CLEP History of the United States II key terms

The period from 1865 to 1877 when the federal government oversaw the former Confederate states, amended the Constitution to end slavery and define citizenship, and briefly protected Black political rights before withdrawing federal troops.

Ratified in 1868, it granted citizenship to people born in the United States, guaranteed due process and equal protection under the law, and barred many former Confederates from office.

Ratified in 1870, it prohibited denying the vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, though states later used other devices to disfranchise Black voters.

The informal deal that settled the disputed 1876 presidential election: Rutherford Hayes became president in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction.

An 1896 Supreme Court decision upholding state laws requiring racially segregated public facilities as long as they were "separate but equal," a doctrine that legitimized Jim Crow for decades.

State and local statutes, mostly in the South, that enforced racial segregation and disfranchisement of Black Americans from the late nineteenth century until the 1960s.

A federal agency created in 1865 to aid formerly enslaved people and poor whites with food, schools, and employment contracts; it was weakened by opposition and ended in 1872.

A farming arrangement, common in the postbellum South, in which tenants worked land owned by others and paid rent with a share of the crop, often leaving them in debt.

An 1862 law offering 160 acres of public land to settlers who farmed it for five years, encouraging westward migration and agricultural development on the Great Plains.

An 1890 federal law declaring monopolies and restraints of trade illegal; it was rarely enforced against big business until the Progressive era.

An 1887 law creating the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroad rates and practices, the first federal agency aimed at curbing abuses by private industry.

The application of evolutionary ideas about competition and "survival of the fittest" to society, used by some to justify laissez-faire economics, imperialism, and opposition to social reform.

Andrew Carnegie's 1889 essay arguing that wealthy people should use their fortunes for public benefit, reflecting a belief that concentrated wealth carried social responsibility.

A farmers' movement of the 1890s demanding government regulation of railroads, a graduated income tax, and free coinage of silver; it fused into the Democratic Party in 1896.

A reform movement of the early twentieth century that sought to curb political corruption, regulate business, improve urban conditions, and expand democratic participation through measures like initiatives and recalls.

Journalists and writers of the Progressive era who exposed corruption in business and government, stirring public support for reforms such as food safety and antitrust laws.

A 1913 law creating the Federal Reserve System, a central bank with regional reserve banks empowered to regulate the money supply and stabilize the banking system.

Ratified in 1920, it prohibited denying the vote on account of sex, granting women suffrage nationwide after decades of campaigning.

A brief 1898 conflict in which the United States defeated Spain and acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, marking its emergence as an overseas imperial power.

A series of U.S. diplomatic notes around 1899-1900 asking powers with spheres of influence in China to keep trade open to all nations and preserve Chinese territorial integrity.

Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 addition to the Monroe Doctrine declaring that the United States could intervene in Latin American nations to prevent European intervention and maintain order.

The movement of millions of Black Americans from the rural South to Northern and Western cities between about 1915 and 1970 in search of jobs and freedom from segregation.

A flowering of Black literature, music, and art centered in Harlem during the 1920s that celebrated African American culture and challenged racial stereotypes.

Periods of intense fear of communism and radical politics, especially 1919-1920 and the early 1950s, that led to crackdowns on dissent and civil liberties violations.

President Franklin Roosevelt's program from 1933 onward of federal relief, recovery, and reform measures responding to the Great Depression, expanding the role of government in the economy.

A 1935 law creating old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid to dependent children, establishing the foundation of the American welfare state.

A 1935 law, also called the National Labor Relations Act, that protected workers' rights to organize unions and bargain collectively and created the National Labor Relations Board.

Laws passed by Congress in the mid-1930s to prevent the United States from being drawn into foreign wars by banning arms sales and loans to belligerents.

The Cold War strategy of preventing the spread of Soviet communism through economic aid, military alliances, and limited intervention, articulated by George Kennan in 1947.

A U.S. program from 1948 to 1951 that provided economic aid to rebuild Western Europe, aiming to prevent communist influence and stabilize markets for American goods.

A 1954 Supreme Court ruling that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment, overturning Plessy and energizing the civil rights movement.

A 1955-1956 protest in Alabama in which Black residents refused to ride segregated buses until the city ended the policy, launching Martin Luther King Jr. as a national leader.

A federal law banning discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations, employment, and federally funded programs.

A law authorizing federal supervision of elections in areas with a history of discrimination, eliminating literacy tests and other barriers that had disfranchised Black voters.

President Lyndon Johnson's domestic agenda of the 1960s, including Medicare, Medicaid, education aid, and antipoverty programs aimed at eliminating poverty and racial injustice.

A 1964 congressional measure allowing President Johnson to use military force in Southeast Asia without a declaration of war, enabling major escalation of the Vietnam War.

A political scandal in the early 1970s involving a break-in at Democratic headquarters and a cover-up that led to President Nixon's resignation in 1974.

A period of eased Cold War tensions in the 1970s marked by arms control agreements and improved relations between the United States, the Soviet Union, and China.

President Reagan's economic policies of the 1980s emphasizing tax cuts, reduced domestic spending, deregulation, and tight money to curb inflation and stimulate growth.

Rachel Carson's 1962 book documenting the harmful effects of pesticides, which helped launch the modern environmental movement and prompted new regulations.