Deck 5: Civil Rights

Question 1

When one person has opportunities, such as receiving a job referral from a well-connected family member or inheritance money with which to start a business, while another does not, a __________ exists between those two people.

A) de facto segregation
B) equity
C) disparity
D) discrimination

Answer 1

disparity

Question 2

Which of the following describes equality of condition?

A) A conception of equality that values equal economic status as well as equal access to housing, health care, education, and government services.
B) A conception of equality that seeks to provide all citizens with opportunities to participate in the economic system and public life.
C) Equality of opportunity is more important than equality of results.
D) It exists when public policies and legal protections provide equal opportunity, fair and open political participation, and equal treatment under the law.

Answer 2

A conception of equality that values equal economic status as well as equal access to housing, health care, education, and government services.

Question 3

Which of the following situations would be an example of equality of condition?

A) laws mandating election jurisdictions with a large bilingual community must provide bilingual ballots
B) colleges that spend an equal amount on men's and women's sports programs
C) government-financed opportunities for students to attend universities
D) employers who use affirmative action in determining promotions

Answer 3

government-financed opportunities for students to attend universities

Question 4

Which of the following policies would most likely be adopted in a country favoring equality of condition over equality of opportunity?

A) a free enterprise economic system
B) magnet schools
C) minimal business regulations
D) universal health care

Question 5

Which of the following accurately describes political equality?

A) A conception of equality that values equal economic status as well as equal access to housing, health care, education, and government services.
B) A conception of equality that seeks to provide all citizens with opportunities to participate in the economic system and public life.
C) It means all citizens have opportunities to vote, run for office, own property, and enjoy civil liberties protections.
D) It exists when public policies and legal protections provide equal opportunity, fair and open political participation, and equal treatment under the law.

Question 6

Which of the following accurately describes equality of opportunity?

A) A conception of equality that values equal economic status as well as equal access to housing, health care, education, and government services.
B) A conception of equality that seeks to provide all citizens with formally equivalent opportunities to participate in the economic system and public life.
C) It means all citizens have opportunities to vote, run for office, own property, and enjoy civil liberties protections.
D) Equality of opportunity is more important than equality of results.

Question 7

To what extent were the civil rights of African Americans protected after the Civil War?

A) Attempts to protect the civil rights of African Americans after the Civil War were largely unsuccessful for decades.
B) No attempts were made to protect the civil rights of African Americans until Reconstruction ended.
C) The civil rights of southern African Americans were considerably greater than those of their northern counterparts.
D) It was two decades after the Civil War before African Americans had civil rights that were comparable to those of Whites.

Question 8

What was the basis for the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which upheld the constitutionality of a state law requiring segregated railroad facilities?

A) Former slaves are not entitled to full citizenship rights because they did not immigrate to the United States willingly.
B) The Constitution requires that states treat people equally, not that states must place different people together.
C) Railroad transportation involves interstate commerce, which is regulated by Congress; no provision in federal law prohibits segregation.
D) Each state has the right to interpret the Constitution as it sees fit, as long as the interpretation is "reasonable and without malice."

Question 9

What was the Supreme Court's rationale in Bradwell v. Illinois (1873) for upholding an Illinois statute that prohibited women from becoming licensed attorneys in that state?

A) Women are not rational and, therefore, are not fit for many public occupations.
B) The timid and delicate nature of women makes them unfit for many public occupations.
C) The nature of the attorney-client relationship would put women, who are less able than men to resist pressure, into a vulnerable position.
D) Women are too emotional to be fit for many public occupations.

Question 10

How might the Supreme Court decisions in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), involving segregated railroad facilities, and in Bradwell v. Illinois (1873), involving the admission of women to the law profession, be seen as similar in retrospect?

A) Both decisions might be viewed as fairly unimportant in the history of civil rights.
B) Both decisions might be viewed as positive turning points in the history of American jurisprudence.
C) Both decisions might be viewed as hindering the civil rights of racial or ethnic majorities.
D) Both decisions might be viewed as missed opportunities for the Supreme Court to protect civil rights.

Question 11

Brown v. Board of Education overturned __________.

A) Milliken v. Bradley
B) Bakke v. University of California Board of Regents
C) Plessy v. Ferguson
D) Romer v. Evans

Question 12

Jim Crow laws required __________ of African Americans and Whites.

A) equal protection
B) segregation
C) universal suffrage
D) de facto segregation

Question 13

Which Chief Justice led the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education and took a leading role in many other decisions expanding civil liberties and promoting civil rights?

A) Sandra Day O'Connor
B) Joseph P. Bradley
C) John Marshall Harlan
D) Earl Warren

Question 14

Which of the following accurately describes why, when the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed, the organization chose to use the court pathway instead of other pathways to advance its goals?

A) Lack of responsiveness from elected officials and clear evidence of racial discrimination led the organization to use the pathway of action that was open to it.
B) Hostility toward African Americans had subsided, so the organization saw the opportunity to move forward in the courts with greater acceptance on the part of both judges and the public.
C) Most law schools had opened admissions to African Americans, so with the growing number of Black lawyers, the court pathway seemed to be a natural course.
D) The separate-but-equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson had been overturned, which allowed for the entry of African Americans into the political and legal arenas.

Question 15

Which of the following would constitute an affirmative action policy designed to help the members of a particular group overcome discrimination?

A) a hiring policy that favors those with relatives working in government
B) a college admissions policy that gives preferential treatment to members of the group
C) a color-blind job application process to give members of this group an equal chance
D) a policy that gives extra weight to votes cast by members of the group

Question 16

Which of the following laws would be the most likely to draw strict scrutiny from the Supreme Court when determining its constitutionality?

