| A | B |
|---|
| Reservation | Areas of public land set aside by a government for use by a Native-American group. |
| Refugee | One who leaves his or her home to seek refuge from war, persecution, or other danger. |
| Segregation | Separation or isolation of a racial or other group from the rest of the population in education or other areas of public or private activity. |
| Jim Crow Law | Law to isolate and separate one group of people from another on the basis of race. |
| Separate-but-Equal Doctrine | Long held by the Supreme Court, that the 14th amendment's Equal Protection Clause did not forbid racial segregation so long as the separate facilities for African Americans were equal to those provided for whites; overturned in Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka. |
| De Jure Segregation | Segregation that exists as a result of some law or governmental action. |
| De Facto Segregation | Segregation that exists "in fact," not as a result of laws or government actions. |
| Affirmative Action | Policy that requires that both public and private organizations take positive steps to overcome the effects of past discrimination. |
| Quota | Rules requiring certain numbers of jobs or promotions for certain groups. |
| Reverse Discrimination | A description of affirmative action by critics of that policy; holds that giving preference to females and/or nonwhites discriminates against members of the majority group. |
| Citizen | One who owes allegiance to a state and is entitled to its protection. |
| Jus Soli | Acquisition of American citizenship at birth, because of birth in the United States, the "law of the soil," where born. |
| Jus Sanguinis | Acquisition of American citizenship at birth, because of the citizenship of one or both parents; the "law of the blood," to whom born. |
| Naturalization | Legal process by which a person born a citizen of one country becomes a citizen of another. |
| Alien | One who is not a citizen (or national) of the state in which he/she lives. |
| Expatriation | Act by which one renounces (forfeits, gives up) citizenship. |
| Denaturalization | Court revocation of naturalized citizenship through due process of law. |
| Deportation | Legal process in which aliens are legally required to leave the United States. |
