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16 - Academic Vocabulary

Terms in this set (83)

Aftermath ~ In the aftermath of World War II, America sought to demonstrate to the world the merit of free democracies over communist dictatorships.
noun ~ the period following an event, such as an accident or war, and the effects caused by the event
Bloat ~ Photographs of Till's bloated, mutilated body were published in magazines and newspapers, rallying support and sympathy across the country and focusing a light on the racism and violence of the South.
verb ~ to swell up, or to make someone or something swollen
Brutish ~ Astonished Americas watched footage of brutish, White Southerners mercilessly harassing respectful African American children trying to get an education.
adjective ~ rough, unpleasant, and often violent
Condone ~ The entire episode, from the Jim Crow system that condoned segregation and racial hatred, to the murder and trial showed the extent to which White power was rooted in the society of the South and perpetuated with violence and fear.
verb ~ accept behavior that is consider wrong or offensive
Degradation ~ The degradation of African Americans was complete.
noun ~ the process where something is made worse or changed to a lower state
Emergence ~ In the 1920s, the Great Migration brought thousands of African Americans to the cities of the North and through the work of Du Bois and great writers like Langston Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance led to the emergence of the idea of the New Negro, and the real struggle for equality was born.
noun ~ the act of coming out into view
Escort ~ In the end, only Bridges chose to attend and federal marshals escorted her to class to protect her.
verb ~ accompany; go along with
Felony ~ The Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, declared "no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor" and the state legislature passed a law that denied admission to any person "who has a crime of moral turpitude against him" or who had been convicted of any felony offense or not pardoned.
noun ~ a serious crime such as burglary or murder
Flirt ~ Although what happened at the store is a matter of dispute, Whites in the area believed Till had been flirting with or whistling at Bryant.
verb ~ to trifle or toy with, not seriously intended
Hypocrisy ~ But its segregation system exposed fundamental hypocrisy.
noun ~ pretending to be what you are not, or pretending to believe something that you do not
Impasse ~ He feared that the Brown decision could lead to an impasse between the federal government and the states.
noun ~ a situation in which no progress can be made
Inherently ~ "Separate facilities are inherently unequal," wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren.
adverb ~ in a permanent, essential, or characteristic way
Integrated ~ However, after years of war, and another ten years of occupation of the defeated South, Northerners grew tired of the project of Reconstruction and in 1877 the armies of the North returned home and abandoned their project of creating a new, more racially integrated South.
verb ~ having and including different racial, religious or ethnic groups as equals
Irate ~ Word of this spread throughout the community, and a thousand irate White citizens stormed the school grounds.
adjective ~ very angry
Mercilessly ~ Astonished Americas watched footage of brutish, White Southerners mercilessly harassing respectful African American children trying to get an education.
adveb ~ in a way that has or shows no mercy, kindness or willingness to forgive
Mutilated ~ They took him away and beat and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River.
verb ~ having a part of the body crippled or disabled violently
Ostracize ~ Other students ostracized him.
verb ~ to prevent someone from being part of a group; to exclude someone
Proponent ~ Eisenhower was not a strong proponent of civil rights.
noun ~ a person who supports an idea, plan, or cause
Reaffirm ~ The case went through many hearings, the Supreme Court, reaffirmed the Brown decision and supported Meredith's right to be admitted.
verb ~ assert once again
Segregated ~ But the orderly rules of the baseball field and the formal structures of the military were relatively easy to integrate compared to the complexity of everyday life, especially in the deeply segregated South.
adjective ~ kept separate or treated differently according to race, sex, religion, etc.
