhoun became the first to defend slavery as

A) a necessary evil.
B) a positive good.
C) critical to the economy of the South.
D) inevitable.
E) the mark of a powerful empire.

Question 10

Of the following, which best represents the political uncertainty surrounding the future of slavery in the United States?

A) Battle of New Orleans
B) Defeat of the Wilmot Proviso
C) Election of Andrew Jackson
D) Louisiana Purchase
E) Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

Question 11

The fugitive slave law enacted as a part of the Compromise of 1850 was

A) a great step toward abolition.
B) adamantly opposed by southerners.
C) more favorable to slave owners than to the accused fugitive slave.
D) never put into effect.
E) the result of tireless efforts of abolitionists.

Question 12

The Underground Railroad was

A) the first transcontinental railroad.
B) an informal network of secret routes and safe houses run by abolitionists.
C) a nineteenth-century precursor to the modern subway system.
D) the only transportation open to black Americans, whether free or slave.
E) a railroad owned by mining companies.

Question 13

What was the effect of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854?

A) South Carolina called for immediate secession.
B) It cemented the celebrity of its author, Abraham Lincoln.
C) It effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
D) It placed the nation on track for emancipation within five years.
E) It tipped the balance of free and slave states toward freedom.

Question 14

Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 in hopes of

A) increasing the number of slave states.
B) increasing the number of free states.
C) quelling Northern fears of new slave states being admitted into the Union.
D) quelling Southern fears of new free states being admitted into the Union.
E) ending South Carolina's threats of secession.

Question 15

Supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska Act defended the law by claiming that it

A) embraced the principle of popular sovereignty.
B) protected the founders' vision of United States as a prosperous nation.
C) was the only way to ensure that the South would eventually become free.
D) bolstered the Missouri Compromise.
E) would end the Fugitive Slave Act.

Question 16

The Republican Party was organized in response to the

A) defeat of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
B) admittance of California as a slave state.
C) failure of the two major parties to take a stand against slavery.
D) collapse of the Whig Party.
E) adoption of the Bill of Rights.

Question 17

The 1857 Lecompton Constitution was a fraudulent document submitted by slavery advocates in

A) California.
B) Kansas.
C) Missouri.
D) Nebraska.
E) the Wyoming territory.

Question 18

Declaring that Congress lacked authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories, The Dred Scott decision meant that which previous Congressional action had been unconstitutional?

A) Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798
B) Civil Rights Act of 1866
C) Eleventh Amendment
D) Fugitive Slave Law of 1793
E) Missouri Compromise of 1820

Question 19

The legislature of South Carolina called a convention to consider secession in response to the

A) admission of California as a free state.
B) the Dred Scott decision.
C) election of Republican Abraham Lincoln.
D) election of Stephen Douglas as the Illinois senator.
E) Missouri Compromise.

Question 20

The border states were those

A) slave states that remained loyal to the Union.
B) free states that joined the Confederacy.
C) states divided between the Union and Confederacy.
D) states along the border of Canada and the United States.
E) states along the border of Mexico and the United States.

Question 21

Why did Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation despite his initial position that the president did not have that authority?

A) Congress demanded it.
B) Ending slavery was his central campaign promise.
C) He believed it was his moral obligation.
D) It was a military decision designed to weaken the enemy.
E) The Supreme Court granted him an allowance to overstep the bounds of his office in this extreme case.

Question 22

The state of West Virginia was created from

A) land ceded by the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg.
B) land purchased from Britain.
C) Indian territories just to the west of Virginia.
D) counties in western Virginia that had seceded.
E) counties in western Virginia that had remained loyal to the Union.

Question 23

How did the Emancipation Proclamation differ from the Thirteenth Amendment?

A) The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by the Confederate government, whereas the Thirteenth Amendment was issued by the Union.
B) The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to the border states, whereas the Thirteenth Amendment applied to the whole Union.
C) The Thirteenth Amendment only applied to the border states, whereas the Emancipation Proclamation made slavery illegal throughout the United States.
D) The Emancipation Proclamation freed only slaves behind Confederate lines, whereas the Thirteenth Amendment made slavery illegal throughout the United States.
E) The Emancipation Proclamation referred to future states only, whereas the Thirteenth Amendment referred to all states.

