We The People Unit Five Vocabulary

1. We The PeopleUnit FiveVocabulary Mrs. Mata NYOS Charter School 8th grade Social Studies

2. abridging limiting or reducing

3. assemble to meet with others to discuss one’s beliefs, ideas, or feelings

4. Civil Rights Movement a social movement in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, in which people organized to demand equal rights for African Americans and other minorities. People gave speeches, marched in the streets, and participated in boycotts.

5. establishment clause the part of the First Amendment that says the government cannot declare an official religion

6. Fifteenth Amendment an amendment to the Constitution, ratified after the Civil War in 1870, that grants voting rights to any person regardless of race, color, or whether that person was previously a slave

7. First Amendment this amendment states, “Congress shall make NO LAW respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

8. Fourteenth Amendment no person will have their life, liberty, or property taken away by state or local governments without due process of law; protects a citizen’s right to be treated fairly by his or her state and local governments. It also defines a citizen as anyone born or naturalized in the United States. It was one of the Civil War Amendments.

9. free exercise clause the part of the First Amendment that says the government may not stop anyone from holding any religious beliefsthey choose and may not unfairly or unreasonably limit anyone’s right to practice their religious beliefs.

10. freedom of expression the right to make known one’s attitudes, emotions, thoughts, feelings, etc., as protected by the First Amendment

11. grandfather clause a law that stated that a citizen could vote only if his grandfather had been allowed to vote. The law made it impossible for African Americans to vote because their grandfathers had not been allowed to vote.

12. literacy test a test that requires people to prove that they are able to read and write. Until 1964, these tests were used in various states throughout the country to block minorities from voting

13. Nineteenth Amendment added to the Constitution in 1920, it gave women the right to vote

14. poll tax a tax that voters in many states were required to pay in order to exercise their right to vote. These barriers were used until 1964 to prevent African Americans from voting.

15. redress of grievances correction of complaints, the First Amendment protects the right to petition the government to obtain a remedy for a claimed wrong

16. register to enroll one’s name officially as a requirement for voting

17. Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, it was adopted after the Civil War of 1865

18. Twenty-fourth Amendment the amendment adopted in 1964 that forbids the levying of a poll tax or any other tax on eligible voters in elections for federal officials, including the president, vice president, and members of congress

19. Twenty-sixth Amendment the amendment adopted in 1971 that says a state cannot deny someone the right to vote if they have reached the age of 18 and are otherwise eligible to vote. Although eighteen-year-olds had already been accorded the vote in national elections by Voting Rights Act of 1970, the Twenty-sixth Amendment assured them the vote in all elections.

20. Voting Rights Act 1965 the act further protected the right to vote for all U.S. citizens. It forced the states to obey the Constitution. It made clear that the right to vote could not be denied because of a person's color or race.