Deck 5: Civil Rights

Question 1

What did the U.S. Supreme Court do in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)?

A) It ruled that African Americans are not persons for the purposes of the Constitution.
B) It tried to stop the development of legal racial segregation known as Jim Crow laws.
C) It stated that schools may not practice any type of racial segregation.
D) It agreed that separation of races is not a violation of the Constitution.
E) It ruled that the practice of slavery must cease before the end of the century.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Where can the provision which states that all persons born in the United States are citizens be found?

A) In the Thirteenth Amendment
B) In the Fourteenth Amendment
C) In the Fifteenth Amendment
D) In the Nineteenth Amendment
E) In the Declaration of Independence

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What are Jim Crow laws?

A) Laws that established slavery and contract law regulating the slave trade
B) Laws that justified slavery and set specific codes for the behavior of slaves
C) Laws that the North enforced in the South during the Reconstruction era
D) Laws that were enacted by southern whites in the late nineteenth century to establish segregation policies
E) Laws that sought to end segregation by bringing the races into closer contact with one another

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following terms refers specifically to the rights of all Americans to equal treatment under the law?

A) Civil liberties
B) Civil rights
C) Common law rights
D) Inalienable rights
E) Natural rights

Question 5

What is the expectation that citizens may not be discriminated against on account of race, gender, or national background and should have an equal chance to succeed in life called?

A) Equality of opportunity
B) Equality of chance
C) Equality of outcome
D) Equality of circumstance
E) Equality of government

Question 6

Which of the following did the Fifteenth Amendment do?

A) Outlaw slavery
B) Provide equal protection under the law
C) Give 18-year-olds the right to vote
D) State that the right to vote shall not be abridged on account of race
E) Give women the right to vote

Question 7

In 1863, during the Civil War, what did President Abraham Lincoln do to make slavery illegal?

A) Signed the Missouri Compromise
B) Issued the Emancipation Proclamation
C) Vetoed the Kansas-Nebraska Act
D) Passed the Eleventh Amendment
E) Declared martial law

Question 8

Which of the following prohibited slavery in the United States?

A) Article V
B) Article IV
C) The Fifteenth Amendment
D) The Tenth Amendment
E) The Thirteenth Amendment

Question 9

The separate-but-equal doctrine contends that separate-but-equal facilities do not violate which of the following?

A) The equal protection clause
B) The principle of reverse discrimination
C) The strict scrutiny standard
D) The idea of affirmative action
E) The due process of law restriction

Question 10

Which amendment forbade the states from denying any person "equal protection under the law"?

A) Tenth
B) Twelfth
C) Thirteenth
D) Fourteenth
E) Fifteenth

Question 11

What kinds of laws were used by southern states to enforce segregation of whites and blacks in all public places?

A) Grandfather
B) Suffrage
C) Misogynist
D) Sedition
E) Jim Crow

Question 12

In what year did women get the right to vote nationally?

A) 1897
B) 1911
C) 1920
D) 1967
E) 1973

Question 13

The extent to which all groups of citizens, regardless of race, gender, or nationality, are proportionally represented in measures of success in life represents which of the following?

A) Equality of opportunity
B) Equality of chance
C) Equality of government
D) Equality of outcome
E) Equality of existence

Question 14

Which of the following best describes the concept of civil rights?

A) Rights generally accorded all citizens
B) Political rights of speech and assembly
C) Rights extended to citizens from legislative action
D) Guarantees of life, liberty, and property granted to all citizens
E) Powers and privileges guaranteed to individuals and protected by the government to ensure equal protection and freedom from discrimination

Question 15

Businesses refusing to serve or hire people on the basis of their race, sex, sexual orientation, or national orientation is an example of which of the following?

A) Freedom of choice
B) Private discrimination
C) Legal discrimination
D) Public discrimination
E) Private choice

Question 16

Which statement regarding the Civil War Amendments is correct?

A) The Thirteenth Amendment established the income tax.
B) The Fourteenth Amendment ended slavery.
C) The Fourteenth Amendment asserted that no state shall deny a person due process of law.
D) The Fifteenth Amendment asserted that no state shall deny a citizen equal protection under the law.
E) The Thirteenth Amendment allowed African Americans to vote.

Question 17

What is the period after the Civil War where former Confederate states gained readmission to the Union and the federal government passed laws to help emancipated slaves known as?

A) Dual federalism
B) The Civil Rights era
C) The Era of Good Feelings
D) Reconstruction
E) The Progressive era

Question 18

What did the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolish?

