The Civil Rights Movement Worksheet
Grade 6 worksheet on the Civil Rights Movement: segregation, landmark court cases, key protests, and the laws that ended legal discrimination.
18 questions · Timeline · Multiple choice · Fill in the blank · Short answer · Analysis
This worksheet guides Grade 6 students through one of the most significant eras in American history: the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Students begin by placing landmark events on a timeline, building a foundation in chronological thinking before moving into multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank exercises that reinforce vocabulary and key facts. The final section asks students to write short analytical responses, tracing causes and effects, evaluating protest strategies, and connecting specific events to the legislation they helped produce. The sheet aligns with C3 Framework standards for historical thinking at the middle grades level. Print one copy per student; the answer key is on the following page.
The Civil Rights Movement Worksheet — Grade 6
Read each section carefully and answer every question using your knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement and the evidence in front of you.
Remember
- Segregation is the enforced separation of people by race; Jim Crow laws required it across the South from the 1870s to the 1960s.
- The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) guarantees equal protection under the law to all U.S. citizens.
- The Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) are the landmark federal laws that banned racial discrimination.
Part A — Place each Civil Rights Movement event on the timeline.
Read each event and write its number at the correct position on the timeline below.
The Civil Rights Movement: 1950-1970
- 1.
Supreme Court decides Brown v. Board of Education
- 2.
Montgomery Bus Boycott begins in Alabama
- 3.
Little Rock Nine enter Central High School under federal escort
- 4.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 5.
Civil Rights Act signed into law
Part B — Choose the best answer for each question.
Choose the best answer for each question and circle it on your worksheet.
- 6.
Which Supreme Court ruling declared that racial segregation in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution?
- A.Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
- B.Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
- C.Marbury v. Madison (1803)
- D.McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
- 7.
During which 1963 event did Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous speech in Washington, D.C.?
- A.The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- B.The Selma to Montgomery March
- C.The Montgomery Bus Boycott
- D.The Birmingham Campaign
- 8.
Which amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery throughout the United States in 1865?
- A.The Thirteenth Amendment
- B.The Fourteenth Amendment
- C.The Fifteenth Amendment
- D.The Nineteenth Amendment
- 9.
Which president signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law?
- A.Lyndon B. Johnson
- B.John F. Kennedy
- C.Dwight D. Eisenhower
- D.Richard Nixon
- 10.
Jim Crow laws, enforced across Southern states after Reconstruction, required which of the following?
- A.Racial segregation in public places, transportation, and schools
- B.Mandatory military service for Black men living in Southern states
- C.The redistribution of Confederate land to formerly enslaved people
- D.Equal pay for Black and white workers in all Southern industries
Part C — Fill in the blank to complete each statement.
Write the word or phrase that correctly completes each statement.
- 11.
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned the ____ doctrine from Plessy v. Ferguson.
- 12.
Rosa Parks was arrested in December 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a ____ passenger.
- 13.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned racial discrimination in public places and in ____.
- 14.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed ____ tests used to prevent Black Americans from voting.
- 15.
Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for ____, a strategy of peaceful protest inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.
Part D — Answer each question in two to three complete sentences.
Answer each question in two to three complete sentences, using evidence to support your reasoning.
- 16.
Explain how the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) helped the Civil Rights Movement grow, and why a court ruling alone was not enough to end segregation.
- 17.
Compare two forms of nonviolent protest used during the Civil Rights Movement and explain why nonviolent tactics were strategically effective.
- 18.
Trace the cause-and-effect relationship between the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965 and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Answer key
Part A — Place each Civil Rights Movement event on the timeline.
- 1.1954 - the Supreme Court unanimously rules that racial segregation in public schools violates the Fourteenth Amendment.
- 2.1955 - Rosa Parks is arrested on December 1, and Black residents of Montgomery boycott city buses for 381 days.
- 3.1957 - nine Black students enroll at Little Rock Central High School after President Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce integration.
- 4.1963 - more than 250,000 people march in Washington, D.C., and Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
- 5.1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, banning racial discrimination in public places and employment.
Part B — Choose the best answer for each question.
