Freedom Ride: CORE’s 1961 demonstration to test whether interstate trans-
portation facilities were desegregated, as the Supreme Court required.
Freedom Summer: A massive 1964 project by SNCC and CORE to recruit
northern college students to register Mississippi blacks to vote.
Gerrymandering: The rearrangement of voting districts to give unfair advan-
tage to one party or race in elections.
Grandfather Clause: A legal provision in southern states that exempted whites
from voting restrictions aimed at blacks.
Great Migration: The movement of millions of blacks from the South to the
North for a century after the Civil War, transforming society and politics and
setting the stage for the civil rights movement.
Great Society: President Lyndon Johnson’s plan to end racism and poverty by
enacting civil rights laws and establishing federal assistance programs.
Highlander Folk School: An influential labor and civil rights training centre in
Tennessee.
Jail, No Bail: The strategy of filling up jail cells so that segregation would
collapse.
Jim Crow: A nineteenth-century minstrel character whose caricature of black
culture became identified with segregationist practices in the South.
Journey of Reconciliation: A 1947 CORE bus ride through the upper South,
which was a prototype for the more famous Freedom Ride.
Kerner Commission: This federal commission blamed white racism for the
rioting of the 1960s and urged massive federal funding to prevent future
riots.
Ku Klux Klan: A white terrorist organization against integration.
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights: A broad-based coalition that pressed
successfully for civil rights laws.
Leftist: A radical view of politics, often supporting socialism and condemn-
ing discrimination.
Letter from Birmingham Jail: Martin Luther King’s response to white clergymen
who thought the civil rights movement was ill-timed.
Literacy Tests: A device used by southern registrars to disqualify blacks from
voting.
Lynching: The murder of 3,500 blacks by angry whites, often by hanging
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