Civil Rights and Vietnam Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering major people, events, laws, and strategies from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War era.

Jackie Robinson

Broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, symbolizing early progress toward racial integration.

Brown v. Board of Education

1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregated public schools unconstitutional.

Emmett Till

14-year-old African American whose 1955 lynching and open-casket funeral galvanized the civil rights movement.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

1955-56 mass protest against segregated buses in Alabama, sparked by Rosa Parks and led by MLK Jr.

Central High School (Little Rock 9)

1957 desegregation crisis where nine Black students integrated an Arkansas high school under federal protection.

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference; MLK-led organization that coordinated nonviolent civil rights campaigns.

Greensboro Sit-ins

1960 student-led lunch-counter protests in North Carolina that spread nationwide against segregation.

James Meredith and “Ole Miss”

First Black student admitted to the University of Mississippi in 1962 amid violent resistance.

Affirmative Action

Policies aimed at expanding opportunities for historically marginalized groups in education and employment.

Freedom Rides

1961 interracial bus trips testing desegregation of interstate travel; riders faced violent attacks.

March on Birmingham

1963 protests (Project C) where police dogs and fire hoses were used against demonstrators, spurring reform.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil rights leader who championed nonviolent protest and delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech.

March on Washington

August 1963 rally for Jobs and Freedom where MLK delivered his iconic speech.

16th Street Baptist Church

Birmingham church bombed in 1963, killing four girls and intensifying civil rights support.

Civil Rights Act (1964)

Landmark law banning discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and schools.

March on Selma

1965 voting-rights marches culminating in “Bloody Sunday” and passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Malcolm X

Nation of Islam spokesman turned Black nationalist leader who advocated self-defense; assassinated 1965.

Watts Riots

1965 six-day uprising in Los Angeles sparked by police brutality and economic inequality.

Black Panthers

1966 Black Power party promoting armed self-defense and community social programs.

Loving v. Virginia

1967 Supreme Court case striking down state bans on interracial marriage.

Civil Rights Act (1968)

Fair Housing Act that outlawed discrimination in sale or rental of housing.

Boston Busing (1970s)

Court-ordered desegregation plan using busing, met with violent protests in Boston.

Bakke Case

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978); upheld affirmative action but banned strict quotas.

Ho Chi Minh

Communist leader of Vietnamese independence movement and North Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem

Anti-communist Catholic leader of South Vietnam until his assassination in 1963.

LBJ

President Lyndon B. Johnson, escalated U.S. involvement in Vietnam and passed major civil rights laws.

Richard Nixon

U.S. president who pursued Vietnamization, withdrew troops, and later resigned after Watergate.

Gerald Ford

President (1974-77) who oversaw the final U.S. evacuation from Vietnam.

Vietminh

Nationalist-communist coalition that fought French colonial rule and later the U.S.

Viet Cong

South Vietnamese communist insurgents allied with North Vietnam.

Guerrilla Warfare

Irregular combat tactics—ambushes, hit-and-run—used effectively by Viet Cong and Vietminh.

Tet Offensive

January 1968 surprise attacks across South Vietnam that eroded U.S. public support for the war.

Chicago Democratic Convention

1968 convention marked by anti-war protests and violent police confrontations.

Vietnamization

Nixon policy shifting combat roles to South Vietnamese forces while withdrawing U.S. troops.

Fall of Saigon

April 30, 1975 capture of South Vietnam’s capital by North Vietnamese forces, ending the war.

Dien Bien Phu

1954 French defeat by Vietminh that led to the Geneva Accords and French withdrawal.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

1964 congressional authorization giving LBJ broad powers to wage war in Vietnam.