“40 Acres and a Mule”
Background and Summary
The term, “40 acres and a mule” is used to explain the compensation that was to be awarded to freed Black slaves after the Civil War. Forty acres o...
Posted Thursday, December 20th 2007 at 6:15PM
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“Abolition” in the United States
Background and Summary
Abolitionism is a political movement that seeks to end the practice of slavery and the worldwide slave trade. It began during the period of the Enlightenment from 1715 to 1789 and ...
Posted Friday, December 21st 2007 at 2:52PM
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Affirmative Action in the United States
Background and Summary
Affirmative action refers to policies intended to promote access to education or employment aimed at a historically, socio-politically non-dominant group...
Posted Thursday, December 20th 2007 at 6:22PM
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“Afro”
Background and Summary
An “afro,” sometimes called a "natural" or shortened to "fro," is a hairstyle in which the hair extends out from the head like a halo, cloud or ball. It ranges from wearing a...
Posted Friday, February 22nd 2008 at 3:40PM
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“Blackface”
Background and Summary
“Blackface” is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the United States, and is used to make an actor look like a Black person, but in a very exaggerated way. It is the countenance...
Posted Tuesday, January 8th 2008 at 1:23PM
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“Desegregation” in the United States
Background and Summary
Desegregation is the process of ending racial segregation. It’s most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was a focus of the American Civil Righ...
Posted Thursday, December 20th 2007 at 6:31PM
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Dunkadelic (adj) the fusion of basketball and hip-hop inspired by the cultural aesthetics of urban style, fashion, and attitude. highlight dunks or dunkers to music or rap lyrics. describes players by position (dunkadelic-swingman, dunkadelic-power f...
Posted Thursday, January 10th 2008 at 6:52PM
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“Ghetto”
Background and Summary
A ghetto is a section of a city occupied by a minority group who lives there as a result of social, economic or legal pressure. Many times, a particular marginalized group is made to relocate or stay in o...
Posted Friday, February 8th 2008 at 3:02PM
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“Gullah”
Background and Summary
The “Gullah” peoples are Black people who live in the low country region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Historically, t...
Posted Monday, March 10th 2008 at 4:07PM
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“Jazz”
Background and Summary
"Jazz" is an original American musical art form which originated around the beginning of the 20th century in Black communities in the Southern United States out of a confluence of African ...
Posted Wednesday, February 13th 2008 at 2:28PM
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“Jim Crow”
Background and Summary
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965. They mandated "separate but equal" status for Bla...
Posted Tuesday, January 8th 2008 at 1:32PM
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“Lynching”
Background and Summary
“Lynch Law” is a form of mob violence and putative justice, usually involving, but is by no means restricted to, the illegal hanging of suspected criminals. It was common in the Southern Uni...
Posted Thursday, December 20th 2007 at 6:35PM
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“One-Drop Rule”
Background and Summary
The One-Drop Rule is an historical, colloquial term in the United States that holds that a person with any trace of sub-Saharan ancestry, however small or invisible, cannot be considered White and ...
Posted Wednesday, February 20th 2008 at 4:20PM
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“Passing”
Background and Summary
In the racial politics of North America, racial passing refers to a member of a racial group being accepted by others of a different race as one of their own, especially in the case of a person of mixed ...
Posted Tuesday, January 8th 2008 at 1:05PM
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“The Black National Anthem” or “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Background and Summary
"Lift Every Voice and Sing," also known as "The Negro National Anthem," was written as a poem by James Weldon Jo...
Posted Tuesday, January 29th 2008 at 3:27PM
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