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Black Codes
Laws passed by Democrat-controlled Southern states, after the Civil War. These laws had the intent and the effect of restricting African Americans' freedom, and of compelling them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt. -
Sharecropping
A form of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range of different situations and types of agreements that have used a form of the system. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Incident in 1892 where Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, and therefor broke a Louisiana law. His appeal in 1896 was denied and the court upheld the constitutionality of segregation. Court ruled that a state law had "merely a legal distinction" between whites and blacks which didn't violate anyones 13th and or 14th amendment rights. -
Federal Housing Authority
A United States government agency created in part by the National Housing Act of 1934. It sets standards for construction and underwriting and insures loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building. The goals of this organization are to improve housing standards and conditions, provide an adequate home financing system through insurance of mortgage loans, and to stabilize the mortgage market. -
Nonviolent Protest
The practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, or other methods, while being nonviolent. -
Brown v Ferguson
Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. the Warren Court's unanimous (9-0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This ruling paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Lynching
an extrajudicial punishment by an informal group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate a group. It is an extreme form of informal group social control. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". In Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey the bus driver's order to give up her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger, which sparked and prompted the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. -
Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is sometimes defined as having to be nonviolent to be called civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is sometimes, therefore, equated with nonviolent resistance. -
Desegregation
The process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, particularly desegregation of the school systems and the military. -
Orville Faubus
An American politician who served as 36th Governor of Arkansas. He is best remembered for his stand against desegregation of the Little Rock School District, in which, by ordering the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School, he defied a unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court made in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The purpose of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was to show the federal government's support for racial equality following the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown decision. Opposition to the legislation, including the longest one-person filibuster in history, resulted in limited immediate impact, but the Act paved the way for a series of more effective civil rights bills in the 1960s. -
Affirmative Action
An outcome of the 1960's Civil Rights Movement, intended to provide equal opportunities for members of minority groups and women in education and employment. -
Sit-ins
A new tactic was added to the peaceful activists' strategy. Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served. -
Cesar Chavez
An American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association. Chavez became the best known Latino American civil rights activist, and was strongly promoted by the American labor movement, which was eager to enroll Hispanic members. -
Martin Luther King Jr.
MLK was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience. He led the Montgomery bus boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, serving as its first president. King also helped to organize the March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
George Wallace
An American politician and the 45th Governor of Alabama. Wallace is remembered for his Southern pro-segregation "Jim Crow" positions during the mid-20th century period of the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 Inaugural Address that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," and standing in front of the entrance of the University of Alabama in an attempt to stop the enrollment of black students. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
US labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
Upward Bound
A federally funded educational program within the United States. Owes its existence to the federal Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (the War on Poverty Program) and the Higher Education Act of 1965. Upward Bound programs are implemented and monitored by the United States Department of Education. The goal of Upward Bound is to provide certain categories of high school students better opportunities for attending college. -
Jim Crow Laws
State and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures in the late 19th century after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued to be enforced until 1965. -
Veteran Rights Act of 1065
Passed in response to Jim Crow laws and other restrictions of minorities' voting rights at the time, primarily in the Deep South. civil rights activists had been working for years to obtain voting rights for all Americans, but had only achieved minimal success. However, the murder of activists in Mississippi and Philadelphia, as well as numerous other acts of violence and terrorism, captured national attention and propelled the movement forward. -
Head Start
A program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. The program's services and resources are designed to foster stable family relationships, enhance children's physical and emotional well-being, and establish an environment to develop strong cognitive skills. -
Hector P. Garcia
Mexican-American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American G.I. Forum. As a result of the national prominence he earned through his work on behalf of Hispanic Americans, he was instrumental in the appointment of Vicente T. Ximenes, a Mexican American and American G.I. Forum charter member, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. -
Betty Friedan
An American writer, activist, and feminist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century. Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now fully equal partnership with men." -
Thurgood Marshall
Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice, named to U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to his judicial service, he successfully argued several cases before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education. -
Lester Maddox
An American politician who served as the 75th Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia. A populist Democrat, Maddox came to prominence as a strict segregationist, when he refused to serve black customers in his Atlanta restaurant, in defiance of the Civil Rights Act. -
Title IX (9)
A federal law that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." -
13th Amendment
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. -
15th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. -
19th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. -
20th Amendment
The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3rd day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified, and the terms of their successors shall then begin. -
26th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age. -
14th Amendment
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. -
24th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
