African American Studies and Diaspora Flashcards

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards based on the lecture notes covering African history, the Transatlantic slave trade, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, and modern cultural frameworks.

Nok Society

An early West African civilization known for its ironworking and unique terracotta sculptures.

Mansa Musa

The 14th-century ruler of the Mali Empire famously associated with immense wealth and the city of Timbuktu.

Griots

West African storytellers, poets, and musicians who preserve the oral history and traditions of their people.

Partus sequitur ventrem

A legal doctrine established in the American colonies stating that the legal status of a child follows the mother, ensuring that children born to enslaved women became enslaved.

Middle Passage

The central part of the triangular trade route across the Atlantic Ocean where millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the New World.

Second Middle Passage

The domestic slave trade within the United States during the 19th century that relocated enslaved people from the Upper South to the booming cotton-producing regions of the Lower South.

Gullah Creole

A linguistic and cultural synthesis developed by African Americans in the Lowcountry regions of South Carolina and Georgia.

13th Amendment

The amendment to the US Constitution that abolished slavery throughout the United States.

14th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

15th Amendment

The constitutional amendment that prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The landmark Supreme Court decision that upheld the 'separate but equal' doctrine, legally sanctioning Jim Crow segregation.

The Nadir

The period from the end of Reconstruction through the early 20th century characterized by extreme racial violence and the peak of Jim Crow laws.

Double Consciousness

A concept described by W.E.B. DuBois regarding the internal conflict experienced by African Americans living in a white-dominated society.

Harlem Hellfighters

The 369th Infantry Regiment, an African American unit that served with distinction during World War One.

Double V Campaign

A World War Two-era initiative by African Americans advocating for victory over fascism abroad and victory over racism at home.

Brown v. Board of Education

The 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

Redlining

A discriminatory practice by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and banks that denied mortgages and services to African American neighborhoods.

Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964)

A volunteer campaign launched to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi.

Intersectionality

A term coined by Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how different social categories like race and gender overlap and create interdependent systems of discrimination.

Womanist

A term introduced by Alice Walker to describe the specific experiences and perspectives of Black feminists.

Afrofuturism

An aesthetic and philosophical movement that combines elements of African culture with technology and science fiction, exemplified by figures like Sun Ra.