Staunch ~ Alabama's Governor George Wallace had made a name for himself as a staunch segregationist, promising "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
adjective ~ strongly loyal to a person, organization, or set of beliefs or opinions
Tireless ~ Warren worked tirelessly to achieve a 9-0 ruling.
adjective ~ having or showing great effort or energy, never tiring
Turpitude ~ The Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, declared "no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor" and the state legislature passed a law that denied admission to any person "who has a crime of moral turpitude against him" or who had been convicted of any felony offense or not pardoned.
noun ~ evil; corrupted
Consolidated ~ Racially segregated drinking fountains, toilets, and waiting rooms were consolidated.
verb ~ joined together into a whole
Counter ~ On February 1, 1960, four sophomores at the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College in Greensboro entered the local Woolworth's and sat at the lunch counter.
noun ~ a long, flat, narrow surface in a store, bank, restaurant, etc.,where people are served
Disembark ~ The second group continued to Birmingham, where the riders were attacked by the Ku Klux Klan as they attempted to disembark at the city bus station.
verb ~ exit from a ship, vehicle, or aircraft
Dismantle ~ However, it did not prevent White terrorism or dismantle White supremacy, nor did it permanently sustain the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience.
verb ~ to take apart
Disobedience ~ Their teaching advocated civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance to social injustice.
noun ~ failure or refusal to obey rules or someone in authority
Erode ~ "Social movements may have many 'defeats'—failing to achieve objectives in the short run—but in the course of the struggle the strength of the old order begins to erode, the minds of people begin to change; the protesters are momentarily defeated but not crushed, and have been lifted, heartened, by their ability to fight back."
verb ~ to weaken or damage something by taking away parts of it gradually
Galvanize ~ The arrest of a hard working woman for sitting where she wanted on the bus proved to be just what they needed to galvanize African Americans.
verb ~ shock or excite a person or group into taking action.
Grassroots ~ In the words of grassroots civil rights activist Ella Baker, the students at Woolworth's wanted more than a hamburger, they wanted to be a part of the struggle for equality.
adjective ~ of or involving the common people rather than those in power
Grievance ~ After an Alabama state trooper shot and killed Jimmie Lee Jackson during a voting rights protest, close to 600 protesters attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital, to present their grievances to Governor George Wallace.
noun ~ a real or imagined wrong or other cause for complaint or protest, especially unfair treatment
Hoax ~ Throughout the search, White-run Mississippi newspapers perpetuated the common belief that the disappearance was "a hoax" designed to draw publicity, but the search of rivers and swamps turned up the bodies of eight other African Americans who appeared to have been murdered.
noun ~ something intended to deceive, a joke
Incite ~ On a cold December evening in 1955, just a year after the Supreme Court had ruled segregated schools unconstitutional, Rosa Parks incited a revolution by sitting down.
verb ~ encourage or stir up
Jeer ~ Often the participants would be jeered and threatened by local White customers.
verb ~ to laugh or shout insults at someone; to ridicule:
Nascent ~ He became the acknowledged leader of the nascent Civil Rights Movement.
adjective ~ just being born or beginning
Pelt ~ Sometimes they would be pelted with food or ketchup.
verb ~ to throw a number of things quickly at someone or something
Reprisal ~ Any violent reprisal would undermine the spirit of the non-violent sit-in.
noun ~ damage or injury against an enemy in reaction to an act of damage or injury done to you
Seamstress ~ She was tired after spending the day at work as a department store seamstress, and when she stepped onto the bus for the ride home she sat in the fifth row, the first row of the colored section.
noun ~ someone who makes or mends clothes
Stark ~ The brutal response of local police, led by Public Safety Commissioner "Bull" Connor who released police dogs and fire hoses on the young marchers, stood in stark contrast to the nonviolent civil disobedience of the activists.
adjective ~ severe or bare in appearance or outline
Tactics ~ However, it did not prevent White terrorism or dismantle White supremacy, nor did it permanently sustain the tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience.
noun ~ a specific action intended to get a particular result
Vacate ~ When the local police came to arrest the demonstrators, another line of students would take the vacated seats.
verb ~ to leave a place or position
Aesthetics ~ The Black Power movement turned popular fashion and aesthetics on end.
adjective ~ concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty
Baton ~ They tased him, beat him dozens of times with their batons, and tackled him to the ground before handcuffing him.
