Lesson Y9-U01-L02

Y9-U01-L02 Life Under Segregation Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 14

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y9-U01-L02, Life Under Segregation: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 14: Year 9: Civil Rights, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What were segregation signs such as 'Whites Only' and 'Colored' used for?

    • To mark which facilities and seats Black and white Americans could use
    • To advertise shops and restaurants to tourists visiting the Southern states
    • To warn travellers of dangerous roads, bridges and flooded rivers across the South
    • To record how many people had voted in each town during the election season

  2. On a segregated bus, where did Black passengers pay and then sit?

    • They paid at the front, re-boarded at the back, and gave up seats to white riders
    • They paid at the back, sat in the front rows, and were never asked to give up a seat
    • They rode in a separate bus that ran ahead of the main service on every route each day
    • They paid nothing at all and were required to walk alongside the bus to every stop on the route

  3. What did Anne Moody notice about the cinema in her childhood in Mississippi?

    • Black viewers were banned from the cinema altogether on Sundays and public holidays
    • Black viewers were made to sit in the balcony while white viewers sat downstairs
    • Black viewers paid double the price for the same seats as white viewers in every town cinema
    • Black viewers were given free tickets to the front rows so that they could be watched closely

  4. What does the phrase 'By order of the Police Department' on Source A suggest?

    • The waiting room was only for police officers to use
    • The waiting room was built to protect passengers from crime
    • The sign had been written by a private business
    • Segregation was official and enforced by the authorities

  5. In what year was Anne Moody's memoir 'Coming of Age in Mississippi' published?

    • 1968
    • 1954
    • 1896
    • 1932

  6. Which experience was common for Black customers in the South under segregation?

    • Being given first choice of seats in every restaurant, cafe and hotel in town
    • Being served before white customers at public cafes, shops and bars in the town
    • Being refused service at lunch counters and whites-only restaurants
    • Being asked to pay extra to use public toilets, parks and drinking fountains in town

  7. According to Source C, how much did the state spend on each white pupil compared with each Black pupil?

    • Exactly half
    • About the same amount
    • Slightly less
    • Several times more

  8. Which feature was typical of many Black schools in a Southern state in the 1940s?

    • Second-hand books and only a few months of teaching each year
    • Longer school years than white schools in the same state, with more teaching time
    • Modern laboratories and well-paid specialist teachers in every Black school
    • Free school meals, new buses and modern libraries for every pupil in the district

  9. What does Source D show about the attitudes of Black parents towards education?

    • They wanted their children taught only at home by private tutors they paid for
    • They gave what they could so their children might learn to read and write
    • They paid school fees only for their sons, not their daughters, as was the custom
    • They refused to send their children to school at all, believing it was useless

  10. Why were many Black workers pushed into low-paid work?

    • Black workers chose low-paid work to avoid taxes
    • Most well-paid jobs were closed to Black workers
    • Black workers were not allowed to leave their farms
    • Black workers were paid less only in the North

  11. How did worse schools help keep families in poverty across generations?

    • Worse schools meant children were allowed to leave school at age ten each year
    • Worse schools meant the state collected higher taxes from every child who attended school
    • Worse schools meant families had to move to the North and find new work every year
    • Fewer qualifications meant lower-paid jobs and less money to educate children

  12. What did the Black voter in Source E find when he tried to register?

    • A notice that the registration office had moved to another state, far from home
    • A simple form that was given to every applicant of every race and background alike
    • A long constitution test, while the white man before him just wrote his name
    • A request to pay a fee of several dollars before being allowed to vote in the election

  13. Why was losing the vote so damaging to Black communities under segregation?

    • They could not elect leaders to change the unjust laws
    • They had to leave their homes and move across the border to Mexico to find safety
    • They lost the right to attend church in the South, which was their main meeting place
    • They were forced to pay higher rent in every city where they lived and worked

  14. What is the main limitation of using Source E on its own?

    • It was printed by a government office that was biased in favour of Black voters
    • It describes a registration office in a city, not a rural area
    • It is one person's memory recorded later, so it cannot show how common this was
    • It was written in a language that most historians cannot read

  15. What must a historian consider when judging the utility of a source?

    • Only the length of the source, the size of its print and the paper it is printed on
    • Its content and its provenance, judged against the specific question
    • Whether the source agrees with the view of the government and the press of the time
    • Only whether the source was written before the year 1900 and by a famous writer

  16. Why can a personal memoir written years after the events still be useful?

    • It proves exactly how common every event was across the whole of the South and the North
    • It was written at the time of the events, so memory is never a problem for the historian
    • It is always more accurate than an official government record of the same events
    • It gives first-hand experience and feeling that official records cannot show

  17. Which 1896 Supreme Court case made 'separate but equal' segregation legal?

    • Marbury v. Madison
    • Brown v. Board of Education
    • Plessy v. Ferguson
    • Dred Scott v. Sandford

  18. On Montgomery buses, who were the front rows reserved for?

    • Elderly passengers of any race
    • Army officers
    • White riders
    • Black riders

  19. Which organisation, founded in 1909, fought segregation through legal challenges?

    • The Ku Klux Klan
    • The Reconstruction Committee
    • The Great Migration Society
    • The NAACP

  20. Which source would be best for measuring how much was spent on Black compared with white schools?

    • Source A, a waiting room sign issued by the police department in the town centre
    • Source B, a memoir written by a Black woman in 1968 about her childhood
    • Source D, a teacher's later recollection of her early career in South Carolina
    • Source C, a summary of an official government education report

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