12.3 - African American History Since 1877

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from notes on the Black Church, Reconstruction, and Black education.

African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)

The oldest independent African American denomination, founded in Philadelphia in 1794 by Richard Allen.

Richard Allen

Formerly enslaved man who purchased his freedom and founded the AME Church; abolitionist leader.

Underground Railroad

A network of routes and safe houses that helped enslaved people escape to freedom; Black religious leaders assisted in some escapes.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil rights leader who used religion, nonviolent resistance, and the prophetic tradition to challenge Jim Crow; invoked spirituals.

The Black Church

Religious institutions that provided leadership, space for envisioning a different world, and later a political voice for African Americans.

Jim Crow

System of racial segregation and disenfranchisement targeting Black Americans; central to Civil Rights struggle.

The Black Church in the 20th Century

Proliferation of Black churches after the late 1800s; central to Black life and political organizing during the Civil Rights era.

The Black Church Today

An enduring institution in the Black community, described as essential and multifaceted in supporting Black life.

Port Royal Experiment

1861 federal effort in Port Royal, SC to rebuild the South, control territory, and test Reconstruction strategies.

Freedmen's Bureau

Federal agency that organized hundreds of schools for Black people; by 1869, 3,000 schools and 150,000 students; funded education.

Mary Pete

A free Black woman who opened schools for Black people in 1861.

Ellen Murray

Opened Penn School on St. Helena's Island as part of the Port Royal experiment.

Penn School

Educational institution established on St. Helena's Island during the Port Royal experiment.

Freedom Schools

Black-run schools that taught etiquette and social skills for navigating white society.

Moonlight Schools

Night schools offering education, including farming techniques and financial literacy.

Illiteracy equaled enslavement

Belief that learning to read and write was essential for freedom and self-determination.

Education and Freedom

Idea that freedom and education were inseparable after emancipation; many schools established with Freedmen's Bureau support.

Black Colleges

Institutions founded by Northern churches and societies in the 1860s–70s; many became land-grant and expanded across the South.

Lincoln Institute

1866 institution established with funds raised by Black enlisted men (one of the early Black colleges).

Fisk University

Historically Black university established under the Freemen's Bureau era development.

Hampton University

Historically Black university established under the Freedmen's Bureau era development.

Avery University

Institution established under the Freedmen's Bureau as part of the Black college expansion.

Slater Fund

Fund to support Black education; collaborated with the American Missionary Association.

American Missionary Association

Northern religious organization that supported Black education and worked with the Slater Fund.

White Southern Reactions

Hostility and violence toward Black education; schools burned, teachers killed; no integrated schools post-emancipation.

Disenfranchisement (1877)

Post-1877 effort to deny Black people voting rights; central issue in Franklin's What Shall We Do About 1877.

What Shall We Do About 1877?

John Hope Franklin's book discussing Black disenfranchisement at the ballot box from 1877 into the 1920s.