American History key terms

1. National Origins Act (1924) –banned immigration from east Asia; immigration basically favored northwestern Europeans; based immigration rates on 1890 census instead of 1910 census
2. Harlem Renaissance – black artists and musicians helped establish a thriving, highly politicized culture rooted in the historical legacy of their race
3. flappers – ‘new era’ – nickname for women with liberated lifestyle, expression in speech, dress, hairstyle, behavior; huge impact on lower-middle-class and working-class single women; went to clubs and dance halls; much more independent women; flappers created National Woman’s Party
4. bonus army – payment of $1000 bonus to all WWI vets by congress beginning in 1945; wanted it earlier; protest in 1932 – wanted it now, camped out around DC; was clearly peaceful; Hoover ordered MacArthur to stop protest; 100 injured by machine guns and cavalry; ended any hope in Hoover to stop depression
5. NIRA – NRA – National Recovery Administration – set floors on wages, section 7(a) said unions were allowed; stopped by supreme court, shook grounds of all New Deal programs
6. WPA – Works Progress Administration – established system of work relief for unemployed; routinely discriminated against minorities – cheap labor jobs; huge amounts of public works projects created; led by Harry Hopkins; pumped needed money into economy
7. CIO – Congress of Industrial Organizations – union; more receptive to blacks and women than AFL had been; targeted previously unorganized industries; more militant than AFL
8. Nye Committee –
9. A. Philip Randolph –president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, primarily black union, pushed for integration of companies receiving defense contracts during WWII; Roosevelt established FEPC because of this (Fair Employment Practices Commission
10. Relocation Centers –
11. Rosie the Riveter –women industrial workers; image that symbolized the new importance of the female industrial workers during WWII
12. Manhattan Project – project to create atomic bomb
13. Marshall Plan – plan to provide economic support to noncommunist European countries; strengthen export of American goods
14. HUAC – house un-american activities committee – anticommunist committee, first attacked Hollywood with that huge trial against the Hollywood Ten, Hollywood blacklisted suspicious actors, directors and members to protect image; trials led by Alger Hiss
15. William Levitt – Levittown creator
16. The Organization Man – book by Whyte, stressed ability to get along and work as a team, as a small part of a large bureaucratic environment
17. beatniks –group of young poets, writers and artists who wrote harsh critiques of the sterility and conformity of American life, politics and pop culture; symbol of the restlessness of young Americans during 1950s; rebellion culture; James Dean was the icon of beat culture – then died at age 24 as result of his lifestyle
18. Cuban Missile Crisis – blockade, panic among American citizens, kennedy arranged with soviets not to invade cuba and they would remove offensive nuclear weapons from cuba
19. Great Society – Johnson created a reform to better American society; increase in federal spending; many programs failed; doubled govt spending; significantly reduced hunger; Medicare aid to millions of elderly citizens; contributed to greatest reduction of poverty in American history
20. Immigration Act of 1965 – Johnson admin - strict limit on immigrants (170,000) but allowed people from europe, asia and Africa to enter on an equal basis
21. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution –allowed the President to take all necessary measures to protect American forces and prevent further aggression in southeast asia; became an open-ended legal authorization for escalation of the conflict; led US into Vietnam War
22. Brown vs.Board of Education– rejected Plessy vs. Ferguson; says ‘separate but equal’ has no place in American society; forces desegregation of schools
23. SNCC– Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee – began with sit-ins at lunch counters; worked to keep spirit of resistance alive; stemmed from MLK Jr
24. SDS –Students for a Democratic Society; leading organization of student radicalism in 1960s; anti Vietnam war; many demonstrations; opposed by middle aged society
25. AIM – American Indian Movement –
26. UFW – united farm workers union – led by Cesar Chavez; primarily Mexican union
27. Stonewall Riot – marked beginning of gay liberation movement; riot began at Stonewall Inn, a gay club, and continued throughout Greenwich Village, against police when police rushed into club and began arresting people simply for being present in the night club
28. Betty Friedan – writer ofthe Feminine Mystique about housewives in suburbs feeling depressed due to lack of expression in any way, living boring useless lives; gave feminist movement a voice
29. Roe vs.Wade –made abortion in first trimester legal; right to privacy
30. Kent State – four college students killed, nine injured in Kent State University of Ohio antiwar demonstration against Cambodian invasion (Nixon); led to repeal of Gulf of Tonkin Resolution; led to revealing of Pentagon Papers
31. Pentagon Papers –leaked to press by former Defense official Daniel Ellsberg; evidence that govt had been dishonest in reporting military progress in Vietnam and explaining its motives for American involvement; led to widespread (two thirds) disapproval of war by citizens
32. Christian Coalition –group of born-again Christians who opposed abortion, divorce, feminism and homosexuality, wanted schools to teach Creation; goal was to have Christian values once again dominate American life
33. Reaganomics – supply side economics – operated from the assumption that most problems with economy due to excessive taxation – so he reduced taxes by huge amounts (30%)