noun ~ a metal rod or stick
Behest ~ At the behest of President Johnson, the Kerner Commission was created to examine the causes behind the rioting.
noun ~ a request
Berate ~ The report berated federal and state governments for failed housing, education and social-service policies.
verb ~ to criticize someone in an angry manner
Binge ~ By the end of the century, the war began to die down as the public lost interest in the problem, the costs of the punishment binge became politically burdensome, and scholars and politicians began to advocate the decriminalization of drug use.
noun ~ to do overdo something, esp. eating, drinking, or spending money
Brandish ~ Openly brandishing weapons, the Panthers decided to take control of their own neighborhoods to aid their communities and to resist police brutality.
verb ~ wave something (esp. weapon) in the air in a threatening or excited wayj
De facto ~ It called to create new jobs, construct new housing, and put a stop to de facto segregation that had been common in northern cities ever since the Great Migration in order to wipe out the destructive ghetto environment.
adjective, adverb ~ existing in fact, although not necessarily intended or legal
Desensitize ~ Afterward, the prosecution suggested that the jurors might have acquitted the officers after becoming desensitized to the violence of the beating, as the defense played the videotape repeatedly in slow motion, breaking it down until its emotional impact was lost.
adjective ~ cause to be less responsive to or affected by something
Empowerment ~ In reaction, many Korean Americans worked to create political and social empowerment.
noun ~ to make someone stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights.
Garner ~ Nixon thus garnered the support of South Carolina's senior senator and avid segregationist Strom Thurmond, which helped him win the Republican nomination on the first ballot.
verb ~ assemble or get together
Ghetto ~ The report was a strong indictment of White America: "What White Americans have never fully understood but what the Negro can never forget — is that White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, White institutions maintain it, and White society condones it."
noun ~ a very poor area of a city
Heritage ~ He called on African Americans to be proud of their heritage and to set up strong communities without the help of White Americans.
noun ~ something handed down from the past, as a tradition
Hone ~ But the phenomenon that most politicians honed in on as a cause for violent crime was the abuse of a new, cheap drug dealt illegally on city streets.
verb ~ to make more effective, to improve or perfect
Implemented ~ In addition to overseeing the slow desegregation of public schools, Nixon implemented the first significant federal affirmative action program.
action ~ to put into effect, to carry out
Incarcerate ~ Hundreds of thousands of people had been incarcerated for drug offenses and the total number of prisoners in the nation had grown four-fold in the last quarter of the century.
verb ~ lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
Loot ~ His arrest prompted five days of rioting, looting, and burning.
verb ~ to steal, typically during a war or riot
Monotheistic ~ Islam, Malsolm X's new faith, is one of the world's great monotheistic religions, but for many African Americans, Islam had added meaning.
adjective ~ believing that there is only one god
Resonate ~ Dr. King's message of love, nonviolence, and integration into White society simply did not resonate in the ghetto.
verb ~ to evoke or suggest clear images, memories and emotions
Riot ~ His arrest prompted five days of rioting, looting, and burning.
noun ~ a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd
Tenet ~ However, in America, Fard's followers mixed the religious tenets of Islam with black nationalism.
noun ~ one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy
Activist ~ Proudly adopting a term that had once been used to insult Mexican Americans, Chicano activists demanded increased political power for Mexican Americans, education that recognized their cultural heritage, and the restoration of lands taken from them at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848.
noun ~ a person who believes strongly in political or social change and takes part in activities such as public protests to try to make this happen
Anthropologist ~ Combined with the claim of some historical linguists and anthropologists that the original homeland of the Aztecan peoples was located in the southwestern United States even though these lands were historically the homeland of many American Indian tribes such as the Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Comanche, Shoshone, Mojave, Zuni and others.
noun ~ a social scientist specializing in the study of humanity
Barrio ~ A favorite topic of Chicano artists is life in the barrios of Western cities.
