US History Unit 4 vocab

graft

The illegal use of political influence for personal gain.

social gospel movement

Reform program that wanted to help immigrants and the urban poor. It preached salvation could be obtained by service to the poor.

jane addams

Leader of the settlement house movement. She founded Chicago's Hull House in 1889.

ellis island

Immigration station located in New York Harbor.

civil service

Jobs related to government administration. These type jobs were given out to politicians' supporters (patronage) until the Pendleton Act forced candidates to take a qualifying test.

political machines

Organized groups that controlled the activities of a political party in a city. They offered services to voters and businesses in exchange for political or financial favors. They then used their office for corruption (bribes and kickbacks).

settlement houses

Community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to people in the area, especially immigrants

nativism

Overt favoritism toward native-born Americans. These people hated immigrants because of their different customs and willingness to work for lower wages.

chinese exclusion act

1882 law that banned entry into the United States for all unskilled Chinese immigrants.

patronage

Giving of government jobs to people who had helped a candidate get elected in a campaign. This often led to corrupt and unqualified people being appointed.

gentlemen's agreement

Deal under which Japan's government agreed to limit immigration of unskilled workers to the United States in exchange for the repeal of the San Francisco segregation order.

pendleton civil service act

1883 law that authorized a bipartisan civil service commission to make appointments to federal jobs through a merit system based on candidates' performance on an examination.

plessy v. ferguson

1896 court case that ruled against a black man who was arrested for sitting in the white section of a Louisiana train car. The case established a "separate but equal" doctrine that will make segregation legal for the next 60 years.

jim crow laws

legislation passed in the South that will separate blacks into separate facilities and force them to endure 2nd class services (schools, transportation, voting, etc.)

poll tax

What one had to pay in order to vote. Southern states used this to keep blacks from voting.

boss tweed

He was leader of the Tammany Hall political machine in New York. He led a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the NYC taxpayers of millions.