27 Flashcards
Rights liberalism
The conviction that individuals require government protection from discrimination. This version of liberalism was promoted by the civil rights and women’s movements and focused on identities — such as race or gender — rather than the general social welfare of New Deal liberalism.
Jim Crow
System of racial segregation in the South that lasted a century, from after the Civil War until the 1960s.
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
A prominent black trade union ofrailroad car porters working for the Pullman Company.
Congress of Racial Equality
Civil rights organization founded in 1942 in Chicago by James Farmer and other members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) that espoused
nonviolent direct action. In 1961 CORE organized a series of what were called Freedom Rides on interstate bus lines throughout the South to call attention to blatant violations of recent Supreme Court rulings against segregation in interstate commerce.
States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats)
A breakaway party of white Democrats from the South, formed for the 1948 election. Its formation shed light on an internal struggle between the civil rights aims of the party’s liberal wing and southern white Democrats.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Supreme Court ruling that overturned the “separate but equal” precedent established in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. The Court declared that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal and thus violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Yearlong boycott of Montgomery’s segregated bus system in 1955–1956 by the city’s African American population. The boycott brought Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence and ended in victory when the Supreme Court declared segregated seating on public transportation unconstitutional.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
After the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders formed this in 1957 to coordinate civil rights activity in the South.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
A student civil rights group founded in 1960 under the mentorship of activist Ella Baker. SNCC initially embraced an interracial and nonhierarchical structure that encouraged leadership at the grassroots level and practiced the civil disobedience principles of Martin Luther King Jr. As violence toward civil rights activists escalated nationwide in the 1960s, SNCC expelled nonblack members and promoted “black power” and the teachings of Malcolm X.
March on Washington
a quarter of a million people marched to the Lincoln Memorial to demand that Congress end Jim Crow racial discrimination and launch a major jobs program to bring needed employment to black communities.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Law that responded to demands of the civil rights movement by making discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations illegal. It was the strongest such measure since Reconstruction and included a ban on sex discrimination in employment.
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Party founded in Missisippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964. Its members attempted to attend the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as the legitimate representatives of their state, but Democratic leaders refused to recognize the party.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Law passed during Lyndon Johnson’s administration that empowered the federal government to intervene to ensure minorities’ access to the voting booth.
black nationalism
A major strain of African American thought that emphasized black racial pride and autonomy. Present in black communities for centuries, it periodically came to the fore, as in Marcus Garvey’s pan-Africanist movement in the early twentieth century and in various organizations in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party
Nation of Islam
A religion founded in the United States that became a leading source of black nationalist thought in the 1960s. Black Muslims preached an apocalyptic brand of Islam, anticipating the day when Allah would banish the white “devils” and give the black nation justice.