- 6.Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
- 7.The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 8.The Thirteenth Amendment
- 9.Lyndon B. Johnson
- 10.Racial segregation in public places, transportation, and schools
Part C — Fill in the blank to complete each statement.
- 11.separate but equal
- 12.white
- 13.employment
- 14.literacy
- 15.nonviolent resistance
Part D — Answer each question in two to three complete sentences.
- 16.Example: The Brown ruling gave civil rights activists legal proof that segregation violated the Constitution, which encouraged more people to organize and demand change. However, many Southern states refused to comply, as seen when Arkansas blocked the Little Rock Nine from entering Central High School in 1957. This resistance showed that a court decision alone could not force integration, and that direct action and federal enforcement were still needed to make the ruling a reality.
- 17.Example: Boycotts, like the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott, put economic pressure on businesses that enforced segregation while keeping protesters peaceful and unified. Sit-ins, like those at Greensboro lunch counters in 1960, directly confronted segregation in public spaces without giving officials a justification to dismiss the cause. Both tactics were effective because when opponents responded with violence to peaceful protesters, public sympathy shifted toward the movement and increased pressure on the federal government to act.
- 18.Example: Civil rights marchers attempted to walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in early 1965 to demand that Black citizens be allowed to register to vote without facing discriminatory barriers. On March 7, state troopers attacked peaceful marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in an event that became known as Bloody Sunday. Television footage of the attack shocked the public and increased pressure on Congress, which led President Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act into law in August 1965.
What this sheet teaches
- Sequence key events of the Civil Rights Movement in chronological order on a timeline.
- Analyze how court rulings, protests, and federal laws combined to challenge racial segregation.
- Explain cause-and-effect relationships that shaped the Civil Rights Movement using specific evidence.
Notes for the adult
- Students often confuse the Civil Rights Act (1964) with the Voting Rights Act (1965); stress that each targeted a distinct form of discrimination.
- Clarify that the Supreme Court cannot enforce its own rulings; use Little Rock (1957) to show why federal action was still needed after Brown.
- A student is ready to move on when they can trace a chain from one specific event to a resulting law or social change, using the word because.
What is on the page
Printed on one side, The Civil Rights Movement Worksheet runs to four parts and 18 exercises. Timeline, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank and short-answer work, in that order, so a student who has understood the material has to show it in more than one form before the page is finished.
Part A Place each Civil Rights Movement event on the timeline. prints a timeline labeled "The Civil Rights Movement: 1950-1970", five ticks running from 1950 to 1970 — 20 years across the page — and five events to place on it. Part B Choose the best answer for each question. asks five multiple-choice questions with four printed options each. Part C Fill in the blank to complete each statement. gives five sentences with a blank each and no word bank, so the wording has to come from the student. Part D Answer each question in two to three complete sentences. is three short-answer questions with nine ruled lines between them, which is the part of the sheet that takes the longest.
Nine ruled lines are printed for written answers on The Civil Rights Movement Worksheet, which decides how long it takes more than the question count does. The answer key prints on its own page at the end, so the sheet can be handed out without it.
What it asks of the student
The Civil Rights Movement Worksheet puts about 469 words of reading in front of the student — the fact box, the directions, every question, and every printed option. That is the number worth checking against a class before it goes out, because a sheet that is pitched right on the history and wrong on the reading fails for the same child either way. The longest single prompt on it runs to 31 words.
Writing runs the other way on The Civil Rights Movement Worksheet: nine ruled lines for three of the 18 exercises, and the full answer key comes to 364 words. Everything else is answered in a blank, in a box, or on the map itself, which is why the sheet takes a lesson rather than a homework slot.
Where this one sits
The Civil Rights Movement Worksheet is one of ten US History: Events & Eras sheets on this site and one of 16 written for grade 6. It is the only one on the civil rights movement, so nothing else here repeats it.
The closest things to it are The Industrial Revolution in America (grade 8) and Reconstruction and the Civil War Amendments Worksheet (grade 7). If The Civil Rights Movement Worksheet lands well, those are the ones to reach for next; if it lands badly, the analysis sheets a grade either side are usually the adjustment rather than a different topic altogether.
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