A) Slavery
B) Segregation laws which had come before it
C) Restrictions on due process
D) Slavery in new states or territories
E) Restrictions on the right to vote

Question 19

Which of the following is true regarding the civil rights legislation that was passed by Congress after the Civil War?

A) Much of it was very ineffective and parts were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
B) It played a major role in creating equality for African Americans.
C) It was accepted by the American public.
D) It prevented African Americans from being extended equal public accommodations.
E) All of these are correct.

Question 20

If a state denied a specific group, such as citizens of mixed race, the right to vote, this would be an example of which of the following?

A) Private discrimination
B) Social choice
C) Public discrimination
D) Strict scrutiny
E) Private choice

Question 21

What did the white primary in southern states allow?

A) All races to participate in elections on an equal basis
B) Whites to exclude African Americans from voting in Democratic Party primaries
C) Voters to select ballots for each party based on different skin colors
D) African Americans the opportunity to vote for the first time
E) Whites to exclude African Americans from voting in the general elections

Question 22

The verdict of Plessy v. Ferguson directly resulted in which of the following?

A) The integration of public schools in the South
B) The development of a system of legalized racial segregation
C) The end of racial segregation
D) A constitutional amendment granting Congress more power to deal authoritatively with racial problems
E) A complex system of busing to alleviate the effects of past racism

Question 23

What were the tests commonly administered as a precondition for voting called?

A) Poll tests
B) Constitutional exams
C) Literacy tests
D) Primary tests
E) Registration tests

Question 24

By August 1920, with effective lobbying by suffragist groups, three-quarters of the states ratified which amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote in the November 1920 presidential election?

A) Thirteenth
B) Fourteenth
C) Fifteenth
D) Nineteenth
E) Twenty-First

Question 25

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court hold that segregation alone did not violate the Constitution?

A) Bakke v. California
B) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
C) Lawrence v. Texas
D) Plessy v. Ferguson
E) Scott v. Sandford

Question 26

What was the main reason the Brown family brought a lawsuit against the Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas?

A) Linda Brown was not allowed to get a drink of water out of the only drinking fountain at the school because she was not white.
B) Linda Brown allowed a black student to sit next to her in the school lunchroom.
C) Linda Brown boarded a bus that was for black students only.
D) Linda Brown was not allowed to ride the same bus as the white children even though they all went to the same school.
E) Linda Brown was refused admittance to a white-only school because she was black.

Question 27

In 1896, what did the Supreme Court rule in Plessy v. Ferguson?

A) African Americans, for purposes of the Constitution, are not persons.
B) Former slaves were not to be considered property.
C) Separation of races does not violate the Constitution.
D) Schools may not practice any type of racial segregation.
E) The practice of slavery must cease before 1900.

Question 28

As an African American living in the United States in 1857, which of the following is true based on the Court's ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford?

A) You are not a citizen.
B) You are free.
C) You are not property.
D) You are not manumitted.
E) You are entitled to due process.

Question 29

The fact that President Roosevelt ordered the placement of Japanese Americans in relocation camps (and the order was upheld in Korematsu v. United States), yet German Americans were not rounded up (despite pro-Nazi groups), suggests which of the following?

A) Japanese Americans were more numerous than German Americans.
B) German Americans were more numerous than Japanese Americans.
C) Racial animosity was more important than security concerns.
D) Geographic distribution of these groups made it easier to locate Japanese Americans.
E) Japanese Americans were a greater security threat, while German Americans were only an economic threat.

Question 30

What was the goal of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention?

A) Promote issues based on the notion that men and women are created equal
B) Debate the possibility of seceding from the United States to restrictions on slave trade
C) Create a women's manifesto discussing temperance, abolition, and suffrage
D) Discuss strategies for the abolition of slavery
E) Plan strategies that would advance rights for homosexual individuals and same-sex couples

Question 31

Which clause of the Fourteenth Amendment has been used to launch progress in civil rights?

A) Affirmative action
B) Equal protection
C) Exclusionary rule
D) Supremacy
E) Separation

Question 32

What is the fastest growing and largest ethnic group in the United States today?

A) Middle Easterners
B) African Americans
C) Latinos
D) Eastern Europeans
E) East Asians

Question 33

What was the grandfather clause used in southern states supposed to do?

A) Prevent African Americans from voting in primary elections, even though they had the right to vote
B) Guarantee the equal rights of senior citizens for employment
C) Deny African Americans the right to vote while protecting whites' right to vote
D) Deny the purchase of land by any person whose grandfather was not white
E) Distribute land to former slaves based on how many generations their family had served a slave owner

Question 34

Those advocating for women's suffrage, including Susan B. Anthony, were working primarily for what goal?

