Study Questions
1. In what ways were African Americans discriminated against in the 1940s and 1950s?
2. Why did blacks decide to boycott buses in Montgomery? What tactics were used in Montgomery that were significant for the later civil rights movement? What role did Rosa Parks play?
3. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most articulate spokesman for the civil rights movement. Explain the significance of these King statements: (a) “Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music”; (b) blacks “live within two concentric circles of segregation”; (c) “God’s companionship does not stop at the door of a jail cell”; (d) “Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor”; (e) “We find it difficult to wait”; and (f) “One day the South will recognize its real heroes.”
4. Why was Birmingham chosen as a target for civil rights action, and why was victory there so important to Martin Luther King Jr.?
5. In what ways did segregationists try to resist the civil rights movement? How did their resistance affect the movement?
6. Why did John F. Kennedy decide to take a stand for civil rights legislation?
7. In what ways did the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s improve conditions for blacks? In what respects were blacks still disadvantaged in relationship to other Americans?
8. Why did so many African Americans abandon King’s ideals of nonviolence and racial harmony after 1965?
1. In what ways were African Americans discriminated against in the 1940s and 1950s?
2. Why did blacks decide to boycott buses in Montgomery? What tactics were used in Montgomery that were significant for the later civil rights movement? What role did Rosa Parks play?
3. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most articulate spokesman for the civil rights movement. Explain the significance of these King statements: (a) “Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music”; (b) blacks “live within two concentric circles of segregation”; (c) “God’s companionship does not stop at the door of a jail cell”; (d) “Freedom is never given voluntarily by the oppressor”; (e) “We find it difficult to wait”; and (f) “One day the South will recognize its real heroes.”
4. Why was Birmingham chosen as a target for civil rights action, and why was victory there so important to Martin Luther King Jr.?
5. In what ways did segregationists try to resist the civil rights movement? How did their resistance affect the movement?
6. Why did John F. Kennedy decide to take a stand for civil rights legislation?
7. In what ways did the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s improve conditions for blacks? In what respects were blacks still disadvantaged in relationship to other Americans?
8. Why did so many African Americans abandon King’s ideals of nonviolence and racial harmony after 1965?
