Ch. 12 Vocabulary

Missouri Compromise: an act admitting Missouri into the union as a slave state but restricting the spread of slavery in certain other areas of the Louisiana Purchase territories (1820)
Kansas-Nebraska Act: repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened up areas of the West to slavery (1854)
Emancipation Proclamation: executive proclamation issued in 1862 and in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, freeing all slaves in the United States
Reconstruction: a period of reestablishment and reorganization of the of the seceded southern states after their defeat in the Civil War
Freedman's Bureau: during the reconstruction, Bureau set up by the federal government to provide former slaves with food, clothing, schools, and other requirements. Sometimes land from confiscated or abandoned land
Black Codes: various legal codes enacted by the Southern states to control, restrict, and inhibit the movements and behavior of ex-slaves
Jim Crow Laws: any state or federal laws that enforced the segregation of the races in various areas of American life
Racism: a belief in the innate inferiority of persons of another race and discriminatory behavior consistent with that belief
NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, founded in 1910 by W. E. B. DuBois to advance the causes of African Americans
Civil Rights Act of 1964: sweeping Congressional act that ensured civil, political, and social rights for blacks
Voting Rights Act of 1965: act providing federal supervision of voter registration sites and prohibiting the use of literary tests
Cold War: period from the end of World War II to 1989. A propaganda war "fought" largely between the United States and the Soviet Union
Northwest Ordinance: provided for a survey of the Northwest Territories and gave the U.S. Congress rather than the states the sole right to trade with Indians
Treaty of Fort Pit: first treaty made with the Indians. It implicitly recognized the sovereignty of the Indian nations and assured them that the United States had no designs on Indian lands
Marshall Trilogy: three Supreme Court cases that defined the legal status of Native American sovereignty
Discovery Doctrine: Justice Marshall's doctrine asserting white sovereignty over the Indians by virtue of being heir to the European power that "discovered" America
Indian Removal Act: Congressional act mandating the removal of all Indians in the Southeastern states to "Indian territory" (now the state of Oklahoma)
Assimilation Period: period in which the U.S. government attempted to integrate the Indians into white society by "civilizing" and "Christianizing" them
Bureau of Indian Affairs: (BIA) agency responsible for all aspects of Indian life, especially during the assimilation period
Major Crimes Act:
General Allotment Act: (Dawes Act) act dividing up reservation lands into allotments given to individual Indians, as part of the assimilation process
Indian Citizenship Act: act granting U.S. citizenship to Indians in 1924
Indian Reorganization Act: a 1934 act that ended the practice of cultural genocide, and encouraged Indians to revive their languages, religions, and customs
Termination: policy aimed at terminating federal supervision of Indian tribes in the 1950's
Indian Self-Determination Act: (SDA) a 1975 act ending the termination policy of the 1950's
American Indian Movement: (AIM) radical activist Indian organization founded in 1968
Chinese Exclusion Act: an 1882 act barring Chinese from immigrating to the United States