Midterm Flashcards
Black Codes
Laws passed by state governments in the South in 1865 and 1866 that sought to keep formerly enslaved people subordinate to white people. At the core of the black codes lay the desire to force freedmen back to the plantations.
Bonus Marchers
World War I veterans who marched on Washington, D.C., in 1932 to peacefully lobby for immediate payment of the pension (“bonus”) promised them in 1924. President Herbert Hoover feared that the veterans would set off riots and sent the U.S. Army to evict them from the city.
Bossism
Pattern of urban political organization that arose in the late nineteenth century in which an often corrupt “boss” maintains an inordinate level of power through command of a political machine that distributes services to its constituents.
Boxer Uprising
Uprising in China led by the Boxers, an antiforeign society, in which 30,000 Chinese converts and 250 foreign Christians were killed. An international force rescued foreigners in Beijing, and European powers imposed the humiliating Boxer Protocol on China in 1901.
Cripple Creek Miners Strike of 1894
Strike led by the Western Federation of Miners in response to an attempt to lengthen their workday to ten hours. With the support of local businessmen and the Populist governor of Colorado, the miners successfully maintained an eight-hour day.
18th Amendment
Constitutional amendment banning the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Congress passed the amendment in December 1917, and it went into effect in January 1920.
14 Points
Woodrow Wilson’s plan, proposed in 1918, to create a new democratic world order with lasting peace. Wilson’s plan affirmed basic liberal ideals, supported the right to self-determination, and called for the creation of a League of Nations. Wilson compromised on his plan at the 1919 Paris peace conference, and the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the resulting treaty.
Freedmen’s Bureau
Government organization created in March 1865 to distribute food and clothing to destitute southerners and to ease the transition from enslaved to free person.
Haymarket Bombing
May 4, 1886, conflict in which both workers and policemen were killed or wounded during a labor demonstration in Chicago. The violence began when someone threw a bomb into the ranks of police at the gathering. The incident created a backlash against labor activism.
Homestead Act of 1862
Act that promised 160 acres in the trans-Mississippi West free to any citizen or prospective citizen who settled on the land for five years. The act spurred American settlement of the West. Altogether, nearly one-tenth of the United States was granted to settlers.
Knights of Labor
The first mass organization of America’s working class. Founded in 1869, the Knights of Labor attempted to bridge the boundaries of ethnicity, gender, ideology, race, and occupation to build a “universal brotherhood” of all workers.
Muckraking
Early-twentieth-century style of journalism that exposed the corruption of big business and government. Theodore Roosevelt coined the term after a character in Pilgrim’s Progress who was too busy raking muck to notice higher things.
19th Amendment
Constitutional amendment granting women the vote. Congress passed the amendment in 1919, and it was ratified in August 1920. Like proponents of prohibition, the advocates of woman suffrage triumphed by linking their cause to the war.
People’s Party
Political party formed in St. Louis in 1892 by the Farmers’ Alliance to advance the goals of the Populist movement. Populists sought economic democracy, promoting land, electoral, banking, and monetary reform. Republican victory in the presidential election of 1896 effectively destroyed the People’s Party.
Plessy vs. Ferguson
1896 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the legality of racial segregation. According to the ruling, Blacks could be segregated in separate schools, restrooms, and other facilities as long as the facilities were “equal” to those provided for whites.