A) The prohibition of the sale and consumption of alcohol
B) Women's right to vote
C) The prohibition of so-called "marriage laws" giving husbands control over women's property
D) Women's right to free public education
E) The opportunity to work at male-dominated jobs

Question 35

The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, ratified in 1964, did which of the following?

A) Banned poll taxes in primary and general elections for national office
B) Empowered the attorney general to register potential voters
C) Gave women the right to vote
D) Banned racial discrimination in the rental and sale of most housing
E) Gave state courts the lawful refusal to follow a Supreme Court order

Question 36

Homer Plessy attempted to challenge Louisiana's racial segregation policies by doing which of the following?

A) Refusing to move from a "whites-only" Louisiana train car
B) Sitting in at a "whites-only" restaurant
C) Refusing to sit at the back of a New Orleans streetcar
D) Sitting on the ground floor of a public theater, instead of in the balcony
E) Sending his daughter for treatment to a superior "whites-only" hospital

Question 37

President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order in 1948 that ordered the dismantling of authorized racial segregation of the armed forces. What is this an example of?

A) The separate-but-equal doctrine
B) Gerrymandering
C) Racial profiling
D) Disenfranchisement
E) Desegregation

Question 38

What did the Nineteenth Amendment do?

A) End racial segregation in the United States
B) Abolish slavery
C) Eliminate racial restrictions on voting
D) Expand the right to vote to women
E) Set the minimum voting age to 18

Question 39

Which of the following is banned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

A) Only governmental acts of discrimination
B) Only discrimination by educational institutions
C) Private and governmental acts of discrimination
D) Only discrimination against women and African Americans
E) Only private discrimination

Question 40

What was the purpose of the poll tax used in many southern states?

A) To prevent northern immigrants from moving to the South and voting in local elections
B) To determine who was intelligent enough to vote
C) To dissuade African Americans and poor whites from voting
D) To force individuals to buy property in order to be eligible to vote
E) To raise funds for voter registration among the minority community

Question 41

Where did President Dwight Eisenhower send troops to ensure that black students could go to school?

A) Topeka, Kansas
B) Montgomery, Alabama
C) Little Rock, Arkansas
D) Greensboro, North Carolina
E) Dallas, Texas

Question 42

While the Brown ruling was historic, the ruling itself did little to desegregate schools due to its ambiguous command that schools should desegregate how?

A) With all deliberate speed
B) With all due process
C) With extreme prejudice
D) With all practical manner
E) With all good intent

Question 43

An individual who participates in freedom rides and sit-ins as a means to achieve racial justice is using what philosophy or approach to solving the problem?

A) Black power
B) Court actions
C) Integration
D) Civil disobedience
E) Legislative actions

Question 44

A university uses an admissions policy that gives special consideration to traditionally disadvantaged groups to overcome the present effects of past discrimination. The university is applying which of the following?

A) Affirmative action
B) Legislative mandate
C) Civil liberties
D) Strict scrutiny
E) White primaries

Question 45

In the late 1940s, if homeowners in a neighborhood agreed not to sell their houses to non-whites, this would have been permissible according to a 1948 Supreme Court ruling, unless it involved which of the following?

A) Significant state action
B) Significant private action
C) Significant forethought
D) Significant discrete action
E) Significant malice

Question 46

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous speech telling the world "I have a dream" during which of the following?

A) The signing ceremony of the Civil Rights Act
B) The March on Washington
C) The Woolworth lunch counter sit-in
D) The Montgomery bus boycott
E) The March on Selma

Question 47

The Court has created three standards of review to determine if a law is discriminatory. What is the toughest of these standards, requiring that a law be narrowly tailored, called?

A) Heightened scrutiny
B) Strict scrutiny
C) Elevated scrutiny
D) Rational basis
E) Normal basis

Question 48

The use of which of the following proved instrumental in bringing about the integration of lunch counters, buses, and trains?

A) Sit-ins
B) Roadblocks at night in rural areas
C) Court injunctions that prohibited interstate travel in areas threatened by violence
D) The threat of armed force
E) Public demonstrations featuring violence against whites

Question 49

The second wave, or modern women's movement, gained momentum in 1963 from which of the following?

A) The successful passage of the Equal Rights Amendment
B) The publication of The Feminine Mystique
C) The implementation of the Voting Rights Act
D) The appointment of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
E) The rescission of the combat exclusion for women

Question 50

Though the civil rights movement focused primarily on the rights of this group, it had what added effect?

