U.S. History-Postwar Prosperity & Civil Rights Vocabulary

GI Bill of Rights

Also known as Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 gave money to veternas to study in colleges, universities, gave medical treatment, loans to buy a house or farm or start a new business

Interstate Highway System

Ike backed the interstate highway act of 1956, a $27 billion plan to build forty-two thousand miles of sleek, fast motorways. Was also built in case if the U.S. was invaded the military can mobilize faster.

Levittown

In 1947, William Levitt used mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in surburban New York to help relieve the postwar housing shortage. Levittown became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after WWII.

22nd

Amendment

Limits the president to two terms.

Dwight Eisenhower

United States general who supervised the invasion of Normandy and the defeat of Nazi Germany

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

A 1978 Supreme Court decision holding that a state university could not admit less qualified individuals solely because of their race.

Affirmative action

A policy designed to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities

Baby Boomers

The 78 million people born during the baby boom, following World War II and lasting until the early 1960s

Suburbs

Residential areas surrounding a city. Shops and businesses moved to suburbia as well as people.

Bretton Woods Conference

1944, (FDR) , The common name for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in New Hampshire, 44 nations at war with the Axis powers met to create a world bank to stabilize international currency, increase investment in under-developed areas, and speed the economic recovery of Europe.

Gross National Product

The total value of goods and services, including income received from abroad, produced by the residents of a country within a specific time period, usually one year.

Social Activism

The attitude of taking an active part in events, especially in a social context.

24th

Amendment

Abolishes poll taxes

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This person used non- violent protest with the GOAL of desegregation of bus service in Montgomery, Alabama. RESULT: ended with Court-ordered bus integration. IMPORTANCE: he took desire the for justice among blacks & channeled it into nonviolent protests

C.O.R.E

Congress of Racial Equality

Thurgood Marshall

American civil rights lawyer, first black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall was a tireless advocate for the rights of minorities and the poor.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

Freedom Riders

Group of civil rights workers who took bus trips through southern states in 1961 to protest illegal bus segregation

Huey Newton

An American political and urban activist who founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The Black Panther Party worked for the right of self-defense for African-Americans in the United States.

Stokely Carmichael

a black civil rights activist in the 1960's. Leader of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. He did a lot of work with Martin Luther King Jr.but later changed his attitude. Carmichael urged giving up peaceful demonstrations and pursuing black power. He was known for saying,"black power will smash everything Western civilization has created."

Southern Christian Leadership Council

1957 group founded by Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against segregation using nonviolent means

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

students whose purpose was coordinate a nonviolent attack on segregation and other forms of racism

March on Washington

held in 1963 to show support for the Civil Rights Bill in Congress. Martin Luther King gave his famous "I have a dream..." speech. 250,000 people attended the rally

Brown vs. Board of Education

1954- court decision that declared state laws segregating schools to be unconstitutional. Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Rosa Parks

United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the national civil rights movement (born in 1913)

Sit-ins

protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at "whites only" lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000 participated in sit-ins across the South. Their success prompted the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

Black Panthers

A black political organization that was against peaceful protest and for violence if needed. The organization marked a shift in policy of the black movement, favoring militant ideals rather than peaceful protest.

Bobby Seale

militant founder/leader of the Black Panthers

Malcolm X

1952; renamed himself X to signify the loss of his African heritage; converted to Nation of Islam in jail in the 50s, became Black Muslims' most dynamic street orator and recruiter; his beliefs were the basis of a lot of the Black Power movement built on seperationist and nationalist impulsesto achieve true independence and equality