Question 24

One example of the federal government's effort to promote the welfare and secure the rights of the newly freed slaves was the

A) advent of Jim Crow laws.
B) creation of the Freedmen's Bureau.
C) introduction of literacy tests at the polls.
D) the passage of the Black Codes.
E) use of grandfather clauses.

Question 25

Intended to counteract the Black Codes, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 also had the effect of

A) alienating northern Republicans.
B) cementing the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
C) overturning the Dred Scott decision.
D) repairing relations between the North and South.
E) repealing the Missouri Compromise.

Question 26

The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868 strengthened federal control over the South by

A) establishing employment offices to guarantee jobs for newly freed blacks over the age of 21.
B) forcing state legislatures to repeal the Black Codes by withholding federal funds.
C) instituting martial law throughout the country for a period of five years.
D) placing ten former Confederate states under military control.
E) regulating the internal commerce of southern states.

Question 27

Concern over the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 led to the

A) impeachment of President Johnson.
B) Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868.
C) passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.
D) establishment of the Ku Klux Klan.
E) Dred Scott decision.

Question 28

The Fifteenth Amendment provided that

A) the Confederate states were to be placed under martial law.
B) representation in the House of Representatives would be reduced in proportion to the number of male citizens that were denied the right to vote.
C) slavery was illegal throughout the United States.
D) the freed slaves were citizens of the United States and of the state in which they resided.
E) no one could be denied the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Question 29

The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1866 suspended

A) habeas corpus.
B) large gatherings after dark.
C) martial law.
D) segregation.
E) state legislative sessions.

Question 30

President Rutherford B. Hayes' order to withdraw federal troops from the South marked the end of

A) Reconstruction.
B) segregation.
C) slavery.
D) the Black Codes.
E) the Ku Klux Klan.

Question 31

Why did President Hayes order troops to withdraw from Southern states?

A) Hayes did not believe military action could ever be successful.
B) He feared that the continued presence of federal troops would spur the South to try to secede again.
C) Hayes was from the South and had sympathized with the Confederate cause.
D) It was a promise he made to southern Democrats to gain their acceptance after the disputed election of 1876.
E) Southern congressmen pressured him to withdraw the troops with threats of raising their own armies.

Question 32

Jim Crow laws mandated

A) desegregation of public schools.
B) equal voting rights.
C) segregation of the races in most social relations.
D) the administration of literacy tests at polls.
E) the end of Reconstruction.

Question 33

Many Supreme Court cases during the Reconstruction era worked to

A) bolster the influence of the Fourteenth Amendment.
B) deny states the power to marginalize black voters.
C) increase federal power over the states.
D) limit federal power to combat discrimination.
E) solidify the dominance of the northern states.

Question 34

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) marked the beginning of

A) grandfather clauses.
B) Jim Crow laws.
C) martial law in the South.
D) Black Codes.
E) the separate but equal doctrine.

Question 35

Who was the founding president of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute?

A) Booker T. Washington
B) Frederick Douglass
C) Stephen Douglas
D) W.E.B. Du Bois
E) William Lloyd Garrison

Question 36

Who helped to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People?

A) Booker T. Washington
B) Frederick Douglass
C) Stephen Douglas
D) W.E.B. Du Bois
E) William Lloyd Garrison

Question 37

Why did many blacks switch their allegiance to the Democratic Party in the 1930s?

A) Many Republican congressmen had joined the Ku Klux Klan.
B) Roosevelt promised desegregation during his campaign for the presidency.
C) Roosevelt's New Deal program offered the prospect of jobs during an especially difficult time.
D) The previous Republican administration had segregated the departments of the Treasury and Post Office.
E) The Republican Party renounced the fight for desegregation.

Question 38

Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Fair Employment Practices Committee in response to

A) Brown v. Board of Education.
B) Plessy v. Ferguson.
C) pressure from newly elected black congressmen.
D) the Southern Manifesto.
E) the threat of a massive march on Washington, D.C.

