Civil Rights DBQ
Civil Rights DBQ Guide
Document A - African Americans after the War
The end of slavery did not mean equal rights for blacks. What kinds of legal barriers prevented former slaves from having equal rights with whites?
Few efforts were made to provide economic help to former slaves, and such help did not last long. To what difference might it have made to the lives of post-Civil War southerners (black and white), if the North had helped with the rebuilding?
Document B - Black Codes
In the 19th century, many people’s political affiliation followed their economic interest, or one or another group affiliation. Has that changed? If not, how have these affiliations changed over time?
There was a lot of corruption in 19th century politics. Do you think that has changed? If not, why? If you knew in advance that a certain level of political corruption would be present (such as not allowing African-Americans’ votes to count), how would you change the system?
How would you react if someone told you that you couldn’t vote because of the color of your hair or eyes?
Document C - Separate is not Equal
The case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ruled that separate but equal schools were not, in fact, equal. And it argued that even if they were, the stigma attached to being in separate facilities caused irreparable harm. Do you agree that drawing attention to differences between groups of people only causes them to be stigmatized? If so, in what areas of our society today do we accentuate differences, rather than try to blur them? What are the consequences of this?
Recent Supreme Court Cases have begun to address the question of whether there are any limits to requiring equal treatment. Issues such as the religious rights of business owners to provide services at weddings, for instance, are being tried. Do you believe there can be any constitutional limits on the right to equal treatment?
Document D - Rosa Parks is arrested
What did separate but equal mean?
Why do you think others eventually got up, even though they didn’t at first?
What do you think led to Rosa refusing?
The goal of the Montgomery Bus Boycott was to get equal access and equal treatment for African Americans – to create an even playing field. Has that objective changed? If so, in what ways? If not, what are the current barriers to “an even playing field” and how do they differ from those of the past?
Civil Rights Links
About the International Civil Rights: Walk of Fame provides brief biographical information about a number of heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.
Kids Discover Civil Rights Unit provides information about Defining Civil Rights, The Rise of Segregation, Juneteenth, Birth of the Civil Rights Movement, The Early 1960s, Triumph and Tragedy in the Mid-1960s, Heroes of the Movement, and The Movement's Legacy.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 The year 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a milestone in the struggle to extend civil, political, and legal rights and protections to African Americans, including former slaves and their descendants, and to end segregation in public and private facilities. The U.S. Senate played an integral part in this story. United States Senate Historical Highlights
1862
April 16: A bill originally sponsored by Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, the DC Compensated Emancipation Act becomes law.
1863
January 1: President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation granting freedom to slaves residing in Confederate states not occupied by Union forces.
1865
December 6: The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery.
1866
April 9: Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over President Andrew Johnson’s veto.
1868
July 9: The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified, granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and providing them equal protection under the law.
1870
February 3: The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified, prohibiting states from disenfranchising voters "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
February 25: Hiram Revels (R-MS) becomes first African American to serve in Senate.
1873
November 17: Supreme Court rules in favor of Senate employee Kate Brown in anti-discrimination case.
1875
February 14: Blanche K. Bruce (R-MS) becomes first African American to preside over Senate.
March 1: The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is signed into law (later overturned).
1896
May 18: Supreme Court issues Plessy v. Ferguson decision, stating that segregation is constitutional as long as facilities for blacks and whites are "equal."
1925
August 8: 35,000 Ku Klux Klan members march on Washington.
1939
April 9: Marian Anderson performs on steps of Lincoln Memorial.
1941
January 25: A. Philip Randolph proposes a march on Washington.
June 25: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802 forbidding discriminatory hiring practices by federal contractors.
1948
July 12: Senate candidate Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) calls for civil rights plank at Democratic National Convention.
July 26: President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9981, de-segregating the armed services.
1953
August 13: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Executive Order 10479, establishes the Anti-discrimination Committee on Government Contracts.
1954
May 17: Supreme Court issues Brown vs. Board of Education decision, finding racial segregation in public schools to be in violation of the Constitution.
1955
January 15: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Executive Order 10590, establishes the President’s Committee on Government Policy to enforce nondiscrimination in federal employment.
December 1: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL, bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1957
September 27: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is signed into law.
1960
February 1: North Carolina college students stage a sit-in at a department store in Greensboro, NC, that refuses to serve them because of their race.
May 6: Civil Rights Act of 1960 is signed into law.
1961
March 6: President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order 10925, creating the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.
1963
June 19: President Kennedy sends to Congress his proposed civil rights bill. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT) introduces the bill and it is assigned to the Judiciary Committee. Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) introduces another bill, co-sponsored with Mansfield, which is similar to the administration's bill but lacks a public accommodations section. Mansfield and Warren Magnuson (D-WA) introduce a separate public accommodations bill which is assigned to the Commerce Committee.
August 28: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., leads the March on Washington and delivers his speech, “I Have a Dream,” in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
September 15: A bomb at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, AL, kills four girls and wounds 20 more children.
November 22: President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn-in as president.
November 27: President Johnson delivers a speech to joint congressional session, calling for passage of Kennedy's civil rights bill.
1964
January 23: The Twenty-fourth Amendment, abolishing the poll tax is ratified.
February 10: House passes H.R. 7152, the Civil Rights Act, sending the bill to the Senate.
February 26: Majority Leader Mike Mansfield places H.R. 7152 directly on the calendar, bypassing the Judiciary Committee.
March 9: Mansfield introduces motion to make the Civil Rights Act the Senate's pending business and debate begins.
March 26: Senate votes to make H.R. 7152 pending business, 67-17.
May 26: Mansfield and Dirksen submit a "clean bill" as substitute for H.R. 7152.
June 8: Mansfield and Dirksen file cloture motion.
June 9-10: Senator Robert Byrd delivers the longest speech against the civil rights bill, speaking for 14 hours and 13 minutes.
June 10: For the first time since Rule XXII was established in 1917, the Senate approves cloture on a civil rights bill, with a vote of 71-29. Everett Dirksen offers a memorable speech in support of the bill. Quoting Victor Hugo, he declares, “Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.”
June 17: Senate adopts the Mansfield-Dirksen substitute bill with a roll call vote of 76-18.
June 19: Senate approves the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
July 2: House approves Senate bill, avoiding conference committee, and President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act into law.