American Expierence Flashcards
Alexander Hamilton
American statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was an influential interpreter and promoter of the U.S. Constitution
Thomas Jefferson
American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence
Checks and balances
counterbalancing influences by which an organization or system is regulated, typically those ensuring that political power is not concentrated in the hands of individuals or groups.
Constitution
a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed.
Articles of Comfederation
the first constitution of the United States, on November 15, 1777.
Federalists
an advocate or supporter of federalism.
Anti-Federalists
opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government
Plessy vs Ferguson
U.S. Supreme Court case from 1896 that upheld the rights of states to pass laws allowing or even requiring racial segregation in public and private institutions
Brown vs the Board of Education
landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.
Sit-Ins
a form of protest in which demonstrators occupy a place, refusing to leave until their demands are met.
13th amendment
declared that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
14th Amendment
citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.
15th Amendment
prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color, or previous condition of servitude
19th Amendment
prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex
Literacy Test
a test that determines the qualification of a voter based on his/her his ability to read and write or ability to read and understand any section of the State or Federal Constitution
Poll Tax
a tax levied on every adult, without reference to income or resources.
MLK JR
American civil rights activist and Baptist minister who first rose to prominence as leader of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott challenging segregated public transportation.
Malcom X
An African-American political leader of the twentieth century. A prominent Black Muslim
Patriot Act
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001
Defense of Marriage Act
United States federal law that, prior to being ruled unconstitutional, defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
commonly referred to as The Stimulus or The Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009 and signed into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama.
African Slavery
the business or process of procuring, transporting, and selling slaves, especially black Africans to the New World prior to the mid-19th century. Origin of slave trade Expand
Middle Passage
the sea journey undertaken by slave ships from West Africa to the West Indies.
Slave Auction
a platform from which an auctioneer sells: the old courthouse where slaves were sold from the auction block.
Flappers
fashionable young woman intent on enjoying herself and flouting conventional standards of behavior.
Prohibition
the action of forbidding something, especially by law
Scopes Trial
formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act
Mormons
member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a religion founded in the US in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr.
Speakeasies
(during Prohibition) an illicit liquor store or nightclub.
Catholics
a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
Chicago Race Riots
The Chicago race riot of 1919 was a major racial conflict that began in Chicago, Illinois on July 27, 1919 and ended on August 3. During the riot, thirty-eight people died (23 African American and 15 white) and over five hundred were injured.
Al Chapone
United States gangster who terrorized Chicago during prohibition until arrested for tax evasion
Bootleggers
to carry (alcoholic liquor) on one’s person illegally
Zoot Suit Riots
a series of racial attacks in June 1943 in Los Angeles, California, United States, between Mexican American youths and European American servicemen stationed in Southern California.
Sacco and Vanzetti
Two anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were convicted of a robbery and two murders in Massachusetts in the early 1920s and sentenced to death.
Charles Lindbergh
United States aviator who in 1927 made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean
Chivington Massacre
was a massacre in the American Indian Wars that occurred on November 29, 1864
Dawes Plan
was an attempt in 1924 to solve the World War I reparations problem, which had bedeviled international politics following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles.
Ghost Dance
a religious ceremony introduced by the Paiute tribe in an area that is now present-day Nevada.
Sitting Bull
A Native American leader of the Sioux tribe in the late nineteenth century.
Wounded Knee
located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota,was the site of two conflicts between North American Indians and representatives of the U.S. government.
Crazy Horse
A Sioux chief of the nineteenth century. Crazy Horse was one of the leaders of the Native American forces at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.
