Late 20th Century History, Civil Rights, and Postmodernism

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the four waves of feminism, and characteristics of Postmodernism.

Ho Chi Minh

The leader of North Vietnam who sought to shake off oppression after hundreds of years of Chinese rule and whose troops defeated the French in $1954$.

Vietnam War

A conflict where LBJ began sustained bombing in $1965$, leading to the deaths of $58,000$ American soldiers, $300,000$ wounded, and $10,000$ paraplegics.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident

An event where the American ship USS mattox was chased out of North Vietnamese waters, leading President Johnson to send it and another ship back to show a strong response to communism.

My-lai

A massacre where $347$ innocent Vietnamese civilians were killed by US soldiers under the command of Lieutenant calley, which was hidden by the military for a year and a half.

Kent state

A location where student anti-war demonstrators were fired upon by national guardsman, resulting in $10$ students wounded and $4$ killed.

Watergate

A scandal where President Nixon broke the law by ordering his people to bug Democrats at the Watergate Hotel and was found guilty two years later.

Anti war art

Art that expresses or shows the horrors of war.

Pastiche

A characteristic of postmodernism involving the playing with or borrowing from older pieces since there are no absolutes.

Postmodernism (No center or absolutes)

A characteristic suggesting there is no inherent meaning to anything.

Postmodernism (Identity)

The concept that identity is constructed and is a performance consisting of different parts.

The civil rights movement

A movement occurring during the $1950\text{s}$ and $60\text{s}$ dedicated to achieving racial equality in the United States.

Brown versus Board of Education

A Supreme Court ruling stating that separate but equal is not equal, leading to the desegregation of American schools.

Rosa Parks

A woman arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat, whose planned arrest led to a year-long bus boycott and a 70\text{\\%} decline in ridership.

The Little Rock nine

Nine black students who were protected by $1,000$ paratroopers and $10,000$ guardsmen sent by President Eisenhower after being denied entry to high school by Governor Faubus.

Sit-ins

A form of protest where African-Americans occupied restaurant seats while enduring physical abuse and environmental hazards like rat poison to highlight unjust exclusion.

The freedom riders

A group of seven Black and six white people who rode buses from Washington DC to the south, facing mob violence and jail time in Mississippi.

Letter from Birmingham jail

Written by Martin Luther King Jr. after his arrest, addressing the difficulty of being told to wait by those who have never felt the sting of segregation.

Attack dogs and fire hoses

Tools used by the police chief in Birmingham, Alabama against student marchers, with water hoses powerful enough to strip flesh.

The March on Washington

An event where $250,000$ people nonviolently protested racial inequality and Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I have a dream speech.

4 little girls

The victims killed at the $16\text{th}$ St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama at $10:22\text{\,AM}$ on a Sunday morning.

Bloody Sunday

An event where marchers walking from Selma to Montgomery were beaten by State Highway patrolman, resulting in John Lewis having his skull cracked open.

March from Selma to Montgomery

A successful march that concluded with Martin Luther King stating that the arm of the moral universe is long but bends toward justice.

The voting rights act

Legislation signed by President Winton be Johnson following the public pressure caused by the televised violence of bloody Sunday.

Martin Luther King

A civil rights leader assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while helping organize a protest for sanitation workers.

Black identity

A new sense of self-awareness and self-definition that took hold among black Americans in the $1950\text{s}$ and $1960\text{s}$.

Feminism

A movement believing women are equal to men and deserve the same rights, privileges, and respect.

First wave of feminism

The period from the $1840\text{s}$ to $1920\text{s}$ focusing on votes for women, property rights, and educational and occupational equality.

Second wave of feminism

The period from the $1960\text{s}$ to $1990\text{s}$ focusing on workplace equality, ending sexual violence, and reproductive rights.

Third wave of feminism

The period from the $1990\text{s}$ to $2010\text{s}$ focusing on intersectionality, third world feminism, LGBTQ plus rights, and queer politics.

Fourth wave of feminism

The period from the $2010\text{s}$ to the present, focusing on the me too movement and bodily autonomy.

Pop art

Art that utilizes familiar, everyday mass consumer objects.

Postmodern architecture

A style of architecture that borrows playfully from various different styles.

Postmodern literature

Literature characterized by reminding the reader of the impossible task of finding meaning.

Postmodern art

Art that problematizes binary thinking and indicates there is no Center.