CH 5

Discrimination

The use of any unreasonable and unjust criterion of exclusion.

Fourteenth Amendment

One of three Civil War amendments; it guaranteed equal protection and due process.

Civil rights

Guarantees of equal opportunity and protection through obligations imposed on government to protect individuals.

Affirmative action

Government policies or programs that seek to redress past injustices against specified groups by providing access to educational and employment opportunities.

Jim Crow laws

Laws enacted by southern states following Reconstruction that discriminated against African Americans.

Civil Rights Act

Landmark legislation that ended segregation in public spaces and prohibited discrimination based on race, gender, religion, sex, and national origin.

Nineteenth Amendment

Ratified in 1920, it guaranteed the right to vote for all American women.

Brown v Board of Education

The 1954 Supreme Court decision that struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine as fundamentally unequal.

Outcome of Brown v Board

Despite the ruling, fewer than 1% of Black children in the Deep South attended integrated schools by the mid-1950s.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

A protest sparked by Rosa Parks’ arrest, leading to over 40,000 Black riders boycotting the buses and resulting in the Supreme Court declaring bus segregation unconstitutional.

Student Sit-ins

Protests initiated by four Black college students at a Whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, involving over 70,000 participants.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

A 1963 event where over 200,000 protesters gathered to demand racial equality, highlighted by MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Selma-to-Montgomery Marches

Organized marches in 1965 to push for voting rights, marked by the violent "Bloody Sunday" attack on March 7.

1973 Rehabilitation Act

Legislation that outlawed discrimination against individuals based on disabilities.

NAACP's role in civil rights

Engaged in legal challenges, advocacy, and public awareness to dismantle segregation and promote equality legislation.