Civil Rights Vocabulary
By : Talibah D. Khabeer
Civil Rights :
the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality
Social Movement :
are a worldwide series of political movements for equality before the law, that peaked in the 1960s. In many situations they have been characterized by nonviolent protests, or have taken the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change through nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations, they have been accompanied, or followed, by civil unrest and armed rebellion. The process has been long and tenuous in many countries, and many of these movements did not, or have yet to, fully achieve their goals, although the efforts of these movements have led to improvements in the legal rights of some previously oppressed groups of people, in some places.
Civil disobedience :
the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest.
De jure segregation :
is separation enforced by law, while de facto segregation occurs when widespread individual preferences, sometimes backed up with private pressure, lead to separation.
Desegregation :
was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, particularly desegregation of the school systems and the military (See Military history of African Americans).
Boycott :
withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.
Sit Ins :
withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.
Nonviolent Protest :
is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, or other methods, without using violence.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference :
is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC, which is closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a large role in the American Civil Rights Movement.
SNCC :
was one of the most important organizations of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a student meeting organized by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in April 1960.
CORE :
became one of the leading activist organizations in the early years of the American Civil Rights Movement. In the early 1960s, CORE, working with other civil rights groups, launched a series of initiatives: the Freedom Rides, aimed at desegregating public facilities, the Freedom Summer voter registration project and the historic 1963 March on Washington.
Little Rock Nine :
was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas.
Black Panthers :
a member of a militant political organization set up in the US in 1966 to fight for black rights.
Montgomery Bus Boycott :
On December 1, 1955, four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks' court hearing and lasted 381 days.
March on Washington :
for Jobs and Freedom, the March on Washington, or The Great March on Washington, was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history and demanded civil and economic rights for African Americans.
Civil Rights Act (1957, 1960, 1964) :
was also Congress's show of support for the Supreme Court's Brown decisions,
the Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which had eventually led to the integration (desegregation) of public schools. was a United States federal law that established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote. is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
the Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which had eventually led to the integration (desegregation) of public schools. was a United States federal law that established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote. is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 :
signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73) on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a federal agency that administers and enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination.
24th Amendment :
On January 23, 1964, the United States ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials.
Emmett Till :
was an African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman.
Rosa Parks :
was an African American civil rights activist, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement"
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. :
was an American Baptist minister, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
Malcolm X :
was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist.
James Meredith :
is a Civil Rights Movement figure, writer, political adviser and Air Force veteran.
George Wallace :
was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Alabama, having served two nonconsecutive terms and two consecutive terms as a Democrat: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. Wallace has the third longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history, at 16 years and four days.
Stokely Carmichael :
was a Trinidadian-American revolutionary active in the Civil Rights Movement, and later, the global Pan-African movement.
Earl Warren :
was an American jurist and politician, who served as the 30th Governor of California and later the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.
Dwight D. Eisenhower :
was an American politician and general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961.
Lyndon B. Johnson :
was the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969, assuming the office after serving as the 37th Vice President of the United States under President John F. Kennedy, from 1961 to 1963.