L.Q: What impact did the 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts have?
Voting and Legislation
Do now:
Q1: Why did Emmett Till not receive justice?
An all-white jury found the murderers innocent/not guilty even though they
admitted on camera that they killed him
Q2: What was a literacy test and how is it linked to Civil Rights?
It was a test that Black Americans had to take before they could vote however,
they were impossible to pass – it was a Jim Crow Law
Q3: How did opponents of civil rights use violence to stop people using their
vote?
KKK spread fear and violence by killing people to stop others from voting thugs
and gangs would patrol streets on voter registration/voting days
Q4: Who was President between 1954 and 1960?
Eisenhower
Q5: Over what event did the President and Governor Orval Faubus clash in
1957? Why?
Little Rock Nine as he resisted the desegregation of schools from Brown v
Board of Education – he was the governor of the state
1957 Civil Rights Act
Brown case and bus boycott let to increased public support for civil
rights – a civil rights act was passed in Congress
Act claimed to increase black voter registration, make it illegal to
obstruct black voters from registering to vote, allowed federal courts to
prosecute states that didn’t guarantee citizen’s voting rights
The bill was weakened by the southern Congressmen (Dixiecrats), all
white juries in the south were unlikely to uphold federal prosecutions of
state violations of voting rights
Eisenhower was also reluctant to enforce the law as he didn’t believe
that civil rights should be improved by forcing people to change how
they behaved
Voting and Legislation
Do now:
Q1: Why did Emmett Till not receive justice?
An all-white jury found the murderers innocent/not guilty even though they
admitted on camera that they killed him
Q2: What was a literacy test and how is it linked to Civil Rights?
It was a test that Black Americans had to take before they could vote however,
they were impossible to pass – it was a Jim Crow Law
Q3: How did opponents of civil rights use violence to stop people using their
vote?
KKK spread fear and violence by killing people to stop others from voting thugs
and gangs would patrol streets on voter registration/voting days
Q4: Who was President between 1954 and 1960?
Eisenhower
Q5: Over what event did the President and Governor Orval Faubus clash in
1957? Why?
Little Rock Nine as he resisted the desegregation of schools from Brown v
Board of Education – he was the governor of the state
1957 Civil Rights Act
Brown case and bus boycott let to increased public support for civil
rights – a civil rights act was passed in Congress
Act claimed to increase black voter registration, make it illegal to
obstruct black voters from registering to vote, allowed federal courts to
prosecute states that didn’t guarantee citizen’s voting rights
The bill was weakened by the southern Congressmen (Dixiecrats), all
white juries in the south were unlikely to uphold federal prosecutions of
state violations of voting rights
Eisenhower was also reluctant to enforce the law as he didn’t believe
that civil rights should be improved by forcing people to change how
they behaved
