Roll of Thunder,Hear My Cry

Key Concepts

Emancipation Proclamation

Issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863 during the American Civil War . It freed 3.1 million of the nation’s 4 million slaves.

The Fifteenth Amendment February 3, 1870

Prohibits each state in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (i.e., slavery).

The Great Depression1929 - 1939

During the 1930s much of the world faced harsh economic conditions. In the United States, 1 out of 4 people was out of work. Many were homeless. Many hungry people stood in long food lines to receive free food.

What is a Sharecropper?

A person who works fields rented from a landowner. The sharecropper repays loans for shelter, land, seed, and fertilizer by turning over about 50% of the crops they raised to the landowner.

What is a Mortgage?

An agreement by which someone borrows money from a bank to buy land or a home. The bank has the right to take possession of property if the loan is not repaid on time.

What is Prejudice?

pre=before ; judice=to judge• To judge a person before knowing them

• A preformed opinion, usually an unfavorable one, based on insufficient knowledge, irrational feelings, or inaccurate stereotypes

What is Segregation?

The practice of keeping ethnic, racial, religious, or gender groups separate by enforcing the use of separate schools, transportation, housing and other facilities.

de jure segregation

segregation enforced by lawEx: separate schools and water fountains

de facto segregation

• segregation that does not involve the law

• how groups are actually segregated in a particular place or society

“Separate but Equal”

• In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy vs. Ferguson that segregation was acceptable under the Constitution so long as the races were provided equal conditions.

• In 1954 the Supreme Court reversed this decision in Brown v. Board of Education ending segregation in public schools.

Jim Crow Laws (1876-1965)

• In the 1880’s racial segregation became legal in many Southern states. The “Jim Crow” laws required the separation of African-Americans from whites in public places such as restaurants, trains, buses, and schools, as well as many others.

• The supporters claimed that African-Americans could use “separate but equal” facilities