Georgia History Lecture Notes

A set of flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to Georgia's history, focusing on events, legislation, and significant figures.

AAA

Agricultural Adjustment Act; a New Deal program created to help farmers by paying them to plant fewer crops, thereby raising crop prices by reducing supply.

GI Bill

Legislation passed in 1944 that provided various benefits to returning World War II veterans, including low-interest mortgages and grants for college tuition.

FDIC

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; a New Deal agency that protects depositors' funds in banks, ensuring public confidence in the United States banking system.

CCC

Civilian Conservation Corps; a public work relief program for unemployed, unmarried men that focused on environmental conservation projects like reforestation and park construction.

TVA

Tennessee Valley Authority; a New Deal agency created to provide navigation, flood control, and electricity generation to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly hit by the Great Depression.

Black Codes

Laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War specifically aimed at restricting the rights and freedoms of African Americans.

Jim Crow Laws

State and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States from the late 19th century until 1965.

13th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

14th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the laws.

15th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that prohibited federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Tenant Farming

An agricultural system where a farmer rents land from a landowner and usually owns their own tools and equipment, paying the landlord in cash or a share of the crop.

Sharecropping

An agricultural system where a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a portion of the harvest; the tenant often lacks their own tools and remains in a cycle of debt.

Muckrakers

Progressive Era journalists and writers who exposed corruption in government and big business, as well as social issues like urban poverty.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A landmark 1896 Supreme Court case that legalized state-ordered segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were 'separate but equal.'

Cotton Gin

A machine invented by Eli Whitney that separates cotton fibers from their seeds, which exponentially increased cotton production and the demand for slave labor.

Bourbon Triumvirate

A group of three powerful Georgia politicians (Joseph E. Brown, Alfred H. Colquitt, and John B. Gordon) who dominated state politics following Reconstruction, favoring industrial growth and white supremacy.

Alonzo Herndon

A former slave who became a successful barber and entrepreneur, eventually founding the Atlanta Life Insurance Company and becoming one of the wealthiest African Americans in Atlanta.

Leo Frank Case

A 1913 trial in Atlanta where a Jewish factory manager was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan; he was later kidnapped from prison and lynched by a mob.

Prohibition

The period from 1920 to 1933 when the 18th Amendment banned the production, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages in the U.S.

Temperance Movement

A social movement dedicated to promoting moderation or complete abstinence from the consumption of alcoholic beverages, often led by women's groups.

Henry Grady

Journalist and orator known as the 'Spokesman of the New South' for his promotion of industrial expansion and diversification of agriculture in Georgia.

International Cotton Exposition

A series of fairs held in Atlanta (1881, 1885, 1895) intended to show off the city's recovery and industrial progress to attract Northern investment.

Tom Watson

Georgia politician and leader of the Populist Party who initially supported interracial cooperation but later became a staunch white supremacist and isolationist.

Populist Party

A political party formed in the 1890s (The People's Party) that primarily represented the interests of farmers and laborers against elites.

1906 Atlanta Race Riot

A multi-day period of violence in Atlanta sparked by false newspaper reports of attacks on white women, leading to the deaths of dozens of African Americans.

Booker T. Washington

African American educator who gave the 'Atlanta Compromise' speech, suggesting that Black citizens should focus on economic self-improvement rather than immediate social equality.

W.E.B. DuBois

Civil rights activist and co-founder of the NAACP who disagreed with Booker T. Washington, advocating for immediate social and political equality and the 'Talented Tenth'.

Boll Weevil

An insect that migrated from Mexico into the Southern U.S., destroying cotton crops and devastating the Georgia economy in the 1910s and 1920s.

Drought of 1924

A severe natural disaster in Georgia that, alongside the boll weevil, led to the destruction of the state's agriculture and a deep economic depression before the 1929 crash.

Eugene Talmadge

A powerful Georgia Governor and white supremacist who opposed many of FDR's New Deal programs because he believed they helped African Americans and expanded federal power.

Warm Springs

A town in Georgia where President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited frequently for polio treatments, leading to the inspiration for New Deal programs like the Rural Electrification Act (REA).