American historyLesson 3 of 4 in the course Contesting Futures: America in the 1960s

Grassroots Civil Rights, Black Power, and Latino Activism in the 1960s

5 flashcards · 4 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

This lesson explores how ordinary people, especially students, pushed the civil rights movement forward through direct action. Their campaigns helped make public segregation a national issue and encouraged federal officials to act.

Inspired by earlier victories such as Brown v. Board of Education and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, many young activists grew impatient with the slow pace of change. On February 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College—Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, and Franklin McCain—sat at the segregated lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina. They were refused service, as they expected.

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Participatory democracy
A civic approach in which people actively shape decisions and organize for change.
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)
A party organized to challenge the all-White Mississippi Democratic Party and seek representation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
Black Power
A varied movement emphasizing African American empowerment, political unity, and independent institutions.
Black Pride
An affirmation of African American identity, heritage, and cultural solidarity in response to racism and exclusion.
Chicano Movement
A Mexican American movement seeking political power, culturally relevant education, and recovery of ancestral lands.

Quiz questions

  1. What outcome did the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party achieve at the 1964 Democratic National Convention?Answer: Two delegates were seated as nonvoting observers.
  2. What was a central aim of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom?Answer: To pressure President Kennedy to act on civil rights and economic opportunity.
  3. What was Martin Luther King Jr.’s central defense of nonviolent direct action in his Birmingham letter?Answer: Direct action created pressure to confront injustice rather than postpone change.
  4. What did the Supreme Court rule in Loving v. Virginia?Answer: State bans on interracial marriage violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

Based on U.S. History by P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Sylvie Waskiewicz, Paul Vickery (OpenStax), licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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