Multiple Choice Identify the
choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
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The Montgomery
Bus Boycott
The face-to-face confrontation at Central High School was not the only
showdown over segregation in the mid-1950s. Impatient with the slow pace of change in the courts,
African-American activists had begun taking direct action to win the rights promised to them by the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution .The Fourteenth Amendment promised
“equal protection of the law” (everyone in America should be treated equally. The
Fifteenth Amendment extended the right to vote to African American men by stating that race should
not be used to deny the right to vote. Among those on the frontline of change was Rosa
Parks. |
![nar001-1.jpg](his_ch_21-2_montgom_files/nar001-1.jpg) | Long before
December 1955, Rosa Parks had protested segregation through everyday acts . She refused to use
drinking fountains labeled “Colored Only .” When possible, she shunned segregated
elevators and climbed stairs instead . Parks joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943 and
became the organization’s secretary. A turning point came for her in the summer of 1955, when
she attended a workshop at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee . Highlander’s
program was designed to promote integration by giving the students the experience of interracial
living . Returning to Montgomery, Parks was even more determined to fight segregation . As it
happened, her act of protest against injustice on the buses inspired a whole community to join her
cause | | |
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1.
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What does the 14th Amendment
guarantee to every American?
a. | The right to
vote | c. | That the laws will be applied
equally to everyone | b. | The right to a happy life | d. | That everyone will get an equal
education |
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2.
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The 15th Amendment guarantees
that _____
a. | everyone living in the U.S. has the
right to vote | c. | African American
men and women shall have the right to vote. | b. | the right to vote will not be denied because of a persons
race | d. | the laws will be applied equally to black and white
people |
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3.
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Rosa Parks protested the Jim
Crow laws by .....
a. | refusing to use “colored
only” facilities. | c. | by picketing the
Montgomery bus company | b. | by picketing the Alabama state house | d. | by refusing to attend black
churches |
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4.
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From the reading it is clear
that Rosa Parks was interested in promoting
a. | “Black
Power” | c. | African American
businesses, such as a Montgomery bus company | b. | segregated facilities in
Alabama | d. | integration of the
races. |
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BOYCOTTING
SEGREGATION
Among those on the frontline of change was Jo Ann Robinson. Four days after
the Brown decision in May 1954, Robinson wrote a letter to the mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, asking
that bus drivers no longer be allowed to force riders in the “colored” section to yield
their seats to whites. “More and more of our people are already arranging with neighbors and
friends for rides to keep from being insulted and humiliated by bus drivers,” Robinson warned .
The mayor refused. On December 1,
1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and an NAACP officer, took a seat in the front row of the
“colored” section of a Montgomery bus. As |
| the bus filled up, the driver ordered Parks and three other African-American passengers
to empty the row they were occupying so that a white man could sit down without having to sit next to
any African Americans. “It certainly was time for someone to stand up,” recalled Parks
wryly. “So I refused to move.” As Parks stared out the window, the bus driver said,
“If you don’t stand up, I’m going to call the police and have you arrested .”
The soft spoken Parks replied, “You may do that.” News of Parks’s arrest spread
rapidly. Jo Ann Robinson and NAACP leader E . D. Nixon quickly organized a boycott of the buses . The
leaders of the African-American community, including many ministers, formed the Montgomery
Improvement Association to organize the boycott. They elected the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church, 26-year-old Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to lead the group. “Well, I’m not sure
I’m the best person for the position,” King confided to Nixon. “But if no one else
is going to serve, I’d be glad to try. | | |
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5.
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Jo Ann Robinson warned the
mayor of Montgomery, Alabama that black people were tired of being humiliated on the bus system and
were planning to take action. What was the mayor’s response?
a. | He suggested that they sit down and
talk | c. | He called out the National
Guard | b. | He told her that the Montgomery bus system would never be
integrated. | d. | He ignored
her. |
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6.
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What did Rosa Parks
do?
a. | She brought the issue of bus
segregation to the forefront | d. | She did all of these things | b. | She challenged Jim Crow
laws | e. | She did all of these things except challenge Jim Crow
laws | c. | She focused attention on the inequities of segregation in the
South. |
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7.
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What did the African American
community do in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks
a. | Called a general strike against all
Montgomery businesses | c. | Rioted and burned
many Montgomery busses | b. | Organized a boycott the bus system | d. | Lay in the streets and refused to allow any busses to
pass. |
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8.
