Glossary
Affirmative Action: Government and private programs designed to overcome
the legacy of discrimination against minorities, especially in education and
employment.
Afrocentricity: The idea that there are definitive African perspectives on
knowledge and values that those of African descent should adopt.
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights: This organization replaced
Birmingham’s NAACP, which was outlawed in 1956.
Albany Movement: SNCC’s stalemated campaign in Albany, Georgia.
An American Dilemma: Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal’s 1944 study,
which concluded that racism prevented blacks from participating fully in
American society.
Americans for Democratic Action: The leading liberal lobbying organization
during the Cold War.
Association of Southern Women to Prevent Lynching: A regional organization
founded in 1930 to stop lynching at the local level.
Battle of Ole Miss: James Meredith’s integration of the University of Mississippi
in 1962.
The Birth of a Nation: A 1915 silent film that portrayed newly freed blacks as
buffoons and rapists and thereby justified the KKK’s vigilantism.
Black Arts Movement: The artistic sister of the Black Power movement.
Black Codes: Southern state laws enacted after the Civil War that greatly
restricted black mobility, economic opportunity, and political expression.
Black Muslims: A reference to members of the Nation of Islam.
Black Nationalism: The political ideology that espouses solidarity among
blacks the world over and total control of black culture and institutions.THEC_A01.qxd 9/12/08 10:57 PM Page xxviii