Period 7 Vocab

Atlanta Compromise

Booker T. Washington’s speech, given at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895, where he urged African Americans to work hard and get along with others in their White communities, so as to earn the goodwill of the country

direct primary

a political reform that allowed for the nomination of candidates through a direct vote by party members, rather than by the choice of delegates at conventions; in the South, this strengthened all-White solidarity within the Democratic Party

initiative

a proposed law, or initiative, placed on the ballot by public petition

muckrakers

investigative journalists and authors who wrote about social ills, from child labor to the corrupt business practices of big businesses, and urged the public to take action

NAACP

the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization formed in 1909 by an interracial coalition including W. E. B. Du Bois and Florence Kelley

New Freedom

Woodrow Wilson’s campaign platform for the 1912 election that called for a small federal government to protect public interests from the evils associated with bad businesses

New Nationalism

Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912 campaign platform, which called for a powerful federal government to protect the American public

Niagara Movement

a campaign led by W. E. B. Du Bois and other prominent African American reformers that departed from Booker T. Washington's model of accommodation and advocated for a “Declaration of Principles” that called for immediate political, social, and economic equality for African Americans

Progressive Party

a political party started by Roosevelt and other Progressive Republicans who were unhappy with Taft and wanted Roosevelt to run for a nonconsecutive third term in 1912

Progressivism

a broad movement between 1896 and 1916 led by White, middle-class professionals for legal, scientific, managerial, and institutional solutions to the ills of urbanization, industrialization, and corruption

recall

to remove a public official from office by virtue of a petition and vote process

referendum

a process that allows voters to counteract legislation by putting an existing law on the ballot for voters to either affirm or reject

Silent Sentinels

women protesters who picketed the White House for years to protest for women’s right to vote; they went on a hunger strike after their arrest, and their force-feeding became a national scandal

Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt’s name for the kind of involved, hands-on government he felt the country needed

Taylorism

a system named for Fredrick Winslow Taylor, aimed at improving factory efficiency rates through the principle of standardization; Taylor’s model limited workers to repetitive tasks, reducing human contact and opportunities to think or collaborate

Wisconsin Idea

a political system created by Robert La Follette, governor of Wisconsin, that embodied many progressive ideals; La Follette hired experts to advise him on improving conditions in his state

Wobblies

a nickname for the Industrial Workers of the World, a radical Progressive group that grew out of the earlier labor movement and desired an industrial union model of labor organization

Anti-Imperialist League

a group of diverse and prominent Americans who banded together in 1898 to protest the idea of American empire building

dollar diplomacy

Taft’s foreign policy, which involved using American economic power to push for favorable foreign policies

Frontier Thesis

an idea proposed by Fredrick Jackson Turner, which stated that the encounter of European traditions and a native wilderness was integral to the development of American democracy, individualism, and innovative character

Open Door notes

the circular notes sent by Secretary of State Hay claiming that there should be “open doors” in China, allowing all countries equal and total access to all markets, ports, and railroads without any special considerations from the Chinese authorities; while ostensibly leveling the playing field, this strategy greatly benefited the United States

Roosevelt Corollary

a statement by Theodore Roosevelt that the United States would use military force to act as an international police power and correct any chronic wrongdoing by any Latin American nation threatening the stability of the region

Rough Riders

Theodore Roosevelt’s cavalry unit, which fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War

Seward’s Folly

the pejorative name given by the press to Secretary of State Seward’s acquisition of Alaska in 1867

sphere of influence

the goal of foreign countries such as Japan, Russia, France, and Germany to carve out an area of the Chinese market that they could exploit through tariff and transportation agreements

yellow journalism

sensationalist newspapers who sought to manufacture news stories in order to sell more papers

clear and present danger

the expression used by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the case of Schenck v. United States to characterize public dissent during wartime, akin to shouting “fire!” in a crowded theater

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson’s postwar peace plan, which called for openness in all matters of diplomacy, including free trade, freedom of the seas, and an end to secret treaties and negotiations, among others

Harlem Hellfighters

a nickname for the decorated, all-Black 369th Infantry, which served on the frontlines of France for six months, longer than any other American unit

Irreconcilables

Republicans who opposed the Treaty of Versailles on all grounds

League of Nations

Woodrow Wilson’s idea for a group of countries that would promote a new world order and territorial integrity through open discussions, rather than intimidation and war

liberty bonds

the name for the war bonds that the U.S. government sold, and strongly encouraged Americans to buy, as a way of raising money for the war effort

neutrality

Woodrow Wilson’s policy of maintaining commercial ties with all belligerents and insisting on open markets throughout Europe during World War I

prohibition

the campaign for a ban on the sale and manufacturing of alcoholic beverages, which came to fruition during the war, bolstered by anti-German sentiment and a call to preserve resources for the war effort

Red Scare

the term used to describe the fear that Americans felt about the possibility of a Bolshevik revolution in the United States; fear over Communist infiltrators led Americans to restrict and discriminate against any forms of radical dissent, whether Communist or not

Red Summer

the summer of 1919, when numerous northern cities experienced bloody race riots that killed over 250 persons, including the Chicago race riot of 1919

Reservationists

Republicans who would support the Treaty of Versailles if sufficient amendments were introduced that could eliminate Article X