A) African Americans; benefiting nearly all minority groups
B) Women; benefiting gay Americans as well
C) Latinos; benefiting African Americans
D) African Americans; strengthening the disenfranchisement of other racial minorities
E) Women; strengthening the disenfranchisement of gay Americans

Question 51

What did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. advocate as a means to achieve racial justice?

A) Violence
B) Nonviolent civil disobedience
C) Race riots
D) Enforcing segregation and creating superior public services for blacks
E) Black militancy

Question 52

If a state has a law that violates equal protection to some of its citizens, how can the Supreme Court extend protection to those citizens?

A) Through judicial review
B) By passing new laws
C) By amending the Constitution
D) Through strict scrutiny
E) By applying rational basis

Question 53

While the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was proposed in 1923, it did not get through Congress until what year?

A) 1925
B) 1945
C) 1953
D) 1972
E) 2012

Question 54

You work for an employer who applies affirmative action in its hiring practices. This means your company does which of the following?

A) Gives special preferences to disadvantaged groups
B) Sets strict quotas for the number of minorities it will hire
C) Guarantees that a woman must be hired for the next job opening
D) Disregards disadvantaged status, all other things being equal
E) Hires based on minority status, rather than qualifications

Question 55

As an immigrant to the United States, which of the following would be necessary to apply for U.S. citizenship?

A) Permanent legal residence for five years
B) Permanent legal residence for ten years
C) Demonstrated ability to hold job for minimum of five years
D) Conviction of no more than one felony
E) Registration with one of the major political parties

Question 56

In December 1955, who did police arrest for refusing to give her seat on a bus to a white person?

A) Alice Wallace
B) Judy Meredith
C) Linda Brown
D) Rosa Parks
E) Elizabeth Marshall

Question 57

Which of the following is accurate regarding the efforts to amend the Constitution to include an Equal Rights Amendment for women?

A) It has never made it through the congressional amendment proposal process.
B) It has passed through Congress, but failed ratification in the states.
C) It was proposed as a part of the Bill of Rights, but failed to be ratified.
D) It was ratified by the states in 1972, after passing through Congress.
E) It is largely seen as unnecessary, now that women's incomes are equal to those of men.

Question 58

If you feel that you are not receiving equal protection under the law, you might go to a civil rights organization for assistance. That organization will most likely turn to which element of the government for help in establishing legal equality?

A) The judiciary
B) Congress
C) The state legislature
D) The executive branch of the federal government
E) The executive branch of the state government

Question 59

What was the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)?

A) Ethnic minorities have no rights to equal treatment by the government.
B) Public school segregation of races violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
C) The national government does not have the power to force any type of action on local school boards.
D) Separation of races for a reason such as education is not a violation of the Constitution.
E) African Americans could not be denied the right to a college education.

Question 60

In a court case in which someone is making a general claim of discrimination, it is expected that the court will use the lowest level scrutiny, known as which of the following?

A) Strict scrutiny
B) Heightened scrutiny
C) Rational basis
D) State action
E) Legal basis

Question 61

In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed what act, which defines marriage, for the purpose of federal law, as between a man and a woman and declares that states do not have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states?

A) The Marriage Protection Act
B) The Civil Rights Act
C) The Defense of Marriage Act
D) The Full Faith and Credit Act
E) The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Act

Question 62

Which of the following was a major outcome of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

A) The elimination of discriminatory voter registration tests
B) The establishment of federal voter registrars
C) The establishment of federally administered voter registration procedures
D) Limitations on the abilities of counties in the South to change voter registration procedures without federal approval
E) All of these are correct.

Question 63

What did the Equal Pay Act of 1963 do?

A) Require employers to provide equal pay for substantially equal work
B) Require employers to re-grade the pay scales for comparable but different jobs held by women and men to make them more equitable
C) Require that employers promote more women into managerial positions
D) Allow for either men or women with the same job responsibilities to be paid more if they are the primary wage earner for their families
E) All of these are correct.

Question 64

In what case did the Court rule that the section of DOMA that limited spousal recognition under federal law to a man and a woman is unconstitutional?

A) United States v. Windsor
B) United States v. Spyer
C) United States v. Roth
D) United States v. Newby
E) United States v. Nixon

Question 65

If legislators want to create a law that will pass strict scrutiny, they must be certain that the law does which of the following?

A) Be justified by a compelling government interest
B) Be broadly tailored to meet multiple government interests
C) Be rationally related to a government interest
D) Be the most restrictive means to accomplish the goal
E) Be supported by a large majority of citizens

Question 66

Approximately how many unauthorized immigrants are living in the United States today?

