Chapter 16

resolve

to decide; to solve

impose

to place a burden on something or someone

grandfather clause

A clause in registration laws allowing people who do not meet registration requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867.

impeachment

A formal document charging a public official with misconduct in office

Hiram Revels

A minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a Republican politician, and college administrator. Born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina. A freedman his entire life, Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress.

carpetbagger

A northerner who went to the South immediately after the Civil War; especially one who tried to gain political advantage or other advantages from the disorganized situation in southern states

black codes

Discriminatory laws that were enacted in many Southern states after the Civil War that severly restricted African Americans' lives

Blanche Bruce

Formerly enslaved, Blanche K. Bruce made history as the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. After fleeing his master, he opened a school for black children. In 1870, the Mississippi Senate elected him its sergeant-at-arms. He served as a Republican U.S. Senator for Mississippi from 1875 to 1881. He became U.S. Treasury register after he left the senate, and again in 1897.

inferior

of lower rank or status; or o poor quality

segregation

Separation of people based on racial, ethnic, or other differences

scalawag

Southern whites who had opposed secession

amnesty

an official pardon for a group of people who have violated a law or policy

critic

someone who makes judgments on the value of objects or actions

John Wilkes Booth

..., was an American stage actor who, as part of a conspiracy plot, assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865.

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States saved the Union during the Civil War and emancipated the slaves; was assassinated by Booth (1809-1865)

Andrew Johnson

17th President of the United States was elected Vice President and succeeded Lincoln when Lincoln was assassinated; was impeached but acquitted by one vote (1808-1875)

freedmen

1865 - Agency set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food, clothing and education to the needy and helped them get jobs.

sharecropper

A person who works fields rented from a landowner and pays the rent and repays loans by turning over to the landowner a share of the crops.

poll tax

A requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote

literacy test

A test administered as a precondition for voting, often used to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote.

Homer Plessy

Plaintiff for a landmark Supreme Court case. He was a light-skinned Creole of Color during the post-reconstruction years. With the aid of a black organization in New Orleans, Homer Plessy became the plaintiff in the famous Plessy v. Ferguson case decided by the US Supreme Court in May 1896. The decision established the "separate but equal" policy that made racial segregation constitutional for the next six decades.

factor

condition or quality that causes something else to happen

voluntary

not forced; done of one's own free will