Question 39

What prompted some Southern delegates to form the States Rights Party?

A) Brown v. Board of Education
B) The adoption of a strong civil rights plank in the Democratic Party
C) The desegregation of the military
D) The formation of the Fair Employment Practices Committee
E) The Southern Manifesto

Question 40

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) led to the

A) desegregation of public schools.
B) desegregation of the military.
C) Fifteenth Amendment.
D) segregation of many federal departments.
E) separate but equal doctrine.

Question 41

What 1955 event launched the modern civil rights movement?

A) Brown v. Board of Education
B) The formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
C) The integration of a high school in Little Rock
D) The Montgomery bus boycott
E) the Southern Manifesto

Question 42

Marches, demonstrations, boycotts, and sit-ins are examples of what techniques commonly used by followers of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

A) Civil disobedience
B) Negotiation
C) Nonviolent direct action
D) Pacifism
E) Torture

Question 43

Which of the following is an example of civil disobedience?

A) Holding public debates to address concerns about federal policies
B) Participating in peaceful marches to demonstrate for a cause
C) Placing newspaper ads to voice a political opinion
D) Refusing to pay taxes as a protest against a war
E) Writing letters to congressmen to advocate civil rights acts

Question 44

A government ensures that people of all races and ethnic groups have the same level and quality of education. This is an example of

A) affirmative action.
B) equality of results.
C) equality of opportunity.
D) desegregation.
E) diversity rationale.

Question 45

School districts tried to comply with desegregation of public schools by

A) busing students throughout the district.
B) encouraging white students to attend private schools.
C) placing the districts under federal control.
D) refusing to accept new students if it would disturb the racial balance of the school.
E) shutting down schools with large minority populations.

Question 46

In Miliken v. Bradley the Supreme Court ruled that courts could not order interdistrict busing because

A) the government did not have the constitutional power to interfere with matters of education.
B) there was no de facto segregation.
C) the citizens in the districts had voted against it.
D) the school districts had not been created with the intention to promote or maintain segregation.
E) Congress enacted legislation banning busing.

Question 47

What was the result of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

A) A decrease in the number of white voters in the South
B) A large increase in black voter registration in the South
C) An increase in white elected officials
D) Increased violence during campaign seasons
E) Less federal control over the voting process

Question 48

Majority-minority districts are those in which

A) a racial minority represents a majority of voters.
B) a minority of the majority actually votes.
C) the majority elects a racial minority into office.
D) the majority of a racial minority is eligible to vote.
E) the majority oppresses a racial minority.

Question 49

In Shaw v. Reno, the majority held that

A) no district should be a majority-minority district.
B) districts should be as regularly shaped as possible.
C) race should not be a factor when drawing district lines.
D) race should be the predominant factor when drawing district lines.
E) race could be considered when drawing district lines, but could not be the major factor.

Question 50

University policies that favor students of a minority for admittance in order to maintain a particular racial balance is an example of

A) a majority-minority.
B) affirmative action.
C) busing.
D) de facto segregation.
E) segregation.

Question 51

The argument that diversity in schools and the workplace is a worthy goal and should be promoted by government is called

A) segregation.
B) strict scrutiny.
C) diversity rationale.
D) de jure diversity.
E) minority-majority rationale.

Question 52

In the early years of American history, married women did not have the right to

A) trial by jury.
B) ex post facto laws.
C) habeas corpus.
D) own property.
E) the freedom of speech.

Question 53

Women were granted many of the property rights of men when states began passing

A) the Constitution of 1787.
B) Married Women's Property Acts.
C) Seneca Falls Convention Acts.
D) the Property Acts of 1824.
E) women's suffrage.

Question 54

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began the women's movement for full political equality at the

A) Constitutional Convention of 1787.
B) inauguration of Thomas Jefferson.
C) Seneca Falls Convention.
D) steps of Congress.
E) White House door.

Question 55

Why did some women's rights leaders oppose the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment?

A) It did not go far enough in extending rights of citizenship to blacks.
B) It presumed universal male suffrage, introducing the word "male" into the Constitution.
C) It was not written by women.
D) They did not want blacks to gain voting rights before women.
E) They sought more than just voting rights.

