de jure segregation
Racial segregation that occurs because of laws or administrative decisions by public agencies.
de facto segregation
segregation by unwritten custom or tradition
Thrugood Marshall
African American lawyer who led the legal team that challenged segregation in the courts; later named a Supreme Court justice
Earl Warren
Chief Justice during the 1950's and 1960's who used a loose interpretation to expand rights for both African-Americans and those accused of crimes.
Rosa Parks
United States civil rights leader who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery (Alabama) and so triggered the national civil rights movement (born in 1913)
Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.
Martin Luther King Jr.
U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964)
Brown v. Board of Education
1954 - The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.
Sit-ins
protests by black college students, 1960-1961, who took seats at "whites only" lunch counters and refused to leave until served; in 1960 over 50,000 participated in sit-ins across the South. Their success prompted the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
grass-roots movement founded in 1960 by young civil rights activists
Freedom Ride
1961 protest by activists who rode buses through southern states to test their compliance with the ban on segregation on interstate buses
James Meridith
First African American student to go to All White University of Mississippi; Air Force Veteran
Medgar Evers
Director of the NAACP in Mississippi, instrumental in effort to desegregate University of Mississippi, and a lawyer who defended accused Blacks, he was murdered in his driveway by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
March on Washington (1963)
August - 200,000 demonstrators converged on the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. King's speech and to celebrate Kennedy's support for the civil rights movement. (putting pressure on the federal government to pass civil rights legislation)
Civil Rights Act of 1964
outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
1957 group founded by Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against segregation using nonviolent means
Freedom Summer (1964)
Effort by civil rights groups in Mississippi to register black voters during the summer of 1964
Fannie Lou Hamer
spokesperson for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the 1964 Democratic Convention
Voting Rights Act of 1965
a law designed to help end formal and informal barriers (literacy test or any other devices used to deny the vote) to African-American suffrage
Twenty-fourth Amendment
The constitutional amendment passed in 1964 that declared poll taxes void in federal elections.
Kerner Commission
created in July, 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes of the 1967 race riots in the United States
Malcom X
Radical African-American civil rights leader who encouraged violent responses to racial discrimination
Nation of Islam
African American religious organization founded in the 1930s that advocated separation of the race
Black Power
a 1960s movement that urged African Americans to use their collective political and economic power to gain equality
Black Panthers
A black political organization that was against peaceful protest and for violence if needed. The organization marked a shift in policy of the black movement, favoring militant ideals rather than peaceful protest. (founded 1966)
John F. Kennedy
president during part of the cold war and especially during the superpower rivalry and the Cuban missile crisis. he was the president who went on tv and told the public about the crisis and allowed the leader of the Soviet Union to withdraw their missiles. other events, which were during his terms was the building of the Berlin Wall, the space race, and early events of the Vietnam War. Assassinated 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.
Richard Nixon
Vice President under Eisenhower and 37th President of the United States. Advocated Vietnamization of war (replace US troops with Vietnamese Troops) Resigned from office in Watergate scandal
Lyndon Johnson
Kennedy's VP, sworn in as President when Kennedy Shot. Elected on his on in 1964, Democrat , signed the civil rights act of 1964 into law and the voting rights act of 1965. he had a war on poverty in his agenda. in an attempt to win, he set a few goals, including the great society, the economic opportunity act, and other programs that provided food stamps and welfare to needy families. he also created a department of housing and urban development. his most important legislation was probably Medicare and Medicaid.
Fidel Castro
Cuban socialist/communist leader who overthrew a dictator in 1959 and established a Marxist socialist/communist state in Cuba (born in 1927)
Peace Corps
(JFK) , volunteers who help third world nations and prevent the spread of communism by getting rid of poverty, Africa, Asia, and Latin America
Alliance for Progress
(JFK) 1961,, a program in which the United States tried to help Latin American countries overcome poverty and other problems, money used to aid big business and the military
Bay of Pigs Invasion
failed invasion of Cuba in 1961 when a force of 1,200 Cuban exiles (led by CIA), backed by the United States, landed at the Bay of Pigs.
