| Term | Definition |
| Plessy v. Ferguson | Supreme Court case which established separate but equal & led to Jim Crow laws |
| Jim Crow laws | Southern laws which separated the races after Plessy v. Ferguson |
| Brown v. Board of Education | Supreme Court case which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and ordered schools to be integrated |
| Thurgood Marshall | NAACP attorney who argued for desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education |
| National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) | oldest civil rights organization which worked for equality through court cases |
| Southern Manifesto | document by congressmen declaring their intention to ignore federal desegregation laws |
| Orval Faubus | Arkansas governor who defied the Supreme Court until Eisenhower sent in paratroopers to enforce desegregation |
| Little Rock 9 | first group of students to desegregate Central High in defiance of the governor |
| Rosa Parks | NAACP secretary who prompted the Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her seat in 1955 |
| Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) | Civil rights organization that organized the bus boycott, headed by MLK |
| Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) | pastor & civil rights leader who led SCLC and organized non-violent protests throughout the south |
| Soul Force | MLK's idea of using peaceful non-violent disobedience to work for civil rights |
| John Lewis | student leader of SNCC who organized sit-ins, spoke in Washington, & marched in Selma |
| Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) | civil rights organization devoted to achieving equality through non-violent civil disobedience |
| Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) | student-created & led civil right organization that worked for desegregation through sit-ins, freedom rides, & civil disobedience |
| Congress On Racial Equality (CORE) | created during WWII, civil rights organization which first used sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters, also organized freedom rides with SNCC |
| sit-ins | non-violent civil disobedience technique employed to desegregate lunch counters and businesses |
| Freedom riders | early 60s movement by SNCC & CORE members to desegregate buses in the South |
| George Wallace | racist governor of AL who refused to integrate schools & businesses in his state |
| Eugene "Bull" Connor | Public Safety Commissioner of Birmingham, he ordered fire hoses used on protestors |
| Birmingham, AL | site of protests where students and children were beaten, arrested and jailed for non-violent civil rights marches |
| Medgar Evers | NAACP organizer who was assassinated by the KKK in '65 |
| '63 March on Washington | civil rights event which led to the creation of the Civil Rights Act of '64 |
| Civil Rights Act of '64 | law signed by LBJ which ordered desegregation of all public facilities |
| Freedom Summer | event organized by SNCC to register voters in MS |
| Fannie Lou Hamer | civil rights leader who led the MFDP to the Democratic Conference in '64 |
| Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) | political group nominated to represent MS by black voters |
| Selma to Montgomery March | Memorial event originally stopped by police, it eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of '65 |
| Voting Rights Act of '65 | law signed by LBJ, it outlawed literacy tests & allowed federal officials to oversee registration |
| de jure segregation | separation of the races which occurs because of laws |
| de facto segregation | separation of the races which occurs because of tradition or practice |
| Watts Riots of '65 | Riots in LA which occurred because of police brutality & prejudice |
| Nation of Islam (NoI) | black separatist religion which preached that whites were evil & blacks should be independent of white influence |
| Malcolm X | Black Muslim (NoI) spokesman who called for armed self-defense against white racism & violence |
| Stokely Carmichael | former SNCC leader, he quit and joined the Black panthers after calling for "Black Power Now!" |
| "Black Power" | militant slogan for immediate equality coined by Stokely Carmichael prior to joining the Black Panthers |
| Black Panthers | militant civil rights political party created in CA due to police brutality |
| Huey Newton | militant founder/leader of the Black Panthers |
| Kerner Commission | federal committee which studied urban violence and found it resulted from racism by whites |
| Civil Rights Act of '68 | law signed by LBJ which made it illegal to discriminate in selling.renting homes |
| John F. Kennedy (JFK) | president created first civil rights bill of 1960s & protected freedom riders with federal escorts |
| Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) | JFK's vice-president who signed the 3 biggest civil rights acts of the 1960s |
| Robert Moses | organizer of Freedom Summer project in MS |
| James Meredith | first African-American student to integrate the University of MS |