APUSH Period 8 — Civil Rights and a Changing Society, 1945–1980

The civil rights movement is at the center of Period 8 in AP United States History, a period that carries between 10 and 17 percent of the exam and supplies many of its essay prompts. This material follows the movement campaign by campaign and then turns to the other movements and policies that changed American society between 1945 and 1980.

It starts with Truman's 1948 order desegregating the armed forces and the Dixiecrat revolt it provoked. It then follows the movement's major campaigns: the Montgomery bus boycott and how it was won; the Greensboro sit-ins and the student organization, SNCC, that grew out of them; Birmingham in 1963 and the pictures that moved President Kennedy; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and what its titles covered; and Selma, Lyndon Johnson's voting rights address and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The turn to Black Power in the later 1960s is explained as a change in goals and methods, not as a footnote.

The second half widens the view: César Chávez, Dolores Huerta and the grape boycott of the United Farm Workers; second-wave feminism, Title IX and the struggle over the Equal Rights Amendment, with supporters and opponents each stated in terms they would recognize; Medicare and Medicaid as the health programs of the Great Society; the burst of bipartisan environmental law around 1970; and the oil shocks and stagflation that closed the period and weakened confidence in liberal economic policy.

The twelve quiz questions include public-domain federal sources quoted in the question, Executive Order 9981 and Johnson's 1965 address, and ask about causes, strategies and results rather than bare dates. Explanations point out the frequent mix-ups between the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and between amendments of the 1960s and 1970s.

The nineteen flashcards run from Executive Order 9981 to stagflation, including Little Rock, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, the American Indian Movement and the National Organization for Women.

The category's material on 1945 to the present already covers Brown v. Board of Education, suburbanization, the Great Society's aims and the social conflicts of the late 1960s; a companion material covers the Cold War of the same years. Use this one during Unit 8 in class or in review before the May exam.

• Explain how the civil rights movement's major campaigns, from Montgomery to Selma, produced federal legislation
• Distinguish the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Compare the goals and methods of Black Power with those of the earlier nonviolent movement
• Describe the farmworkers' and women's movements and the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment
• Explain the Great Society health programs, the environmental laws of 1970 and the causes of stagflation

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the College Board AP U.S. History course framework (course and exam description effective fall 2026), Unit 8, Period 8: 1945–1980, topics on the civil rights movement, the Great Society, the African American civil rights movement of the 1960s, the civil rights movement expands, and society in transition. Quoted sources are Executive Order 9981 (1948) and President Johnson's 1965 address to Congress (public domain).