Question 56

In Minor v. Happersett, the Supreme Court ruled that women did not have the right to vote because

A) they were not citizens.
B) they could not own property.
C) citizenship did not confer the right to vote.
D) literacy tests were not designed to be administered to women.
E) women could not pay the poll taxes.

Question 57

Why did some women's advocates not embrace the Equal Rights Amendment as drafted by Alice Paul?

A) They felt it did not reach far enough.
B) They feared it would invalidate protective employment legislation.
C) Many states threatened to withdraw from the Union if it were passed.
D) They feared it would be overturned by the Supreme Court.
E) Congress refused to pass further reforms.

Question 58

During which war did the male-only military begin to change?

A) Revolutionary War
B) Mexican-American War
C) Civil War
D) World War II
E) Vietnam War

Question 59

Rostker v. Goldberg challenged the Military Selective Service Act because it

A) was required only for men.
B) prevented women from joining the military.
C) provided lower pay for women in the military.
D) did not comply with the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
E) gave higher priority to men for military promotions.

Question 60

In the majority of alleged discrimination complaints against the elderly and disabled, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finds that

A) employers voluntarily end the discriminatory practice.
B) local law enforcement has already been informed.
C) the charge is withdrawn.
D) the employer provides a monetary compensation.
E) there is no discrimination.

Question 61

Gays and lesbians have had the most success for their civil rights cause in

A) Congressional acts.
B) the Supreme Court.
C) the state governments.
D) the Midwestern states.
E) Australia.

Question 62

Hawaii was the first state to

A) allow civil unions.
B) allow same-sex marriages.
C) approve a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.
D) recognize same-sex marriages from other states.
E) strike down a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Question 63

The _________ clause raises the question of whether or not states have to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

A) commerce
B) implied powers
C) necessary and proper
D) the full faith and credit
E) the supremacy

Question 64

Vermont became the first state to allow civil unions of same-sex couples, which allowed them

A) all the legal rights and benefits of marriage.
B) legal standing as married couples in other states.
C) the right to marry.
D) to apply for federal compensation for past discrimination.
E) to sue other states for similar standing.

Question 65

The outbreak of the Civil War showed that

A) Americans have consistently been more interested in the common good and moral principles than in their own economic gain.
B) opposing interests can always be reconciled through deliberation.
C) slavery died out on its own, just as the founders had expected it would.
D) slavery was not economically profitable.
E) divisions over slavery were too deep to be resolved by "the mild voice of reason."

Question 66

A study of the civil rights struggle in American history suggests that

A) Congress will not be successful in writing civil rights laws because the courts will continually overturn them.
B) deliberation is not a successful means to achieving rights for minorities.
C) there is little work left to do, especially in the areas of school desegregation, voting rights, and affirmative action.
D) there is still much deliberation to be done on the future of civil rights policies.
E) we have successfully achieved equality for all people.

Question 67

Describe the three distinct stages of the struggle for black Americans to achieve legal equality with whites.

Question 68

What were the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and what distinctions did they draw between the two men?

Question 69

Describe setbacks and obstacles to the progress of civil rights. How did the Supreme Court, Congress, and public opinion occasionally reverse progress toward equality?

Question 70

How did events of the twentieth century lead to the end of legal segregation and discrimination?

Question 71

How does the issue of busing within school districts demonstrate the controversy over the equal protection clause?

Question 72

How has the Supreme Court interpreted the Voting Rights Act of 1965? What issues arise in securing equal voting rights? How have the Voting Rights Act and Supreme Court rulings affected the drawing of districts?

Question 73

What is the argument of affirmative action advocates that such policies do not violate the Civil Rights Act? How do its opponents respond? What has the Supreme Court's response been?

Question 74

Why did some women's rights leaders oppose the Equal Rights Amendment?

Question 75

How does modern civil rights law affect minorities such as the elderly, the disabled, and gays and lesbians?

Question 76

What roles have the courts, elected officials, and public opinion played in civil rights debates? How have various civil rights struggles reflected both the success and failure of deliberation in American democracy?