Skip to content
Oak National Academy
Oak National Academy
Teachers
Pupils
New
New
Year 11
AQA

Segregation in the USA

I can assess the African American challenges to segregation in schools.

Download all resources
Share activities with pupils
New
New
Year 11
AQA

Segregation in the USA

I can assess the African American challenges to segregation in schools.

Download all resources
Share activities with pupils

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. African Americans suffered from many forms of discrimination.
  2. Segregation was defended by the Supreme Court in 1896.
  3. Groups like the NAACP and church organisations campaigned in defence of black Americans' civil rights.
  4. The Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional in 1954.
  5. There was widespread opposition to school desegregation in many parts of the South.

Common misconception

The Brown v. Board ruling in 1954 led to desegregation across the South.

School desegregation was resisted bitterly in many parts of the South. In some states, the Brown v. Board decision had no effect on how schools were run even by the start of the 1960s.

Keywords

  • Segregation - when groups of people are separated from one another

  • Constitutional - something that is allowed under the laws of a political system

  • Civil rights - the rights that everyone in a country has

  • Federal - something related to the national government of the USA, rather than the government of individual states

  • Desegregate - to end segregation

Encourage students to discuss as partners whether the federal government could have done more to ensure school desegregation took place across the South and for justifications of their answers. You may ask after this what may have stopped the federal government from doing more.
Teacher tip

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Video

Skip video

Loading...

Starter quiz

Download starter quiz

6 Questions

Q1.
What is it called when groups of people are separated from one another?
Correct Answer: segregation, Segregation, segregated, Segregated
Q2.
Write the missing word, which relates to economic inequality. A greater proportion of African Americans lived in than was the case for white Americans, who tended to be richer.
Correct Answer: poverty, Poverty
Q3.
Which statement is most accurate? A) The US Army was desegregated for WWII, with white and black Americans mixed together. B) The US Army remained segregated for WWII.
Correct Answer: B, b, B), b)
Q4.
What name is often used to refer to the hunt for communists in the USA during the early 1950s?
Eisenhowerism
Correct answer: McCarthyism
Rooseveltism
Trumanism
Q5.
Which conflict was most responsible for encouraging the second Red Scare in the USA?
WWI
WWII
Correct answer: Cold War
Vietnam War
Q6.
Starting with the earliest, sort the following events into chronological order.
1 - slavery abolished in the USA
2 - USA fights in WWI
3 - 'boom years' in the USA
4 - Great Depression
5 - USA fights in WII
6 - Cold War begins
7 - second Red Scare in the USA

Exit quiz

Download exit quiz

6 Questions

Q1.
Write the missing word. Something is if it is allowed under the constitution of a political system.
Correct Answer: constitutional, Constitutional
Q2.
What is it called when segregation is ended?
Correct Answer: desegregation, desgregate, desegregated, Desegregation
Q3.
When did the US Supreme Court rule that school segregation was unconstitutional?
1865
1896
1917
1941
Correct answer: 1954
Q4.
What was the acronym of the organisation which took the Brown v. Board of Education case to the Supreme Court?
Correct Answer: NAACP, the NAACP
Q5.
Identify the accurate consequences of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954.
Correct answer: significant white opposition to desegregation
all schools in South began accepting both white and black students
Correct answer: many African Americans enjoyed improved educational opportunities
federal troops were sent to all areas refusing to desegregate
Q6.
Starting with the earliest, sort the following events into chronological order.
1 - slavery abolished
2 - Jim Crow laws introduced
3 - Supreme Court upholds segregation
4 - NAACP founded
5 - Supreme Court orders desegregation of schools

Additional material

Download additional material
We're sorry, but preview is not currently available. Download to see additional material.