Reconstruction
the period immediately after the Civil War from 1865 to 1877 when several United States administrations sought to reconstruct society in the former Confederate states in particular by establishing and protecting the legal rights of the newly freed black population.
President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States
Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation that Abraham Lincoln wrote that declared the slaves as freed.
10 Percent Plan
a reconstruction program that would allow Confederate states to establish new state governments after 10 percent of their male population took loyalty oaths and the states recognized the permanent freedom of formerly enslaved people.
Radical Republicans
a Republican favoring drastic and usually repressive measures against the southern states in the period following the Civil War.
Thaddeus Stevens
he agitated for emancipation, black fighting units, and black suffrage, and he drafted his own version of the 13th amendment.
President Andrew Johnson
With the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson (a democrat) became the 17th President of the United States.
Compromise of 1877
an informal, unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election
13th Amendment
abolished slavery in the United States
14th Amendment
grant citizenship rights to African-Americans
15th Amendment
granted African American men the right to vote
Suffrage
the right to vote in political elections
Freedmen’s Bureau
provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans.
Sharecropping
a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people.
Jim Crow Laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States.
Segregation
the practice of requiring separate housing, education and other services for people of color
Grandfather Clause
It provided that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1866 or 1867, and their lineal descendants, would be exempt from recently enacted educational, property, or tax requirements for voting.
Literacy test
used to keep people of color -- and, sometimes, poor whites -- from voting, and they were administered at the discretion of the officials in charge of voter registration.
Poll Taxes
a head tax that saw every adult pay a fixed rate amount set by their local authority in order to vote
KKK
an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group. African Americans are one of their main targets.
Emmett Till
was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of whistling at a white woman
Civil Rights Movement
movement in the United States beginning in the 1960s and led primarily by Blacks in an effort to establish the civil rights of individual Black citizens
Desegregation / Integration
a social process where members of different racial groups experience fair and equal treatment within a desegregated society.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans
Jackie Robinson
an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era
President Harry Truman
turned to his executive powers and issued orders prohibiting discrimination in federal employment and to end segregation in the military
Executive Order 9981
President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order banning segregation in the Armed Forces.
Rosa Parks
an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott
Montgomery Bus Boycott
a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery,
Thurgood Marshall
a civil rights lawyer who used the courts to fight Jim Crow and dismantle segregation in the U.S. Marshall was a towering figure who became the nation's first Black United States Supreme Court Justice.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional
Warren Court
The Warren Court expanded civil rights, civil liberties, judicial power, and the federal power in dramatic ways.
Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the exclusionary rule, which prevents prosecutors from using evidence in court that was obtained without a warrent
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own.
Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)
a United States Supreme Court case holding that criminal suspects have a right to counsel during police interrogations under the Sixth Amendment.
Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
the Supreme Court ruled that detained criminal suspects must be informed of their constitutional right to an attorney and against self-incrimination.
Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)
a historic Supreme Court ruling from 1969 that cemented students' rights to free speech in public schools.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
President Eisenhower sent Congress a proposal for civil rights legislation. The result was the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.
Little Rock Nine
nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
led the movement to end segregation and counter prejudice in the United States through the means of peaceful protest
Malcolm X
an African American leader in the civil rights movement, minister and supporter of Black nationalism. He was at odds with the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil Disobedience
the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. MLK was a fan of this.
Nonviolence
the use of peaceful means, not force, to bring about political or social change. MLK was a fan of this.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
dedicated itself to organizing sit-ins, boycotts and other nonviolent direct action protests against segregation and other forms of racial discrimination.
Greensboro Sit In
young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service.
Freedom Rides
made to challenge segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals.
March on Washington
The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. This is where MLK delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech.
March from Selma to Montgomery
hundreds of people gathered in Selma, Alabama to march to the capital city of Montgomery. They marched to ensure that African Americans could exercise their constitutional right to vote
President John F. Kennedy
defined the civil rights crisis as moral, as well as constitutional and legal. He announced that major civil rights legislation would be submitted to the Congress to guarantee equal access to public facilities, to end segregation in education, and to provide federal protection of the right to vote.
President Lyndon B. Johnson
He signed The Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination based on race or color, sex, religion or national origin. This act also prohibits discrimination in voter registration as well as segregation in schools, employment and public accommodations.
The Great Society
a set of domestic policy initiatives, programs, and legislation introduced in the 1960s in the U.S. These Great Society programs were intended to reduce poverty levels, reduce racial injustice, reduce crime, and improve the environment.
24th Amendment
prohibited any poll tax in elections for federal officials.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting
Economic Opportunity Act
establishing a variety of social programs aimed at facilitating education, health, employment, and general welfare for impoverished Americans.
Medicare/Medicaid
Medicare is a medical insurance program for people over 65 and younger disabled people and dialysis patients. Medicaid is an assistance program for low-income patients' medical expenses.
The Black Power Movement
It emphasized racial pride, economic empowerment, and the creation of political and cultural institutions. Malcolm X was the most influential thinker of what became known as the Black Power movement, and inspired others like Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party.
Huey P. Newton
joined the Afro-American Association and helped get the first African American History course adopted into the college's curriculum. founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP).
The Black Panther Party
It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality.
Stokely Carmichael
popularized the phrase "black power." Carmichael was a leading force in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), working in the Deep South to organize African American voters.