Chapter 10 Flashcards
Transformational Years
A movement of African Americans during the 1950s and 60s that centered on African Americans fighting for their constitutional rights and the end of segregation
Civil Rights Movement
Supreme Court case in which the Court reversed the Plessy decision and ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional due to the fact that separate facilities are inherently unequal because they did not present minority students with the same opportunities that were offered in white schools
Brown v. Board of Education
African American woman who ignited the Montgomery Bus boycott when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger
Rosa Parks
An incredibly intelligent man and gifted public speaker who became the recognized leader of the Civil Rights Movement, believed in non-violent civil disobedience, led the March on Washington, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the march from Selma to Montgomery, and was eventually assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee
Martin Luther King Jr.
Boycott in which African American citizens of Montgomery, Alabama united to boycott public transportation after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. It lasted over a year until the Supreme Court ruled that buses in Montgomery must be integrated (desegregated); it also made Martin Luther King, Jr. a national figure
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Non-violent refusal to obey unjust laws
Civil Disobedience
Nonviolent protests in which blacks sat in segregated places until they were served or arrested
Sit-In
Bus Rides in which integrated groups of whites and blacks would ride interstate buses to test Supreme Court decisions requiring interstate buses to be desegregated
Freedom Rides
March by civil rights supporters on the nation’s capital at which Dr. King gave perhaps his most famous speech
March on Washington
Well-known black militant leader of the 1960s who was eventually assassinated after he softened his original views that all whites were evil and began advocating that whites and blacks work together for social/racial justice
Malcolm X
President who succeeded Kennedy and actively supported civil rights legislation and affirmative action
Lyndon B. Johnson
Law that prohibited segregation in public accommodations (hotels, restaurants, and theaters that served an interstate clientele) and discrimination in education and employment and gave the president the power to enforce the new law
Civil Rights Act
Outlawed poll taxes
24th Amendment
Authorized the president to suspend literacy tests for voter registration and to send federal officials to register voters in the event that county officials failed to do so
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Impacted the civil rights movement. The Soviets pointed out to the leaders of developing nations, the hypocrisy in US ideology. They tried to convince non-white people that the US only offered freedom to people of white European descent and that people of color could not trust the US. US presidents like Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson understood this. They supported new civil rights legislation meant to increase US credibility in places like Africa and diffuse the Soviet’s arguments. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders understood this too. King and others used this to their advantage to put pressure on the federal government to support civil rights
The Cold War
Greatly impacted the civil rights movement. Rather than simply reading about civil rights demonstrations at which police beat and arrested peaceful demonstrators, TV viewers could see it with their own eyes. Helped expose the brutality of southern officials in putting down non-violent protests.
The Media
Name of Lyndon B. Johnson’s domestic programs which included VISTA, Job Corps, Medicare and Medicaid, Head Start, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the establishment of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Great Society
Refers to Johnson’s attempts and programs designed to end poverty in the US
War on Proverty
Small, southeast Asian Nation in which the US eventually became involved in a war between the communist north and pro-us South
Vietnam
Resolution that gave the president the authority to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States.” In effect, it gave Johnson the power to take military actions in Vietnam without having to get approval from Congress
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Intense bombing campaign against North Vietnam ordered by President Johnson
Operation Rolling Thunder
Used effectively by the Viet Cong, it is a style of fighting that involves striking fast and without warning and then retreating before one’s enemy can fully respond
Guerrilla Warfare