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_____ was elected leader of the
Montgomery Improvement Association which was organized to lead a _____
a. | Martin Luther King - riots against
white owned businesses, including the but system | c. | Martin Luther King - boycott of the bus
system | b. | Jo Ann Robinson. - boycott of the bus system | d. | Rosa Parks - fight bus
segregation |
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WALKING FOR JUSTICE
On the night of December 5,
1955, an estimated crowd of 5,000 people gathered to hear the young pastor speak. With passion and
eloquence. Dr. King made the following declaration. There comes a time when people get
tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression . . . . I want it to be known-that
we’re going to work with grim and bold determination-to gain justice on buses in this city .
And we are not wrong . . . . If we are wrong-the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are
wrong-God Almighty is wrong. . . . If we are wrong-justice is a lie. The impact of
King’s speech-the rhythm of his words, the power of his rising and falling voice brought people
to their feet. A sense of mission filled the audience as King proclaimed, “If you will protest
courageously and yet with dignity, historians will have to pause and say, ‘There lived a great
people-a black people-who injected a new meaning and dignity into the veins of
civilization.”’ For 381 days, African Americans refused to ride the buses in
Montgomery. In most cases, they had to find other means of transportation by organizing car
pools or walking long distances . The boycotters remained nonviolent even after a bomb ripped apart
King’s home . (Fortunately, no one was injured.) Finally, in late 1956, the Supreme Court
outlawed bus | segregation in
response to a lawsuit filed by the boycotters . On December 21, King boarded a Montgomery bus and sat
in the front. “It was a great ride,” he declared.
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9.
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Martin Luther King proposed a
course of non-violence in the Montgomery bus boycott because he was not at all sure that a bus
boycott was the right thing to do.
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10.
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The Montgomery bus boycott
lasted just over
a. | a year | c. | a half year | b. | two years | d. | three years |
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11.
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The segregated busses of
Montgomery, Alabama were finally outlawed by
a. | the Montgomery City
Council | c. | the Supreme Court
of the U.S. | b. | the Montgomery bus company | d. | the governor of Alabama |
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Dr. King and the SCLC
The Montgomery bus boycott proved to the world that
ordinary African Americans could unite and organize a successful protest movement. It also proved the
power of nonviolent resistance, the peaceful refusal to obey unjust laws. Despite threats to his life
and family, King urged his followers, “Let nobody pull you so low as to hate
them.” | | | |
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12.
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Martin Luther learned from the
Montgomery bus boycott that _____ could be used to win the war against segregation
a. | violent
aggression | c. | non-violent
submission to the law | b. | peaceful resistance to the law | d. | obeying the law |
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13.
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Dr. King thought that hating
your enemies was
a. | justified | c. | foolish | b. | necessary | d. | immoral |
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CHANGING THE WORLD WITH SOUL FORCE
King called his brand of
nonviolent resistance “soul force.” He based his ideas on the teachings of several people
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From Jesus, he learned to love one’s enemies. From writer Henry David
Thoreau, he took the concept of civil disobedience-the refusal to obey an unjust law. From labor
organizer A. Philip Randolph, he learned techniques for organizing massive demonstrations.
From Mohandas Gandhi, the leader who helped India throw off British rule, he
learned that one could powerfully resist oppression without resorting to violence
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King summed up his
philosophy by saying to white racists, “We will not hate you, but we cannot . . . obey your
unjust laws . We will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom, we
will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.” Some
African Americans questioned King’s peaceful philosophy when, after the Brown decision,
anti-black violence swept parts of the Deep South. The violence, aimed at keeping African Americans
“in their place,” included the highly publicized 1955 murder of Emmett Till-a 14-year-old
who had allegedly flirted with a white woman. There were also shootings and beatings, some
fatal, of civil rights workers. Despite these vicious attacks, King steadfastly preached the power of
nonviolence.
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14.
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From _____ Dr. King learned to
love your enemies.
a. | A. Philip
Randolph, | c. | Jesus | b. | Henry David Thoreau | d. | Gandhi |
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15.
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In 1955, after violent attacks
on several African Americans, some black people began to question Dr. King’s non-violent
methods. King also began to question his own methods.
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16.
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What was “Soul
Force?”
a. | The ability to force your enemies
with violence to agree with you. | c. | The use of non-violence to convince your enemies to
change | b. | The ability to force your enemies to give in, even though they do not agree
with you. | d. | The use of force to defeat your
enemies |
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![nar006-1.jpg](his_ch_21-2_montgom_files/nar006-1.jpg) | FROM THE
GRASSROOTS UP After the boycott ended, King joined with more than 100 ministers and civil rights
leaders in 1957 to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) . The purpose of
the SCLC, as stated by King, was “to carry on nonviolent crusades against the evils of
second-class citizenship .” Using African-American churches as a base, the SCLC planned to
stage protests and demonstrations throughout the South. Leaders of the SCLC hoped to build a
movement from the grassroots up and to win the support of ordinary African Americans of all ages.
