Civil Rights Movement Practice Test

Jim Crow refers to the system of laws and customs that enforced racial segregation in the United States, especially in the South, after the Civil War. The term comes from a minstrel-show character named Jim Crow and came to symbolize the policies that kept Black and white Americans separate in everyday life. These laws covered a wide range of areas—schools, transportation, housing, restrooms, and public accommodations—and were backed by the notion of “separate but equal,” a doctrine from Plessy v. Ferguson that allowed segregation as long as facilities were purportedly equal, though in reality they were not. The movement to challenge and overturn Jim Crow culminated in civil rights legislation in the 1960s. The other options are names of civil rights organizations (not the nickname for the laws) such as the ACLU, SCLC, and CORE.