Chapter 29 Section 2 Guided Reading

1) What was the goal of the freedom riders? The goal of the freedom riders was to test the Supreme Court decision banning segregated seating in bus terminals by riding the buses across the South in hopes of getting a violent reaction out of whites in order to convince the Kennedy administration to enforce the law.

2) What was the Kennedy Administration's response? President Kennedy arranged to give the freedom riders direct support, sending 400 U.S. marshals to protect the riders. The ICC and the attorney general also banned segregation in all interstate travel facilities.

3) What was the goal of the march on Washington? They demanded the immediate passage of a civil rights bill that guaranteed equal access to all public accommodations and ave the attorney general the right to file desegregation suits in schools.

4) Who attended the march? Martin Luther King, Jr. and 250,000 people, including 75,000 whites.

5) What was the goal of the Freedom Summer project? To get national publicity which would influence Congress to pass a voting rights act.

6) Who volunteered for the project? Mostly white College students 1/3 of whom were female, volunteered and were trained in nonviolent resistance.

7) What did the role of the violence shown on television play in the march from Selma to Montgomery? The violence horrified viewers and caused hundreds of protesters to come to Selma, and caused President Lyndon Johnson to present a voting rights act to Congress. The march continued with federal protection and there were 25,000 marchers.

8) What did the march encourage President Johnson to do? He presented a new voting rights act to Congress and asked for it to be passed quickly.

9) What did the Voting Rights Act outlaw? It outlawed the literary tests that had disqualified many voters, and stated that federal examiners could enroll voters who had been denied the right to vote by local officials.

10) What did the law accomplish? It caused many more African Americans to become registered voters; for example, the number of African Americans registered to vote in Selma rose from 10% to 60%, and the number of registered African American voters in the South tripled.