King, president of the SCLC, used the | power of his
voice and ideas to fuel the movement’s momentum. The nuts and bolts of organizing the SCLC fell
to Ella Baker, a former NAACP activist and the granddaughter of a slave minister . While with the
NAACP, Baker had served as national field secretary, traveling over 16,000 miles throughout the South
. From 1959 to 1961, Baker used her contacts to set up branches of the SCLC in 65 Southern cities .
In April 1960, Baker helped students at Shaw University, an African-American university in Raleigh,
North Carolina, to organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, pronounced
“snick” for short. It had been six years since the Brown case, and many college
students viewed the pace of change as too slow. Although these students risked a great deal-losing
college scholarships, being expelled from college, being physically harmed-they were determined to
challenge the system . SNCC, which hoped to harness the energy of these student protesters, would
soon create one of the most important student activist movements in the nation’s
history. | | |
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17.
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The Southern Christian
Leadership Council (SCLC) was a _____ based organization.
a. | church | c. | civic | b. | student | d. | business |
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18.
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Who was the organizer of the
Southern Christian Leadership Council?
a. | Rosa
Parks | c. | Martin Luther
King | b. | Ella Baker | d. | Thurgood Marshall |
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19.
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Why was Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, or SNCC organized?
a. | Students were demanding more
scholarships | c. | Students thought
the pace of integration was too slow | b. | Students did not want to integrate with white
students | d. | Students thought the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference was moving too fast and not paying attention to concerns of
students. |
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The Movement
Spreads Although SNCC
adopted King’s ideas in part, its members had ideas of their own. Many wanted a more
confrontational strategy and set out to reshape the civil rights movement. In those days there
were stores called 5 and dimes. Many of these stores had lunch counters where shoppers could each
lunch. Originally KMart was a 5 and dime called Kresgies | | DEMONSTRATING FOR FREEDOM The founders of SNCC had models to build on . In 1942,
the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had staged the first sit-ins, in which African-American
protesters sat down at segregated lunch counters in Chicago and refused to leave until they were
served . In February 1960, African-American students from North Carolina’s Agricultural and
Technical College staged a sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter at a Woolworth’s store in
Greensboro . This time, television crews brought coverage of the protest into homes throughout the
United States . Day after day, reporters captured the ugly face of racism-scenes of whites
beating, jeering at, and pouring food over students who refused to strike back. The coverage
sparked many other sit-ins across the South. Store managers called in the police, raised the price of
food, and removed counter seats. But the movement continued and spread to the North. There students
formed picket lines around national chain stores that maintained segregated lunch counters in the
South. NO TURNING BACK By late 1960, students had descended on and desegregated Jim Crow lunch
counters in some 48 cities in 11 states . They endured arrests, beatings, suspension from college,
and tear gas and fire hoses, but the army of nonviolent students refused to back down . “My
mother has always told me that I’m equal to other people,” said Ezell Blair, Jr., one of
the students who led the first sit-in 1960. For the rest of the 1960s, many Americans persevered to
prove Blair’s mother correct. | | |
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20.
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A Jim Crow lunch counter is one
where
a. | black and whites sat in separate
sections of the same counter | c. | food was served that only white people liked | b. | black people were not allowed to sit and eat with white
people | d. | food was served that only black people
liked |
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21.
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SNCC was comprised mostly of
a. | members of
CORE | c. | young civil rights
activists | b. | older veterans of the civil rights movement | d. | members of SCLC |
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22.
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Why didn’t the sit-in
demonstrators fight back at the people who jeered and humiliated them?
a. | They were following the principles
taught by Marcus Garvey | c. | They were afraid
of the anti-sit in demonstrators | b. | They were following the lessons of taught by Martin Luther
King | d. | They were afraid of going to Southern
jails |
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23.
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CORE is an old civil rights
organization that has been working for racial equality for many years. CORE stands for
a. | Colored Organization of Racial
Enthusiasts | c. | Congress Of Racial
Entigration | b. | Congress of Old Racial Energy | d. | Congress of Racial Equality |
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24.
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Demonstrations organized by the
SCLC were effective but SNCC demonstrations were not.
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25.
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In the 1960’s most
Americans outside the South were unaware of the civil rights movement.
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