The terms below are drawn from the articles contained in this journal and do not reflect the much broader issue of race in the U.S. in all its complexity.

Affirmative action

A term coined during the Kennedy Administration (1961-63). At that time, the U.S. government directed federal contractors to take "positive steps" to ensure a racially representative workplace. It has grown to include legal and social efforts to improve educational and economic opportunities for members of minority groups.

An American Dilemma

Classic 1944 work on the status of blacks in American society, written by Swedish social scientist Gunnar Myrdal. Interweaving economics and sociology, the book suggested that widespread discrimination was responsible for the low status of blacks in the United States, and attacked racial segragation. Sparking national debate when it appeared, it helped define race relations for the half-century and more thereafter. (See Myrdal, Gunnar)

Black Power

A movement among African-Americans, begun in the mid-1960s, that emphasized racial pride and called for the creation of black political and cultural organizations.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)

U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited segregation in public schools and unanimously declared that "separate facilities are inherently unequal."

Bus boycott

(See Montgomery Bus Boycott)

Busing

The transportation of children by bus to schools outside the neighborhoods in which they live to achieve racial integration.

California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209)

A California state law that largely prohibits discrimination or use of preference programs by the state of California and local governments in that state. No individual or group defined by race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin may receive special treatment in public employment, public education or public contracting.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

National legislation that prohibits discrimination in voting, employment, public accommodations and facilities, and public schools, and provides for enforcement of desegregation.

Civil rights movement

The use of boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and other forms of nonviolent protest in the 1950s and 1960s to demand equal treatment under the law and an end to racial prejudice.

Color-blind

Used in this sense to describe a society that does not form opinions or take actions based on the color of people's skin.

Douglass, Frederick (c.1818-1895)

Escaped slave, author and orator who devoted his life to the abolition of slavery and the fight for equal rights for African-Americans and women. Douglass founded the antislavery newspaper The North Star in Rochester, New York, in 1847. During the American Civil War (1861-65) he urged blacks to serve in Union Army, and he discussed the problems of slavery with President Abraham Lincoln.

DuBois, W.E.B. (1868-1963)

Historian and sociologist who used scholarly research to advance the political status of African-Americans. DuBois was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and an early proponent of Pan-Africanism, the belief that all people of African descent have common interests and should work together to advance those interests.

Emancipation

Refers to the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, which freed all slaves in states that had seceded from the Union.

Enterprise zones

Designated areas that receive tax incentives and direct funding to stimulate economic development.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

An agency of the U.S. government established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to enforce nondiscrimination in employment.

Equal opportunity

The principle that no person should be discriminated against because of race, gender, religion, or other inherent attributes.

Executive Order No. 11246

On September 24, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an order requiring federal agencies to contract only with companies that take affirmative action in the hiring and advancement of their minority employees. The Secretary of Labor was charged with enforcing the order. (An executive order is a rule, regulation, or instruction issued by the President of the United States that has the binding force of law upon federal agencies.)

Freedom riders

Nonviolent black and white protesters who traveled by bus through the American South in 1961 to challenge race-based separation of facilities at bus and rail terminals. In November of that year the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission prohibited segregated public accommodations.

Head Start

A government-sponsored program established in 1964 that helps preschool children from low-income families prepare for school by offering social, educational, and mental and physical health services.

Immigration Act of 1965

National law that abolished the national origins quota system for granting immigrant visas. Under national origins, the number of people from a given country already living in the United States determined the number of future immigrants. The new law established allocation of immigrant visas on a first come, first served basis, subject to certain exceptions. As a result, the U.S. immigrant population since 1965 has been much more diverse than it was previously.

Kerner Commission (National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders)

An 11- member bipartisan commission created by President Lyndon B. Johnson in July 1967 to advise his administration following race riots that had erupted in cities across the United States. In March 1968, the Kerner Commission reported that the United States was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white

separate and unequal," and it recommended massive government intervention against unemployment, poor housing and poverty. The commission was chaired by Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois.

King Jr., Martin Luther (1929-1968)

A Baptist minister and leader of the civil rights movement, he was influenced by the philosophy of non-violence of the famous Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi. When King was assassinated in 1968, citizens in many major cities reacted violently --- while others held vigils and peaceful gatherings. Americans, black and white, wondered what would happen to the vision he articulated in his landmark I Have a Dream speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1963.

Million Man March

A gathering of upwards of one million African-American men that took place in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1995. Participants came to the rally to pledge themselves to self-reliance, self-improvement, and respect for women, and to demonstrate unity and a commitment to support each other. The initiative for the event came from Louis Farrakhan, Leader of the Black Muslim Nation of Islam.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Boycott of the public bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, in protest of the general requirement in the southern United States that African-Americans sit in the back of buses. The boycott lasted 381 days from December 1955 until December 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that such segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Myrdal, Gunnar (1898-1987)

Swedish social scientist, economist, educator, statesman, author. A double Nobel laureate, he was co-recipient of the 1974 Economics Prize, and, with his wife Alva, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 (See An American Dilemma)

Preference program

A program, designed to achieve a social objective, in which certain participants identified by race, gender or other primary characteristic, are granted an advantage or preference.

Proposition 209

(See California Civil Rights Initiative)

Racial preference

The practice of granting advantageous treatment to a person or group based on considerations of race.

Renewal communities

Under legislation that is pending in the U.S. Congress, up to 100 of the poorest communities in the United States would be designated "renewal communities." They would receive aid in the forms of tax relief, regulatory reform, savings incentives, and scholarships.

Reservations

Areas of land set aside by the government for Native Americans (American Indians). Reservations were established originally to allow Indians to preserve their own life styles without conflict with European Americans. In the 19th century Indians were often confined to reservations. Indians who today choose to live on reservations often do so to preserve their particular culture, including forms of Indian self-governance.

Reverse discrimination

Charges of unfair treatment often made by those believed to have benefitted from past discrimination. Thus some white males, who as a class historically have benefitted by their race and gender in previous years, may believe they have been denied access to education or employment because of preferences given to members of minority groups or women.

Set-aside

The practice of reserving a specific number of places in a program, or a percentage of economic activity, for persons of a particular (minority) status.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Provision of national law that specifically bans discrimination in employment. Because the number of African-Americans hired did not increase significantly, Title VII was amended in 1972 to require employers to take active measures (affirmative action) to compensate for past discriminatory practices.

Tuskegee Airmen

The first black aviators in the U.S. military. Their training in 1941 at facilities in Tuskegee, Alabama, and subsequent service, was separate from other U.S. military pilots. The Tuskegee Airmen, who numbered almost one thousand before the end of World War II, achieved an exceptional combat record.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

National law that made illegal a variety of practices used by local authorities to keep blacks from exercising their right to vote. It outlawed educational requirements, including literacy tests, and authorized federal supervision of voter registration. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 strengthened the voting provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Young, Andrew (1932- )

A clergyman and civil rights leader who gained prominence as one of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s lieutenants in the civil rights movement. Andrew Young served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1972 until 1977; he was the first African American to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1977-79). Young was mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, from 1981 to 1989 and co-chair of the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games.