APUSH - Chapter 18 Key Terms

Plessy v. Ferguson

An 1896 Supreme Court case that ruled that racially segregated railroad cars and other public facilities, if they claimed to be “separate but equal,” were permissible according to the Fourteenth Amendment.

Young Men’s Christian Association

Introduced in Boston in 1851, the YMCA promoted muscular Christianity, combining evangelism with athletic facilities where men could make themselves “clean and strong.”

Negro Leagues

All-African American professional baseball teams where black men could showcase athletic ability and race pride. The leagues thrived until the desegregation of baseball after World War II.

Sierra Club

An organization founded in 1892 that was dedicated to the enjoyment and preservation of America’s great mountains (including the Sierra Nevadas) and wilderness environments. Encouraged by such groups, national and state governments began to set aside more public lands for preservation and recreation.

National Park Service

A federal agency founded in 1916 that provided comprehensive oversight of the growing system of national parks.

National Audubon Society

Named in honor of antebellum naturalist John James Audubon, a national organization formed in 1901 that advocated for broader government protections for wildlife.

Comstock Act

An 1873 law that prohibited circulation of “obscene literature,” defined as including most information on sex, reproduction, and birth control.

liberal arts

A form of education pioneered by President Charles W. Eliot at Harvard University, whereby students chose from a range of electives, shaping their own curricula as they developed skills in research, critical thinking, and leadership.

Atlanta Compromise

An 1895 address by Booker T. Washington that urged whites and African Americans to work together for the progress of all. Delivered at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, the speech was widely interpreted as approving racial segregation.

maternalism

The belief that women should contribute to civic and political life through their special talents as mothers, Christians, and moral guides. Maternalists put this ideology into action by creating dozens of social reform organizations.

Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

An organization advocating the prohibition of liquor that spread rapidly after 1879, when charismatic Frances Willard became its leader. Advocating suffrage and a host of reform activities, it launched tens of thousands of women into public life and was the first nationwide organization to identify and condemn domestic violence.

National Association of Colored Women

An organization created in 1896 by African American women to provide community support. Through its local clubs, the NACW arranged for the care of orphans, founded homes for the elderly, advocated temperance, and undertook public health campaigns.

National American Woman Suffrage Association

Women’s suffrage organization created in 1890 by the union of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association. Up to national ratification of suffrage in 1920, the NAWSA played a central role in campaigning for women’s right to vote.

feminism

The ideology that women should enter the public sphere not only to work on behalf of others, but also for their own equal rights and advancement. Feminists moved beyond advocacy of women’s voting rights to seek greater autonomy in professional careers, property rights, and personal relationships.

natural selection

Charles Darwin’s theory that when individual members of a species are born with random genetic mutations that better suit them for their environment - for example, camouflage coloring for a moth - these characteristics, since they are genetically transmissible, become dominant in future generations.

Social Darwinism

An idea, actually formulated not by Charles Darwin but by British philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer, that human society advanced through ruthless competition and the “survival of the fittest.”

eugenics

An emerging “science” of human breeding in the late nineteenth century that argued that mentally deficient people should be prevented from reproducing.

realism

A movement that called for writers and artists to picture daily life as precisely and truly as possible.

naturalism

A literary movement that suggested that human beings were not so much rational agents and shapers of their own destinies as blind victims of forces beyond their control.

modernism

A movement that questioned the ideals of progress and order, rejected realism, and emphasized new cultural forms. Modernism became the first great literary and artistic movement of the twentieth century and remains influential today.

American Protective Association

A powerful political organization of militant Protestants, which for a brief period in the 1890s counted more than two million members. In its virulent anti-Catholicism and called for restrictions on immigrants, the APA prefigured the revived Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s.

Social Gospel

A movement to renew religious faith through dedication to public welfare and social justice, reforming both society and the self through Christian service.

fundamentalism

A term adopted by Protestants, between the 1890s and the 1910s, who rejected modernism and historical interpretations of scripture and asserted the literal truth of the Bible. Fundamentalists have historically seen secularism and religious relativism as markers of sin that will be punished by God.

Thomas Edison

An American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world.

John Muir

Also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States.

Booker T. Washington

An American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, he was the primary leader in the African-American community and of the contemporary Black elite.

Frances Willard

An American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. She became the national president of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until her death in 1898.

Ida B. Wells

An American investigative journalist, sociologist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Mark Twain

An American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced.”

Billy Sunday

An American evangelist and professional baseball outfielder. He played for eight seasons in the National League before becoming the most influential American preacher during the first two decades of the 20th century.