AP African American Studies: Vocabulary

#BlackLivesMatter

The hashtag for a national movement that protests all the ways that racism destroys black lives, including the state-sanctioned killing of black men and women by the police and the mass incarceration of people of African descent. 

#SayHerName

The hashtag for a social justice movement that calls attention to the invisibility of black women’s experience with police brutality and antiblack violence.

abolitionist movement

A loose coalition of organizations with black and white members that worked in various ways to end slavery immediately.

abroad marriages

 Marriages between slaves who belonged to different owners and lived on different plantations.

accommodationism

A strategy, popularized by Booker T. Washington, for achieving black progress through vocational/industrial training and an acceptance of the racial status quo, including segregation.

affirmative action

A set of ideas and programs aimed at compensating African Americans for past discrimination by giving them preferential treatment in hiring and school admissions.

American Missionary Association

 A Protestant missionary organization resulting from the merger of black and white missionary societies in 1846 to promote abolition and black education.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)(2009)

A measure intended to boost the economy that included tax incentives, expansion and unemployment benefits, aid to low-income workers and retirees, and money for infrastructure improvements.

Amistad Case

An 1839 slave insurrection aboard the Amistad, a Spanish ship, in international waters near Cuba. The case became a widely publicized abolitionist cause and ultimately reached the US Supreme Court, which freed the rebels in 1941.

asiento

A contract or trade agreement created by the Spanish crown

Atlanta Compromise speech (1895)

Booker T. Washington’s classic statement of racial conciliation and accommodationism

Atlantic Charter (1941)

 A document signed by President Franklin Rooselvelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchhill in August 1941. Among other things, it declared that all people had the right to economic advancement, to social security, and to choose their own form of government

barracoons

Barracks or sheds where some slaves were confined before boarding slave ships

bilboes

Iron hand and leg cuffs used to shackle slaves

Black Arts Movement

The cultural side of black power, in which black musicians, artists, dancers, playwrights, and novelists in the 1960s and 1970s used their talent to demonstrate black pride and nationhood

Black Cabinet

The informal name of the Federal Council on N e gro Affairs, a group of black New Deal political advisers organized by Mary McLeod Bethune in 1937

black church

A term often used to indicate the centrality of black religious congregations in African American life. Traditionally, the church served as an educational, social, and civil rights center as well as a place of worship. This does not, however, indicate that all black people attend the same church or belong to the same denomination

black codes:

Laws regulating the labor and behavior of freedpeople passed by southern states in the immediate aftermath of emancipation. These laws were overturned by the Civil Rights Act of 1866

black convention movement

A series of national, regional, and local conventions, starting in 1830, where black leaders addressed the concerns of free and enslaved blacks

Black History Month

A celebration of African American history and culture that began in 1926 as Negro History Week, established by Carter G. Woodson. It became Black History Month in 1976.

black laws

Laws adopted in some midwestern states requiring all free black residents to supply legal proof of their free status and post a cash bond of up to $1,000 to guarantee their good behavior.

black nationalism

A diffuse ideology founded on the idea that black people constituted a nation within a nation. It fostered black pride and encouraged black people to control the economy of their communities.

Black Reconstruction

The revolutionary political period from 1867 to 1877 when, for the first time ever,  black men actively participated in the mainstream politics of the reconstructed southern states and, in turn, transformed the nation’s political life.

black tax

A colloquial reference to the extra work African Americans must do to achieve the same goals as whites.  Many also use the term to indicate that black people, regardless of individual achievements, are held responsible for the behavior of black people collectively

Bloody Sunday (1965)

A confrontation on March 7, 1965, between black voting rights advocates and Alabama state troopers  on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

Bobalition

A rendition of the word abolition, based on what whites heard as a mispronunciation by blacks. It was used broadsides and in newspapers to mock free black celebrations of abolition

bozales

 A term used by the Spanish for recently imported African captives.