Zimmermann telegram

the telegram sent from German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador in Mexico, which invited Mexico to fight alongside Germany should the United States enter World War I on the side of the Allies

bootlegging

a nineteenth-century term for the illegal transport of alcoholic beverages that became popular during prohibition

expatriate

someone who lives outside of their home country

flapper

a young, modern woman who embraced the new morality and fashions of the Jazz Age

Hollywood

a small town north of Los Angeles, California, whose reliable sunshine and cheaper production costs attracted filmmakers and producers starting in the 1910s; by the 1920s, Hollywood was the center of American movie production with five movie studios dominating the industry

Lost Generation

a group of writers who came of age during World War I and expressed their disillusionment with the era

Model T

the first car produced by the Ford Motor Company that took advantage of the economies of scale provided by assembly-line production and was therefore affordable to a large segment of the population

moving assembly line

a manufacturing process that allowed workers to stay in one place as the work came to them

nativism

the rejection of outside influences in favor of local or native customs

Negro nationalism

the notion that African Americans had a distinct and separate national heritage that should inspire pride and a sense of community

new morality

the more permissive mores adopted my many young people in the 1920s

return to normalcy

the campaign promise made by Warren Harding in the presidential election of 1920

Scopes Monkey Trial

the 1925 trial of John Scopes for teaching evolution in a public school; the trial highlighted the conflict between rural traditionalists and modern urbanites

Second Ku Klux Klan

unlike the secret terror group of the Reconstruction Era, the Second Ku Klux Klan was a nationwide movement that expressed racism, nativism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Catholicism

Teapot Dome scandal

the bribery scandal involving Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall in 1923

American individualism

the belief, strongly held by Herbert Hoover and others, that hard work and individual effort, absent government interference, comprised the formula for success in the U.S.

bank run

the withdrawal by a large number of individuals or investors of money from a bank due to fears of the bank’s instability, with the ironic effect of increasing the bank’s vulnerability to failure

Black Tuesday

October 29, 1929, when a mass panic caused a crash in the stock market and stockholders divested over sixteen million shares, causing the overall value of the stock market to drop precipitously

Bonus Army

a group of World War I veterans and affiliated groups who marched to Washington in 1932 to demand their war bonuses early, only to be refused and forcibly removed by the U.S. Army

Clark Memorandum

Hoover’s repudiation of the Roosevelt Corollary that justified American military intervention in Latin American affairs; this memorandum improved relations with America’s neighbors by reasserting that intervention would occur only in the event of European interference in the Western Hemisphere

Dust Bowl

the area in the middle of the country that had been badly overfarmed in the 1920s and suffered from a terrible drought that coincided with the Great Depression; the name came from the “black blizzard” of topsoil and dust that blew through the area

Scottsboro Boys

a reference to the infamous trial in Scottsboro, Alabama in 1931, where nine African American boys were falsely accused of raping two White women and sentenced to death; the extreme injustice of the trial, particularly given the age of the boys and the inadequacy of the testimony against them, garnered national and international attention

Smoot-Hawley Tariff

the tariff approved by Hoover to raise the tax on thousands of imported goods in the hope that it would encourage people to buy American-made products; the unintended result was that other nations raised their tariffs, further hurting American exports and exacerbating the global financial crisis

speculation

the practice of investing in risky financial opportunities in the hopes of a fast payout due to market fluctuations

Brains Trust

an unofficial advisory cabinet to President Franklin Roosevelt, originally gathered while he was governor of New York, to present possible solutions to the nations’ problems; among its prominent members were Rexford Tugwell, Raymond Moley, and Adolph Berle

Civilian Conservation Corps

a public program for unemployed young men from relief families who were put to work on conservation and land management projects around the country

interregnum

the period between the election and the inauguration of a new president; when economic conditions worsened significantly during the four-month lag between Roosevelt’s win and his move into the Oval Office, Congress amended the Constitution to limit this period to two months

Social Security

a series of programs designed to help the population’s most vulnerable—the unemployed, those over age sixty-five, unwed mothers, and the disabled—through various pension, insurance, and aid programs

Supreme Court Packing Plan

Roosevelt’s plan, after being reelected, to pack the Supreme Court with an additional six justices, one for every justice over seventy who refused to step down

Tennessee Valley Authority

a federal agency tasked with the job of planning and developing the area through flood control, reforestation, and hydroelectric power projects

Works Progress Administration

a program run by Harry Hopkins that provided jobs for over eight million Americans from its inception to its closure in 1943

appeasement

the policy of giving in to threats and aggression in the hopes that the aggressor will be satisfied and make no more demands

Big Three

the nickname given to the leaders of the three major Allied nations: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin

conscientious objectors

those who, for religious or philosophical reasons, refuse to serve in the armed forces

D-day

June 6, 1944, the date of the invasion of Normandy, France, by British, Canadian, and American forces, which opened a second front in Europe

Double V campaign

a campaign by African Americans to win victory over the enemy overseas and victory over racism at home

Enola Gay

the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima

Executive Order 9066

the order given by President Roosevelt to relocate and detain people of Japanese ancestry, including those who were American citizens

Fascism

a political ideology that places a heightened focus on national unity, through dictatorial rule, and militarism

internment

the forced incarceration of the West Coast Japanese and Japanese American population into ten relocation centers for the greater part of World War II

Manhattan Project

the code name given to the research project that developed the atomic bomb

materiel

equipment and supplies used by the military

Rosie the Riveter

a symbol of female workers in the defense industries

zoot suit

a flamboyant outfit favored by young African American and Mexican American men