Glossary for The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

Black Consciousness Movement

The Black Pride Movement was a period in the 1960s and 1970s characterized by a celebration of African American history and culture and political expressions calling for Black community freedom, power, and self-determination.

Black Press

The Black Press refers to media created by and for African American readers and listeners. Some examples include magazines such as Ebony and local Black newspapers like The Bronze Reporter.

Boycott

A boycott is a form of civil protest in which a group of people do not provide commericial or social support to a business, group, or issue.

Cold War

The Cold War was a political conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States during the twentieth century.

Communism

Communism is a political and economic ideology that supports the distribution of wealth and control of the means of production among the masses in a society.

Frontier

The frontier (thesis) was a concept popularized by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that suggested that Americans had rights to settle and control the vast wilderness in the western United States. Often linked to the pioneer movement, frontier settlement was seen as a way to establish American influence and properity. The frontier, however, was not untouched land as it encompassed the ancestral home of Native American communities and signficant natural resources.

Great Migration

The Great Migration refers to the internal migration of nearly six million African Americans between 1910 and 1970. During these years, African Americans moved from the South to predominately urban communities in western, midwestern, and northern states. Families migrated across the country to access economic opportunities, connect with loved ones, and escape violence and oppressive circumstances.

Jim Crow

Jim Crow was a title used to describe the restrictive, segregationist policies in the American South during the late nineteenth century and twentieth century. Jim Crow laws enforced white supremacy and discrimination against African Americans in areas such as employment, voting rights, and education.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

The Ku Klux Klan, or KKK, is a white supracist, terrorist organization formed in years following the Civil War. Still active today, KKK was infamous during the twentienth century for its violent tactics and intimidation campaigns targeting African Americans other marginalized communities.

long distance telephone call

Long distance telephone calls connect people across different geographic areas of a country. These calls were placed infrequently due to their higher billing cost. People might establish specific times to communicate with distant friends and relatives.

Negro

Negro is an older term used to refer to members of the African American community. "Negro" translates to "black" in both Spanish and Portuguese. Around the mid-twentieth century, the term began being viewed as offensive and fell out of mainstream use.

peon

A peon is a slang term that refers to someone that has little control over the conditions in which they work. A peon is typically associated with a person that belongs to a lower social class.

radioactive

Radioactive means that something produces levels of radiation or electromagnetic waves. While something that is radioactive is not necessarily harmful, nuclear energy and atomic bombs emit radiation that is dangerous to humans.

record player

A record player, also known as a phonograph, is a device that plays sounds by reproducing the wavelengths imprinted or etched in a cylindrical disc or record. To play music, a stylus is placed on the record as it rotates.

Segregation

Segregation refers to the act of dividing an institution or social space based on race, gender identity, or perceived ideological background. Public transportation, businesses, and schools were segregated in the United States to establish "separate but equal" spaces between Black and white Americans.

seniority

Seniority is having a greater degree of power or authority due to a person's professional experience or age.

Sharecropping

Sharecropping was a system in which landowners allowed farmers to rent and tend to part of their land and property in exchange for a portion of their harvested crop. In effect, farmers needed to work even harder to try to produce enough crops to sustain themselves and their families. Landowners' unfair and cruel practices led to high levels of debt for laborers. After the civil war, newly freed African Americans in the South entered into sharecropping relationships as they sought work and commercial land.

sit-in

Sit-ins are a form of civil protest in which participants occupy a public environment to draw attention to experiences of injustice. During the civil rights movement, activists engaged in sit-ins to protest segregation at lunch counters, beaches, libraries, and transportation centers.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC, is a civil rights organization that was established by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1957. SCLC embraces the value of nonviolent resistance.

Union

A union is a group of laborers that is formed to protect and advocate for their common interests. Workers who establish a union might organize for a higher wage, safer labor conditions, or job security.

welfare

Welfare is a set of government-sponsored financial and social measures established to support low and lower income communities. Welfare programs may include payments to individuals living with housing and food insecurity or programs created to help people access employment opportunities.