America, 1920-1973: Opportunity and inequality - Key terms

Alphabet Agencies

Organisations established under the New Deal

American Dream

The belief that everyone has the right to be successful

Anarchist

A political person who doesn’t believe in any type of government

Black nationalists

African-Americans who were prepared to establish a separate African-American state

Black Panthers

A black nationalist group set up in the 1960s

Blacklisted

Barred

Bonus marcher

Former soldier who demanded his war pension sooner than it was due

Bootlegger

A smuggler of alcohol during prohibition

Boycott

A form of protest where you refuse to buy something or use a service

Charleston

A popular dance from the 1920s with very fast hand and body movements

Cold War

A period of tension between the capitalist USA and the Communist USSR

Consumer items

Goods that are sold direct to ordinary people for their home, for example TVs (as opposed to goods sold to other businesses)

CORE

Congress of Racial Equality. Set up in 1942 by James Farmer. Led the Freedom Rides

Corruption

Dishonest conduct by those in power

Credit

A kind of loan

Dust Bowl

An environmental disaster of the 1930s. Over-farming and drought made land infertile

Enforcement officers

Government agents who had to stop the transport and sale of alcohol under prohibition

Fireside chats

Roosevelt’s radio broadcasts to the nation. His way of reassuring the American public

Flapper

A young middle-class woman who drank, smoked and cut her hair short

Freedom Rides

Civil Rights campaigners took long bus rides to show that public transport was still segregated in the early 1960s

Hire purchase

Paying in instalments

Hooverville

A shanty town for the homeless in US cities during the Great Depression

Hundred days

The first 100 days of Roosevelt’s presidency when the New Deal was put in place

Ku Klux Klan

A white supremacist organisation that was popular in the southern states of the USA

Laissez-faire 

To leave something alone. In business, the government would not interfere to allow profits to increase 

Lend Lease

Arrangement for USA to supply weapons to Europe during the Second World War but not expect payment until after the war was over

Lynched

Killed by a mob without trial

Mass production

Making items quickly and on a big scale so making them cheaper

McCarthyism

To make accusations of treason (for example communism) without full evidence 

Medicare and Medicaid

Kennedy’s policies to improve health care for poor people in the USA

MIA

Montgomery Improvement Association. Founded in 1955 and led by Martin Luther King, it organised the Bus Boycotts in the same year

Migrated

Moving for jobs

Model T

The first mass produced car. Made by Henry Ford in 1908

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Nation of Islam

A black nationalist group led by Malcolm X

National Organization of Women 

Campaigned for gender equality

New Deal

Roosevelt’s policies to improve to relieve poverty, reduce unemployment and bring economic recovery

Non-violent direct action

The style of protest preferred by Martin Luther King

Production line

A new way of making good developed by Henry Ford 

Quota

A limited or fixed number of people or things

Red Scare

The fear of Communism in the 1920s

Repeal

To remove or reverse a law

Roe vs Wade

A court case that ended with abortion being legal in the first three months of pregnancy

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Set up in 1957 by Martin Luther King, it took part in many Civil Rights protests

Sit-in

A protest of sitting at lunch counters to end segregated seating

SNCC

Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee set up in 1960. It led the sit-in protests

Speakeasy

Illegal bar during prohibition

Speculator

An investor of money for the hope of gain, but also risking loss

Stock market

The buying and selling of shares in a company

Tariff

A type of tax charged on imports

Teenager

A new term used in the late 1950s for the rebellious youth

Temperance Movement

A Christian group that campaigned for Prohibition

Unconstitutional

Breaking the highest laws of America

Volstead Act (1919)

The law that started prohibition in 1920

Voting rights

The legal protections that allow people to vote

Wall Street Crash

The 1929 slump on the stock market in New York. People lost a lot of money and it led to the Great Depression of the 1930s

War Bonds

People bought bonds from the government boosting the government budget for war