Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for Friday's quiz based on lecture notes.

Procedure

The methods or steps taken to accomplish something.

Fifth Amendment

An amendment to the Constitution that states that no person will have their life, liberty, or property taken away by the federal government without due process of law. This amendment protects your right to be treated fairly by the federal government.

Due Process

A requirement, stated in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, that treatment by state and federal governments that involves life, liberty, or property of individuals be reasonable, fair, and follow known rules and procedures.

Separate but Equal

The argument, once upheld by the Supreme Court but later reversed, that different public facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional if the facilities were of equal quality.

Segregation

The separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group from the rest of society.

Jim Crow Laws

Laws common in the South from 1877 until the 1950s that required African Americans to use separate schools and other public facilities and that prevented them from exercising the right to vote.

Equal Protection Clause

Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which has been used to prevent states from treating individuals unfairly because of their race, national origin, citizenship status, or gender. It prohibits laws that unreasonably and unfairly favor some groups over others; it states that laws may not arbitrarily discriminate against persons.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

This law ended segregation in public places including restaurants, movie theaters, and hotels. The law also said that employers could not unfairly discriminate against people because of their race, national origin, religion, or gender.

Boycott

To refuse to buy from or deal with a store or company as an act of protest.

First Amendment

Says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise."

Civil Rights Movement

A social movement in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, in which people organized to demand equal rights for African Americans and other minorities. People worked together to change unfair laws. They gave speeches, marched in the streets, and participated in boycotts.

Indian Citizenship Act (1924)

An act of Congress that recognized all American Indians as citizens of the United States and granted them the right to vote in federal elections.

Establishment Clause

The part of the First Amendment that says the government cannot declare an official religion.

Voting Rights Act

This act further protected the right to vote for all U.S. citizens. It forced the states to obey the Constitution. It made it clear that the right to vote could not be denied because of a person’s color or race.

Freedom of Expression

The right to make known one's attitudes, emotions, thoughts, feelings, etc., as protected by the First Amendment.

Free Exercise Clause

The part of the First Amendment that says the government may not stop anyone from holding any religious beliefs they choose and may not unfairly or unreasonably limit anyone’s right to practice their religious beliefs.

Literacy Test

A test that requires people to prove that they are able to read and write. Until 1964, these tests were used in various states throughout the country to keep minorities from voting.

Suffrage

The right to vote basically.

Poll Tax

A tax that voters in many states were required to pay in order to exercise their right to vote. These barriers were used until 1964 to prevent African Americans from voting.

Grandfather Clause

A law that stated that a citizen could vote only if his grandfather had been allowed to vote. The law made it impossible for African Americans to vote because their grandfathers had not been allowed to vote.

13th Amendment

This Amendment abolished slavery. It was adopted after the Civil War in 1865.

14th Amendment

An amendment to the Constitution that states that no person—including people who are not citizens—will have their life, liberty, or property taken away by state or local governments without due process of law. This amendment protects a citizen’s right to be treated fairly by his or her state and local governments. It also defines a citizen as anyone born or naturalized in the United States. It was one of the Civil War amendments.

15th Amendment

An amendment to the Constitution, ratified after the Civil War in 1870, that forbids the denial of voting rights to any person based on race, color, or whether that person was previously a slave.

19th Amendment

Added to the Constitution in 1920, it gave women the right to vote.

24th Amendment

The Amendment adopted in 1964 that forbids the levying of a poll tax or any other tax on eligible voters in elections for federal officials, including the president, vice president, and members of Congress.

26th Amendment

The amendment adopted in 1971 that says a state cannot deny someone the right to vote if they have reached the age of eighteen and are otherwise eligible to vote. Although eighteen-year-olds had already been accorded the vote in national elections by the Voting Rights Act of 1970, the Twenty-sixth Amendment assured them the vote in all elections.