Key Terms
- affirmative action
- the use of programs and policies designed to assist groups that have historically been subject to discrimination
- American Indian Movement (AIM)
- the Native American civil rights group responsible for the occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1973
- Black codes
- laws passed immediately after the Civil War that discriminated against freed slaves and other Black people and deprived them of their rights
- Brown v. Board of Education
- the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that struck down Plessy v. Ferguson and declared segregation and “separate but equal” to be unconstitutional in public education
- Chicano
- a term adopted by some Mexican American civil rights activists to describe themselves and those like them
- civil disobedience
- an action taken in violation of the letter of the law to demonstrate that the law is unjust
- comparable worth
- a doctrine calling for the same pay for workers whose jobs require the same level of education, responsibility, training, or working conditions
- coverture
- a legal status of married women in which their separate legal identities were erased
- de facto segregation
- segregation that results from the private choices of individuals
- de jure segregation
- segregation that results from government discrimination
- direct action
- civil rights campaigns that directly confronted segregationist practices through public demonstrations
- disenfranchisement
- the revocation of someone’s right to vote
- equal protection clause
- a provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that requires the states to treat all residents equally under the law
- Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
- the proposed amendment to the Constitution that would have prohibited all discrimination based on sex
- glass ceiling
- an invisible barrier caused by discrimination that prevents women from rising to the highest levels of an organization—including corporations, governments, academic institutions, and religious organizations
- grandfather clause
- the provision in some southern states that allowed illiterate White people to vote because their ancestors had been able to vote before the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified
- hate crime
- harassment, bullying, or other criminal acts directed against someone because of bias against that person’s sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity, or disability
- intermediate scrutiny
- the standard used by the courts to decide cases of discrimination based on gender and sex; burden of proof is on the government to demonstrate an important governmental interest is at stake in treating men differently from women
- Jim Crow laws
- state and local laws that promoted racial segregation and undermined Black voting rights in the south after Reconstruction
- literacy tests
- tests that required the prospective voter in some states to be able to read a passage of text and answer questions about it; often used as a way to disenfranchise racial or ethnic minorities
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- the 1896 Supreme Court ruling that allowed “separate but equal” racial segregation under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
- poll tax
- annual tax imposed by some states before a person was allowed to vote
- rational basis test
- the standard used by the courts to decide most forms of discrimination; the burden of proof is on those challenging the law or action to demonstrate there is no good reason for treating them differently from other citizens
- Reconstruction
- the period from 1865 to 1877 during which the governments of Confederate states were reorganized prior to being readmitted to the Union
- Stonewall Inn
- a bar in Greenwich Village, New York, where the modern Gay Pride movement began after rioters protested the police treatment of the LGBT community there
- strict scrutiny
- the standard used by the courts to decide cases of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion; burden of proof is on the government to demonstrate a compelling governmental interest is at stake and no alternative means are available to accomplish its goals
- Title IX
- the section of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex
- Trail of Tears
- the name given to the forced migration of the Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma in 1838–1839
- understanding tests
- tests requiring prospective voters in some states to be able to explain the meaning of a passage of text or to answer questions related to citizenship; often used as a way to disenfranchise Black voters
- White primary
- a primary election in which only White people are allowed to vote
