Essay about African American History – Flashcards
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Stono Rebellion
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a 1739 uprising of slaves in South Carolina, leading to the tightening of already harsh slave laws
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Fugitive Slave Act
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a law that made it a crime to help runaway slaves; allowed for the arrest of escaped slaves in areas where slavery was illegal and required their return to slaveholders
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Eli Whitney
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A mechanical genius who invented the cotton gin, which was machine that separated the cotton from the seed. This greatly improved efficiency, and the South was able to clear more acres of cotton fields, which also increased the demand for slaves.
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Underground Railroad
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a system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North
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Harriet Tubman
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United States abolitionist born a slave on a plantation in Maryland and became a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad leading other slaves to freedom in the North
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Fredrick Douglas
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american abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and became the leading african american spokesperson and writer
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Harriet Beecher Stowe
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Wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book about a slave who is treated badly, in 1852. The book persuaded more people, particularly Northerners, to become anti-slavery.
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Dred Scott Case
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An 1858 Supreme Court case in which a slave sued for his freedom but the court ruled against Scott because he wasn't a U.S.citizen
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Emancipation Proclamation
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issued by Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, it declared that all slaves in the rebellious Confederate states would be free
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13th Amendment
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abolished slavery in the U.S.
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Black codes
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Southern laws designed to restrict the rights of the newly freed black slaves
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Ku Klux Klan
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founded in the 1860s in the south; meant to control newly freed slaves through threats and violence
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Benjamin Singleton
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Leader of African American pioneers know as exodusters, who moved to the Great Plains after the Civil War.
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Jim Crow Laws
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The "separate but equal" segregation laws state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965
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Poll tax
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a tax required before a person can vote
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Booker T. Washington
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Help founded NAACP, thought African American should focus on economic change over political change
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Plessy v. Ferguson
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Supreme Court ruled that segregation public places facilities were legal as long as the facilites were equal
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Grandfather Clause
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A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867; this was a way to keep black people from voting
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W.E.B. Du Bois
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fought for African American rights. Helped to found Niagra Movement in 1905 to fight for and establish equal rights. This movement later led to the establishment of the NAACP
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NAACP
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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1909 to work for racial equality
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Great Migration
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movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920
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Harlem Renaissance
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Period during the 1920's when New York City's Harlem became an intellectual and cultural capital for African Americans; rebirth of art and culture
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Josephine Baker
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African-American actress, singer, opera performer, first black women to star in major motion picture; she moved to France
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Louis Armstrong
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Leading African American jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance; he was a talented trumpeter whose style influenced many later musicians.
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Langston Hughes
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A leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "My People"
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Duke Ellington
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he was one of New York's most successful bandleaders, resident at Harlem's Cotton Club
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Zora Neale Hurston
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wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God; 20th century African-American writer; folklorist during the Harlem Renaissance
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Jesse Owens
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This African American athlete, born on an Alabama sharecropping farm, won three individual and one team gold medal in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. He became the first Olympian ever to win four gold medals. Adolf Hitler left the stadium to avoid congratulating him.
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Joe Louis
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1930s black heavyweight boxing champion; model to ghettos of how a poor man could rise to fame and fortune
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Jacob Lawerence
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Famous African American artist; completed a famous painting showing the Great Migration
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Jackie Robinson
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The first African American player in the major league of baseball. His actions helped to bring about other opportunities for African Americans.
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Brown v Board of Education
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Court ruled that segregation was unconstitutional, overturned Plessey v Ferguson; lead to the desegration of schools in 1954
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Rosa Parks
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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
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Martin Luther King Jr.
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America's greatest civil rights leader; his nonviolent protests gained national attention and resulted in government protection of African American rights; he was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, TN
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Miles Davis
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1940s&50s; black jazz musician invented bebop, rejecting white expectations for black music; challenged traditions, spontaneous, FREE; inspired challenging of authority and encouraged people to stand up for civil rights
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Sit-in
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nonviolent protests in which a person sits and refuses to leave; it was a way to protest in a nonviolent way
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Freedom Rides
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Freedom Riders rode in interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the ruling of unsegregated public places
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Malcom X
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Black nationalist; disagreed with nonviolent resistence as a way to win rights for African Americans, he advocated for violent resistence
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1964 Civil Rights Act
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created legal basis for nondiscrimination in housing, education, public accommodations, federally assisted programs, and employment; prohibits discrimination based on: race or color, sex or religion, national original
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Cassius Clay
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United States prizefighter who won the world heavyweight championship three times (born in 1942); became know as Muhammad Ali when he converted to Nation of Islam
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Thurgood Marshall
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American civil rights lawyer, first black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall was a tireless advocate for the rights of minorities and the poor
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Hank Aaron
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United States professional baseball player who hit more home runs than Babe Ruth
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Jesse Jackson
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United States civil rights leader who led a national anti-discrimination campaign and ran for presidential nomination (born in 1941)
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Colin Powell
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United States general who was the first Black to serve as Chief of Staff noun
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Rodney King
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an African-American motorist driver who, in 1991 was stopped and then beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers
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Barack Obama
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The first African American President of the United States
