Notes
The civil rights movement
- Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ended legal school segregation. The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) began with Rosa Parks and made Martin Luther King Jr. a national leader.
- Students led sit-ins (Greensboro, 1960) and founded SNCC; Freedom Riders challenged segregated buses. Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer organized grassroots movements; Hamer helped lead the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
- The March on Washington (1963) and the Selma marches (1965) helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Black Power and other approaches
- Malcolm X emphasized self-defense and Black pride; he later moved toward broader human rights after his pilgrimage to Mecca.
- Black Power (Stokely Carmichael) called for self-determination. The Black Panther Party started community programs like free breakfasts and also faced violent government repression.
- The Black Arts Movement and the "Black is beautiful" message.
- Black feminism: the Combahee River Collective (1977) and later the concept of intersectionality (Kimberlé Crenshaw), examining how race, gender and class overlap.
Debates and contemporary issues
- Debates over reparations for slavery and discrimination, integration vs separatism, and affirmative action.
- Mass incarceration and debates over policing; the Black Lives Matter movement (founded 2013).
- Black political representation grew: Shirley Chisholm (first Black woman in Congress, 1968), and Barack Obama, the first Black president (elected 2008).
- The diaspora continues to shape global culture and politics, including connections with Africa and the Caribbean (Pan-Africanism, Afro-Latino identity).
Practice
It lasted 381 days.
Ella Baker helped them organize.
She testified about voter suppression in 1964.
Black voter registration rose dramatically.
They combined self-defense with community service.
Kimberlé Crenshaw named the concept.
She was elected in 1968 and ran for president in 1972.
Stokely Carmichael popularized the slogan.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
Answer (a), (b) and (c).
(a) Describe ONE strategy of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Nonviolent direct action, like sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, boycotts and marches, to expose injustice and pressure lawmakers.
Check off the points you earned:
(b) Explain ONE way the Black Power movement differed from the earlier civil rights movement.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Black Power emphasized self-determination, racial pride and community control, and accepted self-defense, while earlier leaders like King focused on nonviolent integration.
Check off the points you earned:
(c) Explain ONE way Black women shaped these movements.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Ella Baker organized SNCC and promoted grassroots leadership, and Fannie Lou Hamer fought for voting rights in Mississippi.
Check off the points you earned: