67. Most likely why did the U.S. Supreme Court not order the immediate implementation of its ruling in Brown v.
Board of Education in 1954?
a. The Court did not have authority to declare segregation instantly unconstitutional.
b. The plaintiffs in the case themselves had asked for a gradual desegregation of schools.
c. Some justices on the Court feared the outbreak of widespread violence with such a bold ruling.
d. The Court wanted to give the defendants in the case the chance to appeal.
e. Some of the justices had agreed to consent with the ruling only on the provision that it would not be
implemented during their lifetimes.
68. Ngo Dinh Diem
a. supported communism.
b. rejected U.S. financial aid.
c. served as Ho Chi Minh’s vice president.
d. called for elections in 1956.
e. was the anticommunist leader of South Vietnam.
69. Prior to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, what experience did Rosa Parks have with the civil rights movement?
a. Giving up her bus seat was her first protest for civil rights.
b. She was introduced to protesting when she met Martin Luther King Jr.
c. She had been involved in civil rights protests since the 1930s.
d. She first became interested in civil rights in the 1920s when she marched with Marcus Garvey.
e. She previously advocated the use of violence to gain more rights.
70. What ended the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
a. Protesters gave up when they needed to ride the buses to get to work.
b. Business leaders pushed both sides to come to an agreement.
c. The bus companies went bankrupt.
d. The Supreme Court ruled segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional.
e. The city fully integrated its schools.
71. The Montgomery Bus Boycott
a. was sparked when Rosa Parks was arrested for REFusing to give up her seat to a white man.
b. did not succeed in desegregating the public buses.
c. propelled Thurgood Marshall into the national spotlight as a leader in the civil rights movement.
d. marked the end of the civil rights movement.
e. lasted less than two weeks.
72. By the 1950s, half of America’s black families
a. lived in the suburbs.
b. lived in poverty.
c. attended nonsegregated schools.
d. had joined the ballot polls.
e. had emigrated to Europe.
73. How did most white Americans feel about segregation?
a. They despised it but did not do much about it.
b. They actively worked to change it.
c. They did not feel a determination to confront it.
d. They used the press and TV to denounce it as undemocratic.
e. They refused to work for companies that discriminated against blacks.
74. What institution ended up confronting racial segregation?
a. Congress
b. the liberal press
c. the Catholic Church
d. the executive
e. the judiciary
75. What helped to launch Martin Luther King Jr. as civil rights leader?
a. He participated in the Freedom Rides.
b. He was jailed in Birmingham.
c. He protested for the Little Rock Nine integrating a high school.
d. He helped A. Philip Randolph protest the lack of blacks being hired in the 1940s.
e. He participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and spoke at protest meetings.
76. What word significantly pervaded the language of the civil rights movement of the 1950s?
a. anger
b. freedom
c. community
d. emancipation
e. acquiescence
77. During the 1950s, American teenagers
a. grew in number, cultivating their own popular culture.
b. felt mostly fulfilled due to mass consumption.
c. declined in number due to the baby boom.
d. voted in significant numbers.
e. glorified middle-class norms.
78. What inspiration did Martin Luther King Jr. gain from Mahatma Gandhi?
a. the concept of black nationalism
b. the principles of Zen pacifism
c. the notion of subversive obedience
d. the idea of peaceful civil disobedience
e. the spiritual essence of Buddhism
79. To what global issue did Martin Luther King Jr. link the struggle for civil rights in America?
a. the Korean War
b. increasing freedom in Africa
c. the expansion of capitalism
d. the nuclear arms race
e. the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria
80. The Southern Manifesto
a. rejected massive resistance.
b. argued that southern states should not fly the Confederate flag over state capitol buildings.
c. repudiated the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
d. argued that the Brown v. Board of Education decision reinforced southern customs and traditions.
e. argued that the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson was unconstitutional.
81. In the Brown v. Board of Education case, why did Justice Earl Warren decide to consolidate five similar cases
under the name of Brown and not Briggs?
a. Because Briggs wasn’t a plaintiff.
b. His wife’s last name was Briggs.
c. Briggs was from South Carolina and Warren personally disliked the South.
d. He preferred to choose a case from the Midwest and not one from an old Confederate state.
e. He believed it was a more appealing name.
82. Why did Georgia change its state flag in 1956?
a. It wanted to remember its history as one of the original 13 colonies.
b. It wanted to honor Civil War veterans.
c. It was protesting communism in the government.
d. It was defying the Brown v. Board court decision.
e. It hoped to memorialize World War II veterans.
83. Which statement best describes how the white South reacted to the Brown v. Board of Education decision?
a. In opposition to integration, white southerners often burned down schools.
b. While the general public was outraged, southern congressional politicians supported the Supreme Court’s
decisions.
c. Southerners worked closely with the NAACP, cooperating when they could to integrate schools.
d. Some states closed schools rather than integrate, and let white children opt out of integrated schools.
e. Southerners took it in stride, recognizing that the time had come for change.
84. Governor Orval Faubus responded to the court-ordered desegregation of Central High School
a. by urging President Eisenhower to send federal troops.
b. with defiance, REFusing to comply and allowing violence to break out.
c. by offering his resignation to the people of Arkansas in protest.
d. by immediately closing the school, much like Virginia’s governor had done to public schools in Virginia
rather than integrate them.
e. by letting white students “opt out” and be homeschooled or go to private school.
85. America’s image abroad during the Cold War
a. did not appear to suffer in Asian or African nations, which relied on the United States for military and
economic aid.
b. proved to be an unreliable propaganda weapon for the Soviet Union.
c. could be a source of embarrassment for diplomats courting the support of the nonwhite world.
d. was not of major concern to most leaders, given America’s status as an economic superpower.
e. improved and was no longer a problem after the Brown decision.
86. The movement for social justice that emerged as a result of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
a. brought unwelcomed international attention to racial tensions in the United States.
b. was supported by conservatives across the United States.
c. constantly recurred to violence.
d. was short-lived.
e. was marked by the language of democracy.
87. Which event did President John F. Kennedy blame on the failures of the Eisenhower administration?
a. the French defeat in Vietnam
b. the failed coup in Guatemala
c. the construction of the Berlin Wall
d. the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik
e. the Suez crisis
88. The 1960 presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon
a. was broadcast only on the radio.
b. allowed Nixon to demonstrate his best qualities, thus winning the debate.
c. showed Kennedy to be an ineffective speaker, and thus he lost.
d. highlighted the impact of television on political campaigns.
e. was little noticed at the time.
89. After the arrest of Rosa Parks, what did Martin Luther King Jr. emphasize about her in his December 5, 1955,
speech?
a. She spoke loudly.
b. She had integrity.
c. She was frail and helpless.
d. She was a communist.
e. She had given up hope.
90. In his 1961 farewell address, President Eisenhower warned Americans about
a. the military-industrial complex.
b. the rise of organized crime.
c. the increase in juvenile delinquency.
d. environmental hazards.
e. the slow pace of the civil rights movement.
91. Upon leaving the presidency, what did Dwight D. Eisenhower see as a myth?
a. racism
b. global warming
c. the missile gap
d. economic security
e. a trustworthy government
92. Why did the writers of the Southern Manifesto claim the Brown v. Board decision was unconstitutional?
a. They stated the Constitution did not discuss education.
b. The original Constitution had permitted slavery.
c. The decision was not needed because the Fourteenth Amendment protected everyone.
d. The case needed to have more time and briefs filed.
e. The Fifteenth Amendment allowed for states to run their own elections.
93. How did the Southern Manifesto characterize race relations in the South before the Brown v. Board decision?
a. Blacks liked being subservient.
b. Blacks and whites lived in completely separate communities and largely ignored each other.
c. Blacks had an unfair amount of power over whites.
d. Segregation was hated by both blacks and whites.
e. Relations between blacks and whites were friendly.
94. Which company was responsible for leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons, two chemicals harmful to the
atmosphere?
a. Exxon Mobil
b. DuPont
c. Standard Oil
d. General Electric
e. General Motors
95. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
a. declared the South would continue with segregation in public institutions.
b. was a coalition formed by black ministers and civil rights activists.
c. was formed to promote Christian values in public schools.
d. represented the white South.
e. denounced the Court’s decision in the Brown case.
96. How did American leaders react to their international reputation in terms of race relations?
a. They used it to show that racial discrimination occurred in most nations.
b. They were confident in the superiority of America and what others thought of them was not a real issue.
c. They were adamant the world did not care about their internal affairs.
d. They worried about their image overseas.
e. They tried to deny segregation.
97. By the end of the 1950s, what problem was the car causing?
a. inequality
b. unemployment
c. pollution
d. suburban overpopulation
e. a decline in consumption
Matching
TEST 1
___ 1. Thurgood Marshall
___ 2. Jack Kerouac
___ 3. William Levitt
___ 4. Ho Chi Minh
___ 5. David Riesman
___ 6. John F. Kennedy
___ 7. Earl Warren
___ 8. John Kenneth Galbraith
___ 9. Richard Nixon
___ 10. Ray Kroc
___ 11. Milton Friedman
___ 12. Orval Faubus
a. The Affluent Society
b. Checkers speech
c. chief justice of the Supreme Court
d. founder of McDonald’s
e. NAACP lawyer
f. conservative economist
g. The Lonely Crowd
h. Little Rock Central High School
i. Vietnamese leader
j. builder of suburbia
k. Beat writer
l. Catholic presidential candidate
TEST 2
___ 1. Southern Manifesto
___ 2. SCLC
___ 3. social contract
___ 4. free enterprise
___ 5. Eisenhower Doctrine
___ 6. Brown v. Board of Education
___ 7. Mendez v. Westminster
___ 8. Warren Court
___ 9. modern republicanism
___ 10. Montgomery Bus Boycott
___ 11. new conservatives
___ 12. brinksmanship
a. desegregation of Orange County schools
b. active agent of social change
c. coalition of black ministers and activists
d. denounced Brown decision as an abuse of judicial power
e. Eisenhower’s term for his policies
f. defined freedom as a moral condition
g. American pledge to help Middle Eastern countries
h. massive retaliation
i. propelled Martin Luther King Jr. as a national symbol
j. reversed the separate-but-equal doctrine
k. agreement between unions and management
l. consumer capitalism
TEST 3
___ 1. National Defense Education Act
___ 2. massive retaliation
___ 3. Southern Christian Leadership Conference
___ 4. Southern Manifesto
___ 5. missile gap
___ 6. military-industrial complex
___ 7. the Beats
___ 8. Sputnik
a. first artificial satellite
b. federal funding for higher education
c. threat of nuclear attack on the Soviet Union
d. called to resist racial integration
e. allowed superiority to the Soviets
f. group of poets and writers
g. group that pressed for desegregation
h. Eisenhower believed it was a dangerous power
True/False
1. The Kitchen Debate refers to the public debate during the 1950s over whether women ought to work outside of
the home.
2. During the 1950s, the West became the home of numerous military bases and government shipyards.
3. The “standard consumer package” of the 1950s included a car, house, and television.
4. In terms of income, America became more equal between the 1950s and the 1970s.
5. Between the 1950s and the 1970s, industrial production continued to grow at a steady pace.
6. By 1955, the number of women working in America had exceeded the that of World War II.
7. The percentage of families at or below the poverty rate increased during the 1950s.
8. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled against provisions that would have allowed banks and private developers to
bar nonwhites from suburban homeownership.
9. Although suburban communities were segregated in the 1950s, today, communities such as Levittown on Long
Island are completely racially integrated.
11. Consumption was regarded as a weapon that would help the United States win the Cold War.
12. As residue from the Red Scare, anti-Semitism was widespread in America during the 1950s.
13. During the 1950s, religion had less to do with spiritual activities or sacred values than with personal identity and
group assimilation.
