The Civil Rights Movement Revised Edition

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: This student-run organization was

formed after the 1960 sit-ins to organize a community-based movement in

the deep South.

Thirteenth Amendment: This 1865 constitutional amendment abolished slav-

ery in the United States.

To Secure These Rights: President Harry Truman’s 1947 report that strongly

supported black civil rights.

Twenty-fourth Amendment: This 1964 constitutional amendment outlawed

poll taxes in federal elections.

Uncle Tom: A derogatory description of a black person who tries to satisfy

whites.

United Auto Workers: An influential labor union that sponsored civil rights

activism.

US Civil Rights Commission: Established by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, this

federal, bipartisan panel collects and disseminates information on civil

rights.

University of California Regents v. Bakke(1978): A landmark case in which

the Supreme Court struck down the use of quotas for college admission as

reverse discrimination.

Urban League: Founded in 1910 to promote economic progress for blacks.

Voter Education Project: A voter-registration campaign in the deep South sup-

ported by the Kennedy administration and funded by northern foundations.

Voting Rights Act of 1965: This federal law banned literacy tests and intimida-

tion at the polls, and dispatched federal registrars to locales where voting

totals fell below 50 per cent of those eligible.

Watts Riot: A devastating 1965 race riot in south Los Angeles that disillu-

sioned many whites about the civil rights movement.

‘We Shall Overcome’: The philosophy and anthem of the civil rights

movement.

White Primary: A device used by southern states to exclude blacks from the

Democratic primary, the only election that mattered.

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