Civil Rights Terms

study.

“New Frontier”

Kennedy’s plan, supports civil rights, pushes for a space program, wants to cut taxes, and increase spending for defense and military.

“Great Society”

1964, LBJ’s policies of fighting poverty and racial injustice.

Peace Corps

An agency established in 1961 to provide volunteer assistance to developing nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America

VISTA

American governmental organization (created 1964) that placed volunteers throughout the United States to help fight poverty through work on community projects with various organizations, communities, and individuals.

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

Group of mostly African American & Martin Luther King Jr.’s ministers who worked to fight injustice through nonviolence.

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)

Interracial American organization established in 1942 to improve race relations and end discriminatory policies through direct-action projects.

SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee)

1960s; Civil rights association created by student activist from the South

Black Panthers (1966)

Called for African Americans to become liberated through violence. Provided free lunches to African American children.

James Meredith

Registration (1963) at traditionally segregated University of Mississippi prompts riot, state ignores federal pleas for peaceful integration.

Stokely Carmichael

Coined the phrase “black power” and led SNCC away from a nonviolent approach.

Freedom Riders

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

Freedom Summer

1964 effort to register African American voters in Mississippi

Civil Rights Act of 1964

This act made racial, religious, and sex discrimination by employers illegal and gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

A law designed to help end formal and informal barriers (like literacy tests) to African-American suffrage.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Federal law prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or familial status. Also called Title VIII or Federal Fair Housing Act.

Kerner Commission

Group set up to investigate the causes of race riots in American cities in the 1960s

Caesar Chavez

Leader of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee who improved working conditions for Chicano workers.

Betty Friedan

1921-2006. American feminist, activist and writer. Best known for starting the “Second Wave” of feminism through the writing of her book “The Feminine Mystique"

Stonewall Riot

New York City - Triggered activist protests among gays and lesbians - police raided gay bar - people fought back - became symbol of oppression of gays, began the gay pride movement.

AIM (American Indian Movement)

A coalition that fought for Indian rights guaranteed by treaties (broken by the U.S. government many, many times over) and better conditions and opportunities for American Indians.

NOW (National Organization for Women)

Founded in 1966, called for equal employment opportunity and equal pay for women. Also championed the legalization of abortion and passage of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution.

ERA (Equal Rights Amendment)

A constitutional amendment originally introduced in Congress in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972, stating that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Despite public support, the amendment failed to acquire the necessary support from three-fourths of the state legislatures.

Title IX of Education Act of 1972

Prohibited gender discrimination in federally subsidized education programs.

Rachel Carson- Silent Spring

Her 1962 book exposed the use of pesticides and would lead Congress to pass clean air and water laws.

Ralph Nader- Unsafe at any Speed

His 1962 book lead Congress to pass automobile industry regulations that would save thousands of lives.

Civil Disobedience

A nonviolent, public refusal to obey allegedly unjust laws.

Goal of Civil Rights Movement

End segregation based on race.

Result of the baby boom

Need more food, clothes, housing

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

1954 - A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality.

Executive Order 9981

Issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. This executive order abolished discrimination “on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin” in the United States Armed Forces, and led to the end of segregation in the services during the Korean War (1950-1953)