Civil Rights Movement Practice Test

The question asks about a 1956 political response by lawmakers to school desegregation. The document in question is the Southern Manifesto, officially the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, written by members of Congress from the Deep South. It argued that the Brown v. Board of Education ruling was unconstitutional and urged resistance to desegregation, framing the issue as one of states’ rights and constitutional overreach by the federal government. This is why it best fits the description: a 1956 statement from Congress opposing integration and encouraging defiance of Brown v. Board. The other options don’t fit the timeframe or nature. The Emancipation Proclamation dates from the Civil War era, Plessy v. Ferguson is a 19th-century Supreme Court case, and the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964.