A) 11 to 12 million
B) 100 to 110 million
C) 200 to 210 million
D) 1 to 2 million
E) 35 to 40 million

Question 67

In what case did the Supreme Court declare that states could not prohibit sexual activity between people of the same sex, reversing a 1986 decision that asserted homosexual activity was not a fundamental right?

A) Bakke v. California
B) Bowers v. Hardwick
C) Obergefell v. Hodges
D) Lawrence v. Texas
E) Shelley v. Kraemer

Question 68

Which of the following best describes the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell"?

A) It came into full enforcement in 2011.
B) It came as a result of a U.S. District Court ruling.
C) It came because of quick action by Congress after the 2008 election.
D) It came because of a change in public opinion on the issue.
E) It came into full enforcement in 2011 after a change in public opinion on the issue.

Question 69

Which of the following best describes the "don't ask, don't tell" policy requiring gay men and lesbians in the U.S. military to hide their sexual orientation?

A) It is still the policy of the U.S. Department of Defense.
B) It was first implemented during the Clinton administration.
C) It required that enlistees be questioned about their sexual orientation.
D) It did not end expulsion of gay and lesbian military personnel.
E) It was first implemented during the Clinton administration and did not end expulsion of gay and lesbian military personnel.

Question 70

Nationwide recognition of same-sex marriage was the result of which of the following?

A) A 2015 Supreme Court decision
B) A 2016 congressional law
C) A 2010 constitutional amendment
D) An international treaty on human rights
E) A 2015 executive order

Question 71

In the 2003 decision of Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court did which of the following?

A) Upheld an existing Texas law that made homosexual conduct a crime
B) Overturned laws against sexual activity between same-sex consenting adults in private
C) Invalidated anti-discrimination laws that protect homosexuals
D) Upheld the Court's previous decision regarding sexual activity between same-sex consenting adults
E) Indicated that states could declare homosexuality a crime

Question 72

When did the modern movement for LGBTQ rights begin?

A) When gay veterans of World War II organized in the 1950s
B) With the growth of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s
C) In 1969, following a riot that broke out when police raided the Stonewall Inn
D) In 1986, with a campaign against sodomy laws in the state of Texas
E) In 1996, with the campaign for same-sex marriage in the state of Hawaii

Question 73

In Obergefell v. Hodges, which amendment, with its equal protection clause, ultimately provided protection for same-sex marriages in every state?

A) Thirteenth Amendment
B) Fourteenth Amendment
C) Fifteenth Amendment
D) Sixteenth Amendment
E) Twenty-Fifth Amendment

Question 74

Federal law that did which of the following was struck down by the 2013 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor?

A) Prohibited gays and lesbians from serving in the armed forces
B) Denied federal benefits to same-sex couples
C) Protected gays and lesbians against employment discrimination
D) Allowed gays to take leadership roles in the Boy Scouts
E) Permitted housing discrimination against gays and lesbians

Question 75

Which of the following is true of the Defense of Marriage Act?

A) It was passed in response to a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
B) It was passed by Congress in 1996.
C) It required federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
D) It required state governments to accept same-sex marriages from other states.
E) It nullified any same-sex marriage performed in any state.

Question 76

The white primary was in effect until the Supreme Court ruled it a constitutional violation in what year?

A) 1865
B) 1897
C) 1921
D) 1944
E) 1979

Question 77

What act passed by Congress in 1963 prohibits employers from paying different wages for the same job on account of sex?

A) Equal Rights Amendment
B) Pay Equality Act
C) Equal Pay for Equal Work Act
D) Civil Rights Act
E) Equal Pay Act

Question 78

Which of the following statements regarding the population of unauthorized immigrants in the United States is true?

A) It is about 500,000 and increasing.
B) It is about 1 million and stable.
C) It is about 7 million and declining.
D) It is about 11 million and stable.
E) It is about 32 million and increasing.

Question 79

The riot at the Stonewall Inn that began the modern movement for equality for gay males and lesbians was sparked by what?

A) A raid by police on a bar popular with gay men and lesbians
B) Refusal of the bar to serve gay and lesbian patrons
C) Anti-gay protestors who showed up at the bar
D) An attempt by a gay couple to hold a marriage ceremony at the bar
E) Refusal of the bar to hire openly gay workers

Question 80

The Defense of Marriage Act was passed by Congress in response to which of the following?

A) A ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court that might have allowed same-sex couples to marry
B) The passage of Vermont's civil union law
C) The legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
D) A ruling by the Supreme Court striking down anti-sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas
E) The establishment of civil unions in Minnesota