Civil Rights, Constitutional Amendments, and Women's Rights Leaders

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering major civil rights concepts, constitutional amendments, key legislation, and prominent figures in African American and women's rights movements.

racism

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against individuals based on their race, often rooted in the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior, alongside systemic institutional oppression.

discrimination

The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or other protected characteristics.

15th Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1870 that prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

prejudice

A preconceived opinion, bias, or judgment formed without reasonable justification, knowledge, or examination of facts, often directed against members of a specific social group.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1964 that prohibited both the federal government and state governments from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on the payment of a poll tax or any other tax.

13th Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1865 that officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Landmark federal legislation enacted to eliminate racial discrimination in voting, notably outlawing literacy tests and establishing federal oversight in jurisdictions with historic disenfranchisement.

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Landmark federal legislation, also known as the Fair Housing Act, that prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

A landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that unanimously declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, ruling that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

de jure segregation

Racial segregation that is mandated and enforced by laws, government statutes, or judicial rulings, such as Jim Crow laws.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Landmark federal legislation that prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, outlawing segregation in public accommodations and discriminatory employment practices.

Emancipation Proclamation

An executive order and presidential proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declaring that all enslaved persons within the rebellious Confederate states were to be set free.

de facto segregation

Racial segregation that occurs in practice and by custom, residential patterns, or voluntary associations rather than by legal requirement.

Plessy v Ferguson

An 1896 landmark Supreme Court case that established the constitutionality of racial segregation under the 'separate but equal' doctrine.

14th Amendment

A constitutional amendment ratified in 1868 granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteeing equal protection of the laws and due process.

Kamala Harris

The 49th Vice President of the United States, who made history as the first woman, first African American, and first South Asian American to hold the office.

Malcolm X

An influential African American Muslim minister, orator, and human rights activist who championed Black pride, self-defense, and empowerment during the Civil Rights era.

Emmett Till

A 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago who was brutally abducted and murdered in Mississippi in 1955, whose publicized death and open-casket funeral catalyzed the Civil Rights Movement.

W. E. B. DuBois

An eminent African American sociologist, historian, writer, co-founder of the NAACP, and leader of the Niagara Movement who advocated for immediate civil rights and higher education for Black Americans.

Sojourner Truth

An abolitionist, author, and women's rights activist born into slavery who delivered the famous 1851 address on gender and racial equality known as 'Ain't I a Woman?'.

Rosa Parks

A civil rights activist whose refusal to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Lucretia Mott

A Quaker abolitionist, social reformer, and women's rights pioneer who co-organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and co-wrote the Declaration of Sentiments.

Sandra Day O'Connor

An attorney and jurist who became the first female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from 1981 until 2006 after appointment by President Ronald Reagan.

Booker T. Washington

An African American educator, author, and orator who was the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute, advocating for economic self-reliance, vocational skills, and practical education.

Frederick Douglass

An escaped enslaved man who became an internationally renowned abolitionist leader, orator, writer, editor of The North Star, and champion of human rights and universal suffrage.

Susan B. Anthony

A leading 19th-century women's suffrage campaigner and social reformer who co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and dedicated her life to securing women the right to vote.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Baptist minister and central leader of the American Civil Rights Movement who championed nonviolent protest, organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and delivered the 'I Have a Dream' speech.

Betty Friedan

A feminist writer, activist, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), whose 1963 book 'The Feminine Mystique' is widely credited with igniting the second wave of American feminism.

Elizabeth Blackwell

A pioneering British-born physician who became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, graduating from Geneva Medical College in New York in 1849.

Emma Willard

A pioneering women's rights activist and educator who founded the Troy Female Seminary in New York in 1821, establishing the nation's first higher educational institution for young women.

Jeanette Rankin

A suffragist, pacifist, and politician from Montana who became the first woman elected to the United States Congress (House of Representatives) in 1916.

Katherine McCormick

A suffragist, biologist, and philanthropist who substantially financed the research and development that led to the creation of the first oral contraceptive pill.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

An abolitionist, author, and primary organizer of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention who authored the Declaration of Sentiments, launching the organized women's suffrage movement in the U.S.

Margaret Sanger

A birth control activist, public health nurse, and writer who opened the first birth control clinic in the United States and founded organizations that evolved into Planned Parenthood.