Nikita Khrushchev
A Soviet leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also famous for denouncing Stalin and allowed criticism of Stalin within Russia.
Cuban Missile Crisis
1962 crisis that arose between the United States and the Soviet Union over a Soviet attempt to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba
hot line
direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin set up after the Cuban missile crisis
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
(JFK) 1963, Wake of Cuban Missile Crisis (climax of Cold War, closest we've ever come to nuclear war) Soviets & US agree to prohibit all above-ground nuclear tests, both nations choose to avoid annihilating the human race w/ nuclear war, France and China did not sign
Berlin Wall
A wall separating East and West Berlin built by East Germany in 1961 to keep citizens from escaping to the West
New Frontier
The campaign program advocated by JFK in the 1960 election. He promised to revitalize the stagnant economy and enact reform legislation in education, health care, civil rights, and to explore space.
Equal Pay Act
1963 law that required both men and women to receive equal pay for equal work
deficit spending
Government practice of spending more than it takes in from taxes
Space Race
A competition of space exploration between the United States and Soviet Union.
Warren Commission
committee that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy
War on Poverty
President Lyndon B. Johnson's program in the 1960's to provide greater social services for the poor and elderly through education, job training, health care, and nutrition
Economic Opportunity Act
law passed in 1964 creating antipoverty programs
Great Society
President Johnson called his version of the Democratic reform program the Great Society. In 1965, Congress passed many Great Society measures, including Medicare, civil rights legislation, and federal aid to education.
Medicare
A federal program of health insurance for persons 65 years of age and older
Medicaid
A federal and state assistance program that pays for health care services for people who cannot afford them.
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
law that changed the national quota system to limits of 170,000 immigrants per year from the Eastern Hemisphere and 120,000 per year from the Western Hemisphere
Warren Court
the Supreme Court during the period when Earl Warren was chief justice, noted for its activism in the areas of civil rights and free speech
Ho Chi Minh
1950s and 60s; communist leader of North Vietnam; used guerilla warfare to fight anti-communist forces; demanded Vietnam's independence from France in post ww2 era
Domino Theory
A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control.
Dien Bien Phu
A town of northwest Vietnam near the Laos border. The French military base here fell to Vietminh troops on May 7, 1954, after a 56-day siege, leading to the end of France's involvement in Indochina.
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)
defensive alliance aimed at preventing the spread of communism in Southeast Asia
Vietcong
A group of Communist guerrillas who, with the help of North Vietnam, fought against the South Vietnamese government in the Vietnam War.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
1964 congressional resolution that authorized President Johnson to commit American troops to South Vietnam and fight a war against North Vietnam
William Westmoreland
American General who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak from 1964 to 1968
Napalm
Highly flammable chemical dropped from US planes in firebombing attacks during the Vietnam War.
Agent Orange
a toxic leaf-killing chemical sprayed by U.S. planes in Vietnam to expose Vietcong hideouts
Students for a Democratic Society
organization founded to fight racism but which later campaigned against the Vietnam War
Credibility Gap
American public's growing distrust of statements made by the government during the Vietnam War
Tet Offensive
a coordinated assault, in January 1968, by the Vietcong and North Vietnamese on South Vietnamese cities and bases
Eugene McCarthy
1968 Democratic candidate for President who ran to succeed incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson on an antiwar platform.
Robert Kennedy
He was a Democrat who ran for president in 1968 promoting civil rights and other equality based ideals. He was ultimately assassinated in 1968, leaving Nixon to take the presidency but instilling hope in many Americans.
Silent Majority
A phrase used to describe people, whatever their economic status, who uphold traditional values, especially against the counterculture of the 1960s
Vietnamization
Nixon's plan for American forces to withdraw and South Vietnamese forces to assume more combat duties
Kent State Massacre
site of a confrontation between students and National Guardsmen during which four students were killed
My Lai Massacre
The killing of 200 Vietnamese old men, women and children by American soldiers
Pentagon Papers
A 7,000-page top-secret United States government report on the history of the internal planning and policy-making process within the government itself concerning the Vietnam War.