noun ~ (in the US) the Spanish-speaking quarter of a town or city, with a high poverty level
Bilingual ~ Quilligan, obtaining a moratorium on the compulsory sterilization of women and adoption of bilingual consent forms.
adjective ~ able to speak and use two languages
Categorize ~ Gay rights activists protested strongly against the official position of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which categorized homosexuality as a mental illness and often resulted individuals being fired from their jobs or losing custody of their children.
verb ~ to put someone or something into a group of the same people or things
Disgruntled ~ In 1977, Harvey Milk became California's first openly gay man elected to public office, although his service on San Francisco's board of supervisors, along with that of San Francisco mayor George Moscone, was cut short by the bullet of a disgruntled former city supervisor.
adjective ~ unhappy, annoyed, and disappointed about something
Empowerment ~ For example, la Virgen de Guadalupe, of whom is an important figure in Mexican culture, is used in a socio-political context by Chicano artists as a symbol of both hope in times of suffering, and empowerment, particularly when embodying an average woman or portrayed in an act of resistance.
noun ~ to make someone stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights.
Fraught ~ Though fraught with controversy and forcibly ended, the occupation is hailed by many as a success for having attained international attention for the situation of native peoples in the United States.
adjective ~ filled with or attended with
Graffiti ~ Art in the barrio also incorporates graffiti as a form of artistic expression, often associated with subcultures that rebel against authority.
noun ~ writings or drawings made on surfaces in public places
Indigenous ~ Chicano artists have sought to affirm cultural identity by mixing Mexican, American and indigenous cultures.
adjective ~ originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native.
Inequity ~ These Spanish-speaking neighborhoods have long histories of dislocation, marginalization, poverty, and inequity in access social services.
noun ~ the quality of being unfair, or something that is not fair or equal
Intravenous ~ Doctors realized, however, that it often coincided with other symptoms, including a rare form of pneumonia, and they renamed it Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID), although people other than gay men, primarily intravenous drug users, were dying from the disease as well.
adjective ~ within or by means of a vein
Mistreatment ~ In 1965, when Filipino grape pickers led by Filipino American Larry Itliong went on strike to call attention to mistreatment of farmworkers in California's Central Valley.
noun ~ the act of treating a person or animal badly, cruelly, or unfairly
Moratorium ~ Quilligan, obtaining a moratorium on the compulsory sterilization of women and adoption of bilingual consent forms.
noun ~ a stopping of an activity for an agreed period of time
Perpetuate ~ Contemporary Native American activists have criticized the use of mascots in sports, as perpetuating stereotypes.
verb ~ to cause something to continue
Primordial ~ Aztlán in this sense became a symbol for Chicano activists who believed they have a legal and primordial right to the land.
adjective ~ existing at or since the beginning of the world or the universe
Slur ~ Controversy has remained regarding teams such as the NFL's Washington Redskins, whose name is considered to be a racial slur, and MLB's Cleveland Indians, whose usage of a caricature called Chief Wahoo has also faced protest.
noun ~ an insulting remark which could damage someone's reputation.
Sterilize ~ These steps were necessary because many Hispanic women who did not understand English well were being sterilized in the United States at the time, without proper consent.
verb ~ deprive (a person or animal) of the ability to produce offspring
Supervisor ~ In 1977, Harvey Milk became California's first openly gay man elected to public office, although his service on San Francisco's board of supervisors, along with that of San Francisco mayor George Moscone, was cut short by the bullet of a disgruntled former city supervisor.
noun ~ one who is in charge and supervises activities
Transfusion ~ Even after it became apparent that heterosexuals could contract the disease through blood transfusions and heterosexual intercourse, HIV/AIDS continued to be associated primarily with the gay community, especially by political and religious conservatives.
noun ~ the act of transferring blood or plasma into a vein or artery
Willpower ~ Tragically, the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was not well understood and the AIDS epidemic wrecked havoc in the gay community, the nation in general, and eventually in many parts of the world before governments found the political willpower to step in.
noun ~ the ability to control your own thoughts and behavior
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