14. Despite talk of the glories of the free market, government policies during the 1950s played a crucial role in the
postwar economic boom.
15. While in office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower rolled back the New Deal programs put forth by Franklin
Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
16. Massive retaliation was a policy that declared that any Soviet attack on an American ally would be countered by
a nuclear assault on the Soviet Union itself.
17. The Eisenhower Doctrine was a promise to roll back communism in eastern Europe.
18. The libertarian conservatives understood freedom as first and foremost a moral condition.
19. The emergence of a popular culture geared toward the incipient youth market suggested they conformed with
middle-class norms.
20. The 1960 election campaign was the first to make extensive use of TV advertisements.
21. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) won an important victory in the fight against
segregated schools with the 1946 Supreme Court ruling in Mendez v. Westminster.
22. Thurgood Marshall argued before the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation did
lifelong damage to black children, undermining their self-esteem.
23. If the 1956 elections had been held in Vietnam as scheduled, they would have almost certainly resulted in a
victory for Ngo Dinh Diem’s anticommunists.
24. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was initiated by Jo Ann Robinson and others who gathered at a local church after
Rosa Parks’s arrest.
25. In the 1960 presidential election, John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon by a landslide.
26. Southern conservatives joined the movement for racial justice sparked by the Montgomery bus boycott.
Short Answer
2. Briefly explain how suburban middle-class women related to work.
3. Critics of John Foster Dulles’s massive retaliation doctrine referred to it as “brinksmanship.” What did this
name refer to?
Essay
1. Discuss the changes in the American economy during the postwar period. Be sure to discuss the agricultural,
industrial, and consumer sectors of the economy.
2. The Nixon-Khrushchev debate held in the setting of a suburban kitchen illustrated how freedom in America had come
to mean economic abundance and consumer choices during the 1950s. How is this new conception of freedom a
departure from Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms”?
3. Thinking back to the chapter on the 1920s, compare and contrast the consumerism of that decade with that of the
1950s. How did the economic prosperity of each decade affect Americans’ understanding of freedom?
4. House Beautiful magazine stated that the country’s most powerful weapon in the Cold War was “the freedom
offered by washing machines and dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, automobiles, and refrigerators.” Analyze
this statement, explaining how consumerism was used in the 1950s to combat the Cold War. Is consumerism
used today as a tool of American foreign policy?
5. Describe the impact of suburbanization on American women. How did expectations surrounding “the American
way of life” affect the lives of women? How were their varied experiences similar? How were they different?
Explain.
6. American foreign policies in Third World countries were determined by Cold War doctrine. Explain American
foreign policy in the Third World during the Eisenhower administration. Be sure to discuss Iran, Guatemala, and
Vietnam.
7. Historian Carl Degler titled his book on the years 1945 to 1966 The Age of Affluence and Anxiety. Thinking back
to the previous chapter, does this title accurately portray the paradox of the 1950s? Why, or why not?
8. The civil rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s, nearly ninety years after Reconstruction. Explain why
the movement finally took off in the 1950s. What caused it to do so? Be sure to think back to previous chapters.
9. The conservative movement was not a cohesive movement. Explain the positions taken by libertarians versus the
new conservatives. How did each understand the meaning of freedom?
10. Discuss the generational tensions that emerged during the 1950s. How did popular culture reflect a growing sense of
discontent among younger Americans? What was the response of older Americans to this trend? Explain.
11. During the 1950s, the United States continued to be segregated. Describe how the black struggle for equality started
and how it advanced through the years. Make sure to include the role played by the LULAC, the NAACP, and Martin
Luther King. You should also discuss the Brown case and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
12. Eric Foner argues that “Despite the Cold War rhetoric of freedom, American leaders seemed more comfortable
dealing with reliable military regimes than democratic governments.” Analyze this statement in the light of the
Cold War, the emergence of the Third World, and the meaning of American freedom.