broken windows theory

A criminology theory that holds that if small crimes are left unaddressed, bigger, more serious crimes are sure to follow. For example, if the windows of a building are not repaired, vandals will break more windows, and soon the building itself will be burglarized. Cities that adopt the broken windows method of policing closely monitor behavior such as loitering and public alcohol and drug consumption in order to prevent crimes like larceny and murder.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids

The union formed in 1925 to represent the rights of low-paid black railroad workers.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

 A landmark US Supreme Court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) by declaring that segregated public schools were inherently unequal.

buffalo soldiers

Black soldiers who served in US army units in the West

busing

 A strategy to promote integration by transporting black children to predominantly white schools and white children to predominantly black schools.

carceral state

The extensive surveillance and criminalization of public spaces that results in restricted mobility and control of people’s behavior.

carracks/caravels

Small sailing ships used by the Portuguese to explore Africa and the Atlantic world. Lightweight, fast, and easy to maneuver, they generally had two or three masts

cash crops

Readily salable crops grown for commercial sale and export rather than local use

chain migration

A migration pattern in which initial migrants prepare the way for family members and friends to follow, creating migrant clusters from specific locales in their new settings

chattel slavery

A system by which slaves were considered portable property and denied all rights or legal authority over themselves or their children.

Chicago Renaissance

A rich and wide-ranging black arts movement of the 1930s and 1940s reflecting the cultural worlds of black Chicago

civil disobedience

The refusal to obey a law that one believes unjust

Civil RIghts Act of 1866

An act defining US citizenship and protecting the civil rights of freed people

Civil Rights Act of 1875

An act requiring equal treatment regardless of race in public accommodations and on public conveyances

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A law prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodation, outlawing bias in federally funded programs, authorizing the US Justice department to initiate desegregation lawsuits, and providing technical and financial aid to communities desegregating their schools. President Lyndon Johnson used his considerable influence to break a record-setting 534-hour filibuster in the Senate

Civil Rights Cases (1883)

A US Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875

Code Noir

The slave code used in France’s colonies in the Americas.

coffle

A group of animals, prisoners, or slaves chained together in a line

colonization

The idea that blacks should be sent back to Africa or moved to another territory outside the United States

Colored Farmers’ Alliance (CFA)

A late-nineteenth-century organization comprised of African American farmers and farm workers, which fought for farmers’ rights

Community Action Programs (CAPs)

Programs initiated and financed by President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty that directed anti-poverty agencies to involve poor people in solving the problems of their own communities

Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984)

A major revision of the US criminal code that included provisions increasing drug penalties and that incentivized law enforcement to cooperate with the Department of Defense to increase their surveillance of African American communities.

Compromise of 1850

A compromise aimed at reducing sectional tensions by admitting California as a free state; permitting the question of slavery to be settled be popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah Territories; abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia; resolving the Texas debt issue; ann enacting a new fugitive slave law

Confederate States of America

The eleven southern states that seceded from the United States in 1860 and 1861, precipitating the Civil War.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

An association of unions based on industry rather than skill. African Americans joined CIO unions in record numbers during World War II.

Congressional Black Caucus

An organization of black representatives that became an official presence in Congress in 1971. It supported black candidates, lobbied for social reforms, and attempted to fashion a national strategy to increase black political power.

conjure

Traditional African folk magic in which men and women called conjurers draw on the powers of the spirit world to influence human affairs

contraband

A refugee slave seeking protection behind Union lines. This designation recognized slaves’ status as human property and paved the way for their emancipation

convict lease

A penal system in which convict labor is hired out to landowners or businesses to generate income for the state.

country marks

Facial scars indicating particular African origins

creole:

A language that originated as a combination of other languages; the term creole can also refer to  people who are racially or culturally mixed.

Creole insurrection

An 1841 slave  insurrection aboard the Creole, a ship carrying 135 slaves from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to New Orleans, Louisiana