A-54 ★ GLOSSARY
reverted to individual colonial govern-
ments three years later.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” President Clin-
ton’s compromise measure that allowed
gay people to serve in the military incog-
nito, as officers could no longer seek
them out for dismissal but they could not
openly express their identity. “Don’t ask,
don’t tell” was ended under the Obama
administration, when gay military service
was allowed.
the Dorr War A movement in Rhode
Island against property qualifications for
voting. The movement formed an extra-
legal constitutional convention for the
state and elected Thomas Dorr as a gov-
ernor, but was quashed by federal troops
dispatched by President John Tyler.
double- V Led by The Pittsburgh Courier, the
movement that pressed for victory over
fascism abroad and over racism at home. It
argued that since African- Americans were
risking their lives abroad, they should
receive full civil rights at home.
dower rights In colonial America, the
right of a widowed woman to inherit one-
third of her deceased husband’s property.
Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857 U.S. Supreme
Court decision in which Chief Justice
Roger B. Taney ruled that Congress could
not prohibit slavery in the territories,
on the grounds that such a prohibition
would violate the Fifth Amendment rights
of slaveholders, and that no black person
could be a citizen of the United States.
Dust Bowl Great Plains counties where
millions of tons of topsoil were blown away
from parched farmland in the 1930s; mas-
sive migration of farm families followed.
Eighteenth Amendment Prohibition
amendment passed in 1919 that made
illegal the manufacture, sale, or transpor-
tation of alcoholic beverages; repealed in
1933.
Ellis Island Reception center in New York
Harbor through which most Europeanindustries, including finance and air
travel.
détente Period of improving relations
between the United States and Com-
munist nations, particularly China and
the Soviet Union, during the Nixon
administration.
disenfranchisement To deprive of the
right to vote; in the United States, exclu-
sionary policies were used to deny groups,
especially African- Americans and women,
their voting rights.
Dissenters Protestants who belonged to
denominations outside of the established
Anglican Church.
division of powers The division of polit-
ical power between the state and federal
governments under the U.S. Constitution
(also known as federalism).
Dix, Dorothea An important figure in
increasing the public’s awareness of the
plight of the mentally ill. After a two- year
investigation of the treatment of the men-
tally ill in Massachusetts, she presented
her findings and won the support of lead-
ing reformers. She eventually convinced
twenty states to reform their treatment of
the mentally ill.
Dixiecrats Deep South delegates who
walked out of the 1948 Democratic
National Convention in protest of the
party’s support for civil rights legislation
and later formed the States’ Rights Demo-
cratic (Dixiecrat) Party, which nominated
Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for
president.
Dollar Diplomacy A foreign policy ini-
tiative under President William Howard
Taft that promoted the spread of Amer-
ican influence through loans and eco-
nomic investments from American banks.
Dominion of New England Consoli-
dation into a single colony of the New
England colonies— and later New York
and New Jersey— by royal governor
Edmund Andros in 1686; dominion