| A | B |
|---|
| GI Bill of Rights | Passed in 1944 to prevent post WWII unemployment. It gave WWII veterans low interest loans for college, home construction, and farms. |
| Baby Boom | 15 to 20 year period after WWII when there was a dramatic increase in the number of babies born in the US. |
| Truman/Fair Deal | Slogan for Truman in 1948 election, seeks to raise minimum wage, lower unemployment, aid farmers, expand Social Security benefits adn make housing affordable. |
| Highway Act | 1956 Ike and Congress pass this act, which set aside $41 billion to build 40,000 miles of highway in the US. |
| Sunbelt | After WWII many people moved to states in the southern 1/3 of the US, warm weather, lower taxes, good jobs in agriculture, oil, electronics and national defense industries attracted many. |
| Beatniks | A small segment of society, mainly artists and writers that criticized American society for being materialistic and lacking individuality. They dislike the impact of modernization, industrialism and the conformity of the 1950's. |
| Taft-Hartley Act | Passed under Truman, it bans the "closed shop" or factories where only union members can work. It also required union leaders to take an oath saying they are not communists. Truman vetoed this act but Congress overrode it with a 2/3 vote. |
| Ike | Nickname for President Eisenhower, he served from 1952-60 during a time of prosperity in the US, first Republican in White House since Hoover (1928-32). |
| Suburbs/Housing Boom | After WWII, many young families moved to the suburbs to raise kids. Inexpensive, mass produced homes contributed to the housing boom and post WWII prosperity. Mainly whites lived in these areas. |
| Car Craze | By 1960, 9 out of 10 families in the suburbs owned a car. Important to daily life such as driving to work or taking kids to activities. |
| Rock-n-Roll | A new style of music that became popular in the mid 1950's, combines rhythm, blues, country, and gospel. Teenagers loved it, they nicknamed Elvis, "the King." |
| Civil Rights Movement | A movement in the 1950's/60's in which African Americans stepped up the struggle for equality. This struggle took place in the court system and in the streets. |
| Plessy v. Ferguson | 1896 - The Supreme Court decides separate facilities for blacks and whites is constitutional. This established the "separate but equal" doctrine. |
| Integration | The mixing of different racial groups. President Truman integrated the military in 1948. |
| Brown v. Board of Education | 1954- The Supreme Court rules that "separate but equal" public schools is unconstitutional. This means that schools have to desegregate. |
| Segregation | Strict separation of the races in schools, theaters, restaurants, and other public places. |
| Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | Leader of the Civil Rights Movement, came to prominence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Assassinated in 1968. |
| Montgomery Bus Boycott | December 1955, Civil Rights activists in Montgomery, Alabama refuse to use city buses until they are desegregated. Over a year later they accomplish their goal, Supreme Court ordered the buses to desegregate. |
| Civil Disobedience/Non-violent Resistance | Strategy Dr. King adopted from Mahatma Gandhi in which you peacefully break laws you feel are unjust. Gandhi used it to break the British colonial rule in India. |
| Little Rock Nine | Nickname for the first nine black kids to integrate a previously all white school in Little Rock Arkansas. Eisenhower sent US troops to protect these students. |
| Sit-ins | Demonstrations in which protestors sit down and refuse to leave. These were used to desegregate lunch counters throughout the South |
| Malcolm X | Black Civil Rights leader who felt blacks should use violence if necessary to gain equality. He also supported segregating the races. He was assassinated in 1965. |
| Black Panthers | Formed in 1966, this organization supported using violence to end police brutality and achieve their goals of determining their destiny in their own black communities. |
| Civil Rights Act 1964 | Passed by Congress and LBJ - Bans segregation in public places. Prohibits employers, unions, or universities with Federal Government contracts from discriminating on basis of color, sex, religion, or national origin. |
| Jonas Salk | Doctor developed a vaccination for Polio in 1952. |
| Counter-culture/Hippie Movement | Movement in the 1960's comprised of the younger generation. They valued individual freedom, sharing, and non-violence. They reject mainstream values of society. Woodstock is seen as the pinnacle of this movement. |
| Richard Nixon | President elected in 1968 and 1972. Resigned in 1974 due to the Watergate Scandal. |
| Affirmative Action | Programs adopted by businesses and universities that sought to hire and promote minorities, women, and others who had traditionally faced discrimination. |
| Thurgood Marshall | NAACP lawyer who won Brown v. Board of Education Case. In 1968, LBJ nominated him for the Supreme Court. He was the first black Justice in the Supreme Court. |
| Voting Rights Act 1965 | Passed by Congress and LBJ - Allows the Federal Government to inspect voter registration procedures and to protect all citizens right to vote. |
| LBJ/Great Society | Lyndon B. Johnson's Presidental slogan/platform. He sought to fight poverty and racial injustice. It also sought to make healthcare for the elderly and the poor affordable through government assistance. |
| RFK | Robert F. Kennedy, JFK's younger brother who was running for President in 1968 on an anti-Vietnam War platform when he was assassinated. |
| Silent Majority | Phrase used by Nixon to describe the people who voted for him, the segment of society who did not protest. It was disturbed by the social unrest of the 1960's. |
| N.O.W. | National Organization for women, formed in 1966, worked to get women equal rights in jobs, pay, and education. |
| Stagflation | Term used to describe economic problems under Nixon in the 1970's - rising prices, high unemployment, and slow economic growth. |
| Watergate | Name given to the political scandal that led to Nixon's resignation. The name came from the building that burglarized by people working on Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign. |
| Spiro Agnew | Nixon's Vice President who resigned in 1973 in the midst of the Watergate Scandal because he was not paying taxes and had taken bribes. |
| Gerald Ford | Went from the House of Representatives to Vice President after Agnew resigns. He became President when Nixon resigns, and later pardoned Nixon (this was the reason Carter defeated him in 1976). |
| Jimmy Carter | Elected President in 1976. He was a big supporter of Human Rights. Economic troubles and the hostage crisis in Iran were big reasons why Reagan defeated him in 1980. |
| OPEC/Oil Embargo/Fuel Crisis | The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries stopped sending oil to the US because the US supported Israel. This led to fuel shortages and high gas prices. |
| Ayatollah Khomeini/Iran Hostage Crisis | Led a revolution in Iran, then took 54 Americans hostage, Carter could not get them released. |
| Apollo Program/Moon Landing | NASA program that put men on the moon in 1969. This put the US ahead in the space race. |
| Native-Americans | AIM, The American Indian Movement has won sympathy for Indian causes and move rights for Native Americans |
| Mexican-Americans | Largest group of Latinos in the US, many are migrant workers who move so much their kids did not go to school regularly. Language barriers, low wages, and discrimination have made life difficult for them. |
| Asian-Americans | Students of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and other Asian nations began to promote Asian rights and culture-many colleges created Asian American studies programs. |
| Disablility Rights Movement | Disabled Americans have won better education and job opportunites as well as better access to buildings. Today the law requires public schools to provide quality education for disabled kids. |
