Assessment: Redefining Equality: From Black Power to Affirmative

This statement is from the Kerner Commission Report, issued in 1968: “Social and economic conditions . . . constituted a clear pattern of severe disadvantages for Negroes compared with whites.”

What led to the formation of the Kerner Commission?

• the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

• the call for Black nationalism by the Nation of Islam

• the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi

• the spread of race riots from Watts to other urban neighborhoods

Read the descriptions below. Who does this list BEST describe?

• Stokely Carmichael

• James Meredith

• Elijah Muhammad

• Malcolm X

Black nationalists rejected the goals of the civil rights movement in the 1960s because they

• supported a doctrine that called for Black people to completely separate from White society

• believed that nonviolent protesting was necessary for achieving racial equality.

• sought to avoid the conformity and materialism in American culture.

• were more concerned with spreading propaganda about White people than gaining equal rights.

Which of these groups sent observers into the streets armed with law books and shotguns to protect Black people from police mistreatment in the 1960s?

• Black Panthers

• Nation of Islam

• Congressional Black Caucus

• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned discrimination in which of the following areas?

• employment

• housing

• public facilities

• university admissions

How did the Supreme Court help eliminate segregation in schools with its Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education decision?

• It reduced the funding of every segregated school in North Carolina.

• It raised education taxes in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District.

• It determined that de facto segregation was officially unconstitutional.

• It ordered Black students to be bussed to schools outside of their neighborhood.

How did Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokely Carmichael have different approaches to achieving civil rights?

• King advocated for the strategy of nonviolence. Carmichael advocated that African Americans ac vely demand their civil rights.

• King believed that African Americans should strive for greater political representation. Carmichael believed that protests were the most effective strategy.

• King pushed for African Americans to resist their White oppressors. Carmichael supported peaceful marches.

• King organized and spoke at large rallies. Carmichael encouraged civil rights activism by publishing newspaper editorials

Which of the following did the Nation of Islam promote?

• reverse discrimination

• Black nationalism

• self-determination

• affirmative action

What does this quote tell you about the progress of the desegregation of public schools after Brown v. Board of Education ?

• School districts lacked incentive to desegregate schools.

• Some districts were still not integrated 15 years after Brown v. Board of Education .

• The government needed to take a more hands-off approach to enforcing desegregation

• Desegregation had proven to be unsuccessful in improving African American children’s learning.

Which best describes Afrocentrism?

• the name of a series of highly-rated broadcast shows that told the story of several generations of an enslaved Black family.

• a training program used by the Black Panthers to teach African Americans how to defend themselves against police mistreatment.

• a movement to focus on African history, African culture, and the achievements of African peoples and their descendants.

• an effort to educate other ethnic groups about African traditions, in the hopes of improving treatment of African Americans.