Lesson Y9-U01-L04

Y9-U01-L04 King, Birmingham and 'I Have a Dream' Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 14

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y9-U01-L04, King, Birmingham and 'I Have a Dream': 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. Which Alabama city did Martin Luther King Jr target in spring 1963?

    • Selma
    • Birmingham
    • Montgomery
    • Little Rock

  2. What did police chief 'Bull' Connor use against the child marchers in Birmingham?

    • Tear gas and armoured tanks
    • High-pressure fire hoses and police dogs
    • Batons and rubber bullets issued to crowds
    • Water cannons used only on empty streets

  3. What was the Children's Crusade in Birmingham?

    • Thousands of schoolchildren marched and were arrested in May 1963
    • A church choir that toured the South raising money for voter registration in 1963
    • A school strike that closed Birmingham's factories and shops for an entire week in 1963
    • A boycott of buses led by schoolchildren in Montgomery during the winter of 1955

  4. On what date, and where, was the March on Washington held?

    • 13 November 1956, at the Supreme Court
    • 25 June 1876, at the Little Bighorn River
    • 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial
    • 4 July 1963, at the White House

  5. Which speech did Martin Luther King Jr give at the March on Washington?

    • The Gettysburg Address
    • The 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'
    • The Emancipation Proclamation
    • The 'I Have a Dream' speech

  6. Roughly how many people gathered at the March on Washington?

    • About 2.5 million
    • About 2,500
    • About 25,000
    • About 250,000

  7. Which leader's peaceful protests in India inspired King's commitment to non-violence?

    • Mohandas Gandhi
    • Malcolm X
    • Ulysses S. Grant
    • Frederick Douglass

  8. Who was the chief organiser of the March on Washington, often overlooked in histories of the march?

    • Jo Ann Robinson
    • Bull Connor
    • Bayard Rustin
    • Fred Shuttlesworth

  9. What did King write while he was in jail in Birmingham in April 1963?

    • A petition asking the President to ban police dogs from every city in America
    • A book listing every segregated shop, restaurant and hotel in the state of Alabama
    • A new constitution for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and its members
    • The 'Letter from Birmingham Jail', defending non-violent direct action

  10. What did Birmingham's leaders agree to in the settlement of 10 May 1963?

    • To allow Black residents to hold office in the state legislature in Montgomery
    • To desegregate lunch counters, fitting rooms and toilets in shops
    • To pay compensation to every Black family in the city for years of unfair treatment
    • To close all shops on Sundays as a way to end segregation in the city centre

  11. How did President Kennedy respond to the pressure after Birmingham?

    • He cancelled the March on Washington to keep the peace
    • He called for a national Civil Rights Bill in June 1963
    • He sent King to be the governor of Alabama
    • He ordered all segregated buses to be removed by federal troops

  12. Which event in September 1963 killed four girls and showed that racist violence had not ended?

    • The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham
    • The final court ruling in the Montgomery Bus Boycott case in late 1956
    • The settlement of 10 May 1963 that desegregated shops in the city
    • The March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial, held in the capital city

  13. Which law, passed in 1964, banned segregation in public places and job discrimination?

    • The Dawes Act
    • The Voting Rights Act
    • The 14th Amendment
    • The Civil Rights Act

  14. Which law passed in 1965 aimed to protect the right to vote?

    • The Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people in the South
    • The Civil Rights Act, which banned segregation in public places and jobs
    • The Jim Crow Act, which required separate schools and public transport
    • The Voting Rights Act

  15. Why were the images in Source C so shocking to Americans?

    • Police turned fire hoses and dogs on young marchers, and pictures spread worldwide
    • The city hall in Birmingham was burned down by the marchers during a violent riot that week
    • The marchers had been paid by the federal government to stage a protest in the city
    • Black marchers attacked police officers with weapons and bricks in the streets of the city

  16. What impression of 1963 does Source A, King's speech, give?

    • A hopeful belief that peaceful protest is leading towards an equal future
    • A neutral report of the number of people who attended the march and where they came from
    • A sense that the civil rights movement has already been defeated by the government
    • A warning that violence is the only realistic way to achieve real change in the country

  17. Why does Malcolm X criticise the marches in Source B?

    • He thought non-violent protest was too gentle and wanted self-defence
    • He thought the marches had been far too violent and needed to be stopped immediately by police
    • He wanted the marches to be held only in the Southern states, away from the cities
    • He believed the marches were organised by the government to hide the truth from voters

  18. Why is Source A useful to a historian studying the movement, even though it was King's own speech?

    • It proves that the Civil Rights Act was passed on the very same day as the march
    • It shows the message that inspired marchers, from King's own view
    • It gives an accurate, neutral count of how many people were arrested that day
    • It shows what the government officials privately thought of the marchers at the time

  19. Why was the peaceful, televised character of the March on Washington significant?

    • It proved that Birmingham had been fully desegregated already before the march began
    • It showed dignified strength on live TV that was hard for opponents to attack
    • It meant the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress that same afternoon in the capital
    • It showed that the movement had given up on non-violence after the events in Birmingham

  20. Why did some civil rights leaders feel uneasy about the Children's Crusade?

    • Children had refused to take part in any of the marches
    • Children were not allowed to join civil rights protests by law
    • Children were too young to understand the aims of the protest
    • Children faced real danger from hoses, dogs and arrest

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