African American History

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HIV/AIDS

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The spectrum of infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

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Homestead Act

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An act passed by Congress in 1862 enabling persons who settled on undeveloped 160-acre tracts of land to gain title after meeting certain criteria, such as residing on and cultivating the land for five years after the initial claim.

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Jim Crow Laws

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were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted after the Reconstruction period, these laws continued in force until 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in states of the former Confederate States of America, starting in 1890 with a "separate but equal" status for African Americans.

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Ku Klux Klan

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a secret organization in the southern U.S., active for several years after the Civil War, which aimed to suppress the newly acquired powers of blacks and to oppose carpetbaggers from the North, and which was responsible for many lawless and violent proceedings.

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Literacy Test

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an examination to determine whether a person meets the literacy requirements for voting, serving in the armed forces, etc.; a test of one's ability to read and write.

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Lynching

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to put to death, especially by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority

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Malcolm X

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Malcolm Little, often considered the unofficial leader of the Radical Civil Rights Movement.

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Marcus Garvey

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was a Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.

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Martin Luther King Jr

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was an American Baptist minister, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs.

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Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada

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was a United States Supreme Court decision holding that states that provided a school to white students had to provide in-state education to blacks as well. States could satisfy this requirement by allowing blacks and whites to attend the same school or creating a second school for blacks.

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National Urban League

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formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. It is the oldest and largest community-based organization of its kind in the nation. Its current President is Marc Morial.

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New Deal

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The set of programs and policies designed to promote economic recovery and social reform introduced during the 1930s by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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Niagara Movement

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which was organized in 1905, was the first significant organized black protest campaign in the twentieth century. The movement represented the attempt of a small but articulate group of radicals to challenge the then-dominant accommodationist ideas of Booker T. Washington.

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Pan-African Congress (1919)

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was held in Paris to coincide with the Paris Peace Conference ending World War One. It was held to develop a plan for lasting peace between the European states and the United States of America after the devastation of World War I.

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Paul Robeson

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was an American singer and actor who became involved with the Civil Rights Movement.

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Plessy v. Ferguson

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the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a Louisiana law passed in 1890 "providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races."

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Poll tax

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is one imposed equally on all adults at the time of voting and is not affected by property ownership or income.

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Populist Movement

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politically oriented coalition of agrarian reformers in the Middle West and South that advocated a wide range of economic and political legislation in the late 19th century.

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Proposition 209

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a California initiative constitutional amendment, was a November 1996 ballot measure to end affirmative action in state programs. This measure was part of a national debate in the 1990s and of a Republican Party drive to end all affirmative action programs in California.

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Race Riot

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public outbreak of violence between two racial groups in a community

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Racial Profiling

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is the act of suspecting or targeting a person of a certain race based on a stereotype about their race

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Radical Republicans

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was the name given to a faction in the U.S. Congress which advocated emancipation of slaves before and during the Civil War, and insisted on harsh penalties for the South following the war, during the period of Reconstruction.

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Ralph Ellison

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Reconstruction

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is the name of the historical period following the American Civil War during which the U.S. government attempted to resolve the divisions of the war, rebuild the southern economy, and integrate former slaves into the political and social life of the country.

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Red Shirts

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were white supremacist terrorist groups that were active in the late 19th century after the end of the Reconstruction era of the United States. They first appeared in Mississippi in 1875, when Democratic Party private terror units adopted red shirts to make themselves more visible and threatening to Southern Republicans, both white and freedmen.

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Ralph Bunche

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was an American political scientist, academic, and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s mediation in Israel.[2] He was the first African American and the first American person of color to be so honored in the history of the prize

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Redlining

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a discriminatory pattern of disinvestment and obstructive lending practices that act as an impediment to home ownership among African Americans and other people of color.

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Scalawags

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a native white Southerner who collaborated with the occupying forces during Reconstruction, often for personal gain.

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Sharecropping

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is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land.

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Shirley Chisholm

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the first African-American congresswoman in 1968. Four years later, she became the first major-party black candidate to make a bid for the U.S. presidency.

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Sipuel v. Board of Regents of Univ. of Okla.

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is a United States Supreme Court case involving racial segregation toward African Americans by the University of Oklahoma's and the application of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

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Sit-in

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a form of protest in which demonstrators occupy a place, refusing to leave until their demands are met.

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Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

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was formed in 1957 just after the Montgomery Bus Boycotthad ended. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) main aim was to advance the cause ofcivil rights in America but in a non-violent manner. From its inception in 1957, its president was Martin Luther King – a post he held until his murder in 1968.

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Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

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formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement, became one of the movement’s more radical branches. In the wake of the early sit-ins at lunch counters closed to blacks, which started in February 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Ella Baker, then director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), helped set up the first meeting of what became SNCC

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Sundown Town

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is a town, city, or neighborhood in the United States that is purposely all-white, excluding people of other races. The term came from signs that were posted stating that people of color had to leave the town by sundown.

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Tenant

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a person or group that rents and occupies land, a house, an office, or the like, from another for a period of time; lessee.

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The Crisis

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is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, W. S. Braithwaite, M. D. Maclean

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The Green Book

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Thurgood Marshall

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was a U.S. Supreme Court justice and civil rights advocate. Marshall earned an important place in American history on the basis of two accomplishments. First, as legal counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he guided the litigation that destroyed the legal underpinnings of Jim Crow segregation.

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Tuskegee Airmen

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is the popular name of a group of African-American military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces.

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Tuskegee Experiment

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United Negro College Fund

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Is an American philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for black students and general scholarship funds for 39 private historically black colleges and universities. A charity organization in the US which gives money and support to black students and black universities

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Universal Negro Improvement Association

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The United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was founded in 1914 by Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist movement leader. The UNIA advocated black pride, self-sufficiency, and a black separatist movement. The UNIA clashed with more moderate organizations like the NAACP, which emphasized integration and equality at home rather than the creation of a separate black state abroad.

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Voting Rights Act of 1965

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is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

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W.E.B. Dubois

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Scholar and political activist W.E.B. Du Bois helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). DuBois attended Harvard University and in 1895 became the first African-American to receive a doctorate from the school.

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White Flight

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the movement of white people, especially middle-class white people, from inner-city neighborhoods undergoing racial integration to the suburbs.

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White primaries

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were primary elections in the Southern states of the United States of America in which only white voters were permitted to participate.

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William Grant Still

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wasan African-American classical composer who wrote more than 150 compositions. Hewas the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra,the first to have a symphony (his first symphony) performed by a leadingorchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, andthe first to have an opera performed on national television. He is oftenreferred to as "the Dean" of African-American composers.

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William Hastie

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asan earlier Black political pioneer but today remains unknown to most Americans.As a politician, an educator and a jurist, Hastie made inroads and left alegacy that is hard to match in history.

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Yellow Journalism

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isa type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched newsand instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more news