The Civil Rights Movement Quiz

Question 1

Rosa Parks is famous for refusing to do what in 1955?

Accepted Answer

Give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger

Answer

Pay a poll tax

Answer

Eat at a segregated lunch counter

Answer

Attend a segregated school

Question 2

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech at which event?

Accepted Answer

The March on Washington

Answer

The March on Selma

Answer

The Memphis Sanitation Strike

Answer

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Question 3

What were 'Jim Crow laws'?

Accepted Answer

State and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern USA

Answer

Laws against public protest

Answer

Federal laws banning discrimination

Answer

Laws about voting rights

Question 4

The Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruled what?

Accepted Answer

Racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional

Answer

Segregated schools were legal if equal

Answer

Poll taxes were constitutional

Answer

Bus segregation was legal

Question 5

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed by which US president?

Accepted Answer

Lyndon B. Johnson

Answer

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Answer

John F. Kennedy

Answer

Richard Nixon

Question 6

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed following violence against marchers in which city?

Accepted Answer

Selma

Answer

Birmingham

Answer

Montgomery

Answer

Atlanta

Question 7

What was the 'sit-in' protest strategy used at lunch counters?

Accepted Answer

Occupying segregated lunch counters and refusing to leave when denied service

Answer

Sitting in front of segregated schools

Answer

Blocking segregated buses by sitting in the road

Answer

Sitting in front of polling stations

Question 8

Malcolm X advocated for civil rights through what approach that differed from Martin Luther King Jr.?

Accepted Answer

Black self-determination and self-defence, criticising integration

Answer

Integration through voting

Answer

Nonviolent protest and civil disobedience

Answer

Working within the Democratic Party

Question 9

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963 killed four young girls in which city?

Accepted Answer

Birmingham

Answer

Selma

Answer

Montgomery

Answer

Atlanta

Question 10

What was the NAACP?

Accepted Answer

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People

Answer

Negro American Association for Civil Progress

Answer

National Alliance Against Coloured Persecution

Answer

National Action Against Civil Prejudice

Question 11

Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who did what in 1961?

Accepted Answer

Rode interstate buses into the South to challenge segregation

Answer

Marched from Selma to Montgomery

Answer

Registered Black voters in Mississippi

Answer

Sat in at segregated lunch counters

Question 12

On what date was Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated?

Accepted Answer

April 4, 1968

Answer

February 21, 1965

Answer

June 5, 1968

Answer

November 22, 1963

Question 13

What did Thurgood Marshall do before becoming the first Black Supreme Court Justice?

Accepted Answer

Successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education for the NAACP

Answer

Led the March on Washington

Answer

Founded the NAACP

Answer

Was Martin Luther King's legal adviser

Question 14

The 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' was written by whom?

Accepted Answer

Martin Luther King Jr.

Answer

Malcolm X

Answer

John Lewis

Answer

Fred Shuttlesworth

Question 15

The Black Power movement is associated with which raised gesture at the 1968 Olympics?

Accepted Answer

Two athletes raising their right fist and left fist respectively in a black glove

Answer

Two athletes raising crossed fists

Answer

An athlete kneeling on the podium

Answer

Athletes refusing to collect their medals

Question 16

The phrase 'We Shall Overcome' became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. It was adapted from what?

Accepted Answer

A gospel and labour union song

Answer

A speech by Frederick Douglass

Answer

A poem by Langston Hughes

Answer

A speech at the March on Washington

Question 17

Which constitutional amendment (1964) abolished poll taxes in federal elections?

Accepted Answer

24th Amendment

Answer

13th Amendment

Answer

14th Amendment

Answer

15th Amendment

Question 18

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr. in which year?

Accepted Answer

1957

Answer

1954

Answer

1960

Answer

1963

Question 19

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black teenager murdered in 1955 in Mississippi. Why was his open-casket funeral significant?

Accepted Answer

His mother insisted on an open casket to show the world what racists had done to her son

Answer

It drew thousands of marchers

Answer

It was attended by President Eisenhower

Answer

It was the first civil rights event broadcast on national television

Question 20

John Lewis, who marched with King and was beaten on Bloody Sunday, later served for decades as what?

Accepted Answer

A Member of the US House of Representatives from Georgia

Answer

A Supreme Court Justice

Answer

A Senator

Answer

US Secretary of State