Racial Unrest and Civil Rights in the USA 04

This KS3 History quiz takes a further look at racial unrest and civil rights in the USA. There were many protests surrounding racial unrest and civil rights in the USA. By 1966, the emergence of the Black Power Movement enlarged the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include racial dignity and freedom from oppression by white Americans. Black Power was not a single organisation. It was a slogan used by many different civil rights groups who believed in armed self-defence. The phrase 'Black Power' had already been used in the 1850s by Frederick Douglass but he used it to refer to slave labour.

The Black Power movement had a special salute. The salute was famously made at the 1968 Olympic games by two black athletes (they came first and third in the 200 m sprint). It wasn't only the salute that mattered. The clothing that they wore (and exactly how they wore it) symbolised the struggle for equality. They were expelled from the Olympics and the US athletics team. The athlete who was second came from Australia and he supported their actions. He was not picked for the next Olympics, despite having qualified.