Key Vocabulary from African American History

These flashcards cover significant terms and concepts from the study of African American history, detailing definitions and contexts relevant to the subject.

Race

One of the main groups to which people are often considered to belong, based on physical characteristics they are perceived to share, such as skin color or eye shape; it is a social trait.

One-drop rule

A legal principle of racial classification asserting that any person with even one ancestor of African ancestry is considered black; outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1967.

Reparations

Measures taken by the government to repair violations of human rights by providing material and symbolic benefits to victims or their families, as well as affected communities.

Affirmative action

A set of policies and practices seeking to address systemic discrimination and promote diversity, social equity, and social inclusion.

Apartheid

Racial segregation enforced by law in South Africa, characterized by a policy of 'separate but equal'.

DEI

Stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion; programs and strategies designed to promote these values.

Middle passage

The Atlantic slave trade transportation route from Africa to the United States.

Triangular trade

A trading system between Europe, Africa, and the USA involving the exchange of goods and slaves.

Jim Crow laws

Laws that legalized racial segregation in the United States from the post-Civil War era until 1968.

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization formed in 1909 to advance justice for African Americans.

Burning of Black Wall Street

A two-day-long white supremacist massacre in 1921 targeting the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a prosperous black community.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 declaring the freedom of all enslaved people in the Confederate states.

The Great Migration

The mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to urban areas in the North and West in search of better opportunities and to escape racial discrimination.

Harlem Renaissance

A cultural movement in the 1920s characterized by a flourishing of African American arts, literature, and music.

Civil rights movement

A movement aimed at ending racial discrimination and promoting equal rights for African Americans, especially prominent during the 1950s and 1960s.

COINTELPRO

The FBI's Counter Intelligence Program, designed to surveil, infiltrate, and disrupt domestic political organizations deemed subversive.

Black Lives Matter

A movement advocating for the rights and dignity of Black individuals, especially in relation to police violence and systemic racism.