A) Male and female student athletes cannot compete on the same basketball team at the university level.
B) Businesses cannot discriminate against gays and lesbians in hiring and promotion decisions.
C) Those without a college degree are not eligible for upper-level civil service jobs.
D) Government contracts must be awarded to a contractor who is a racial minority whenever at least 10 percent of the bidders are minority-owned businesses.

Question 17

What was the status of affirmative action in college admissions after the Supreme Court decisions in Bakke v. University of California Board of Regents (1978) and Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)?

A) Affirmative action policies that consider race a plus factor (among other things) are permissible, as the advancement of diversity is a compelling government interest.
B) Affirmative action policies are assumed to be unconstitutional unless the university can demonstrate the need to promote racial tolerance.
C) Affirmative action policies must ensure that all racial and ethnic groups are represented in accordance with the population of the nation as a whole.
D) All forms of affirmative action are unconstitutional because they unfairly favor some people over others based on the color of their skin.

Question 18

How do the rational basis test and the intermediate scrutiny test differ?

A) The rational basis standard applies only to racial classifications; the intermediate standard applies to gender and sexual orientation classifications.
B) The intermediate standard of review is applied to a broader array of classifications than the rational basis standard.
C) It is easier for the government to demonstrate a rational basis for a law than to meet the requirements of the intermediate standard.
D) Those who dislike a law will have an easier time getting it overturned if the Supreme Court applies the intermediate standard instead of the rational basis test.

Question 19

Which of the following characteristics of an affirmative action program for public university admissions would pass constitutional muster?

A) award specific points for being a minority
B) follow quotas based on the general population of the state
C) put primary focus on race and income in making decisions
D) look at race along with other variables in a holistic fashion

Question 20

Which of the following helped to mobilize Americans in the 1950s to fight discrimination against African Americans?

A) the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
B) Emmett Till's murder
C) César Chávez's hunger strike
D) passage of the DREAM Act

Question 21

Which of the following had the greatest impact on public sentiment about racial discrimination, facilitating the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

A) the Voting Rights Act
B) the Equal Rights Amendment
C) the "I Have a Dream" Speech
D) the formation of the NAACP

Question 22

Why did Congress pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

A) to facilitate the prosecution of those who had restricted the voting rights of African Americans
B) because it was clear that some states had no intention of living up to the spirit of the Fifteenth Amendment
C) because Congress was afraid Martin Luther King Jr. would lead a boycott of White businesses if the legislation was not passed
D) to prevent the race riots from spreading from African American neighborhoods into traditionally White neighborhoods

Question 23

The __________ was created in 1964 to investigate complaints about illegal employment discrimination.

A) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
B) Civil Rights Commission
C) Warren Commission
D) Hayes Commission

Question 24

Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat on a public bus was an act of __________ that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

A) supporting Jim Crow laws
B) civil rights violation
C) individual boycott
D) nonviolent protest

Question 25

In 1964, Congress passed the __________ to help keep the promise of the Fourteenth Amendment.

A) Equal Protection Act
B) Affirmative Action
C) Civil Rights Act
D) Voting Rights Act

Question 26

Activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony pressed for which of the following?

A) the prohibition of alcohol
B) women's rights
C) rights for former slaves
D) ending the Civil War

Question 27

Women were guaranteed the right to vote by __________.

A) Minor v. Virginia
B) the Nineteenth Amendment
C) the 1965 Voting Rights Act
D) the Fifteenth Amendment

Question 28

What pathway did César Chávez rely on most heavily in his quest for Latino civil rights?

A) litigation
B) grassroots mobilization
C) elections
D) party formation

Question 29

Which of the following statements is an accurate description of the universal suffrage movement?

A) It began shortly after the Civil War when President Andrew Johnson permitted Whites to determine how the South would reconstruct itself, and in response southern governments created laws to maintain White power, including laws to keep Blacks from voting.
B) It began in the 1950s with grassroots mobilization involving powerful speeches, nonviolent methods of protest, and boycotts to draw attention to the lack of civil rights among people due to the lack of universal suffrage.
C) Beginning in the early twentieth century, groups like the NAACP began advocating universal suffrage through litigation in the courts.
D) Beginning in the nineteenth century, activists lobbied legislators, gave public speeches, organized protest marches and demonstrations, endured arrest and jail, and went on hunger strikes to draw attention to the need for it.

Question 30

__________ founded the National Farm Workers Association, led protest marches, organized a national boycott of grapes, and went on hunger strikes to try to improve the pay and working conditions of farm workers.

A) Malcom X
B) César Chávez
C) Harvey Milk
D) Sandra Day O'Conner

Question 31

Critics argue that the Supreme Court's decision in Arizona v. United States did not go far enough to stop infringement on the civil rights of __________.

A) all minority groups
B) African Americans
C) women
D) Latinos

Question 32

Which of the following is an example of the type of discrimination based on discretionary decisions that is difficult to prove?

A) The majority of upper-level managers at a corporation are White males.
B) A college uses quotas in an affirmative action program to increase diversity.
C) An employee handbook states that women cannot hold jobs in the company that involve lifting more than 50 pounds.
D) A police department's policy states that pregnant officers must be confined to a desk, rather than serving in the field.

Question 33

What was the constitutional basis for the Supreme Court's decision in Romer v. Evans (1996)?

A) The equal protection clause prohibits states from preventing gays and lesbians from seeking special protections available to other groups.
B) The Americans with Disabilities Act prevents discrimination in employment and public accommodation.
C) The due process clause indicates that rights are violated by separate-but-equal statutes.
D) The First Amendment demands universal suffrage.