Government 3e Chapter 5 Terms

Affirmative Action

The use of programs and policies designed to assist groups that have historically been subject to discrimination.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

The Native American civil rights group responsible for the occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973.

Black codes

Laws passed immediately after the Civil War that discriminated against freed people and other African Americans and deprived them of their rights.

Brown v. Board of Education

The 1954 Supreme Court ruling that struck down Plessy v. Ferguson and declared segregation and 'separate but equal' to be unconstitutional in public education.

Chicano

A term adopted by some Mexican American civil rights activists to describe themselves and those like them.

civil disobedience

An action taken in violation of the letter of the law to demonstrate that the law is unjust.

comparable worth

A doctrine calling for the same pay for workers whose jobs require the same level of education, responsibility, training, or working conditions.

coverture

A legal status of married women in which their separate legal identities were erased.

de facto segregation

Segregation that results from the private choices of individuals.

de jure segregation

Segregation that results from government discrimination.

Direct Action

Civil rights campaigns that directly confronted segregationist practices through public demonstrations.

Disenfranchisement

The revocation of someone’s right to vote.

Equal Protection Clause

A provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that requires the states to treat all residents equally under the law.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

The proposed amendment to the Constitution that would have prohibited all discrimination based on sex.

Glass Ceiling

An invisible barrier caused by discrimination that prevents women from rising to the highest levels of an organization.

grandfather clause

The provision in some southern states that allowed illiterate White people to vote because their ancestors had been able to vote before the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified.

hate crime

Harassment, bullying, or other criminal acts directed against someone because of bias against that person’s sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity, or disability.

intermediate scrutiny

The standard used by the courts to decide cases of discrimination based on gender and sex.

Jim Crow laws

State and local laws that promoted racial segregation and undermined Black voting rights in the south after Reconstruction.

literacy tests

Tests that required the prospective voter in some states to be able to read a passage of text and answer questions about it.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court ruling that allowed 'separate but equal' racial segregation under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

poll tax

Annual tax imposed by some states before a person was allowed to vote.

rational basis test

The standard used by the courts to decide most forms of discrimination.

Reconstruction

The period from 1865 to 1877 during which the governments of Confederate states were reorganized prior to being readmitted to the Union.

Stonewall Inn

A bar in Greenwich Village, New York, where the modern Gay Pride movement began after rioters protested the police treatment of the LGBTQ community.

strict scrutiny

The standard used by the courts to decide cases of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion.

Title IX

The section of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex.

Trail of Tears

The name given to the forced migration of the Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma in 1838–1839.

understanding tests

Tests requiring prospective voters in some states to explain the meaning of a passage of text.

white primary

A primary election in which only White people are allowed to vote.