Paris Peace Accords
1973 peace agreement between the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Vietcong that effectively ended the Vietnam War.
War Powers Act
1973. A resolution of Congress that stated the President can only send troops into action abroad by authorization of Congress or if America is already under attack or serious threat.
Henry Kissinger
The main negotiator of the peace treaty with the North Vietnamese; secretary of state during Nixon's presidency (1970s).
Realpolitik
the belief that political goals should be defined by concrete national interests instead of abstract ideologies
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
Treaty signed in 1972 by the United States and the Soviet Union that froze the deployment of intercontinental ballistic missiles and placed limits on antiballistic missiles
Detente
flexible diplomacy adopted by Richard Nixon to ease tensions between the United States, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China
Counterculture
a movement in which people adopted values that ran counter to the mainstream culture
The Beatles
a hugely popular British rock band that helped spearhead the cultural revolution of the 1960s
Timothy Leary
Former Harvard psychologist who experimented with psychoactive drugs (including LSD) and became a well-known advocate of their use as a way to open and expand the mind.
Feminism
the theory of the political, social, and economic equality of men and women
Betty Friedan
1921-2006. American feminist, activist and writer. Best known for starting the "Second Wave" of feminism through the writing of her book "The Feminine Mystique".
National Organization for Women
Founded in 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) called for equal employment opportunity and equal pay for women. NOW also championed the legalization of abortion and passage of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution.
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
constitutional amendment passed by Congress but never ratified that would have banned discrimination on the basis of gender
Gloria Steinem
a feminist leader and writer who sought to raise the public's awareness of gender issues
Phyllis Schlafly
1970s; a new right activist that protested the women's rights acts and movements as defying tradition and natural gender division of labor; demonstrated conservative backlash against the 60s
Roe v. Wade
The controversial 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
Cesar Chavez
an influential Latino activist who fought for farm laborers' rights
Chicano Movement
a Mexican-American effort for social and political equality
American Indian Movement (AIM)
a civil rights group organized to promote the interests of Native Americans
Ralph Nader
wrote "Unsafe at Any Speed" (1960s) that helped to create the modern consumer movement.
Rachel Carson
wrote a landmark book, Silent Spring, which argued that human actions were harming the environment
Earth Day
annual event of environmental activism and protest, begun in 1970
Environmental Protection Agency
federal agency established in 1970 to clean and protect the environment
Clean Air Act
act passed in 1970 that lessened air pollution by limiting emissions from factories and automobiles
Clean Water Act
1973 law that limited water pollution caused by industry and agriculture
Endangered Species Act
1973 act to protect at-risk plants and animals
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
group of countries which sell oil to other nations and cooperate to regulate the price and supply of oil
Southern Strategy
Nixon's plan to make the Republican Party a powerful force in the South by attracting the votes of blue-collar workers and southern whites
Affirmative Action
a policy that gives special consideration to women and minorities in order to make up for past discrimination
Watergate
the scandal that began with a burglary of Democratic Party headquarters and led to Nixon's resignation
executive privilege
the principle that the President has the right to keep certain information confidential
Gerald Ford
became President in 1974 after Nixon's resignation
Jimmy Carter
a former governor of Georgia who was elected President in 1976
Helsinki Accords
document that put the nations of Europe on record in favor of human rights, endorsed by the United States and the Soviet Union in a 1975 meeting
SALT II
Additional arms limitations signings in 1979 which places limits on long-range missiles, bombers and nuclear warheads.
Boat People
people who fled communist-controlled Vietnam on boats, looking for refuge in Southeast Asia, the United States, and Canada
Camp David Accords
agreements that provided the framework for a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel
Ayatollah Khomeini
a fundamentalist Islamic cleric who took power in Iran when the Shah fled in 1979
Iran Hostage Crisis
In November 1979, revolutionaries stormed the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage. The Carter administration tried unsuccessfully to negotiate for the hostages release. On January 20, 1981, the day Carter left office, Iran released the Americans, ending their 444 days in captivity.