The Civil Rights Movement in the USA is one of 9 topics in the Grade 12 History CAPS syllabus, covered across 3 lessons on Study Vault. Below are real practice questions from this topic with full worked answers.
Sample practice questions
Easy
1. What name was given to the system of legally enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States?
Jim Crow laws
The Monroe Doctrine
The New Deal
Reconstruction Acts
Answer: Jim Crow laws — Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation across Southern public life -- schools, transport, restaurants, and more -- from the late 1800s.
Easy
2. Which 1954 US Supreme Court case ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional?
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Plessy v. Ferguson
Roe v. Wade
Marbury v. Madison
Answer: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka — Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning "separate but equal."
Medium
3. What 1896 Supreme Court case had earlier given constitutional legitimacy to segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine?
Answer: Plessy v. Ferguson — Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) upheld segregation under "separate but equal," a doctrine Brown v. Board explicitly overturned in 1954.
