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civil rights

(Encyclopedia)civil rights, rights that a nation's inhabitants enjoy by law. The term is broader than “political rights,” which refer only to rights devolving from the franchise and are held usually only by a c...

integration

(Encyclopedia)integration, in U.S. history, the goal of an organized movement to break down the barriers of discrimination and segregation separating African Americans from the rest of American society. Racial segr...

Jim Crow laws

(Encyclopedia)Jim Crow laws, in U.S. history, statutes enacted by Southern states and municipalities, beginning in the 1880s, that legalized segregation between blacks and whites. The name is believed to be derived...

Russell, Richard B.

(Encyclopedia)Russell, Richard B., 1897–1971, American political leader, b. Winder, Ga. The son of a justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, he began his political career as a state representative (1921–31) and t...

Humphrey, Hubert Horatio

(Encyclopedia)Humphrey, Hubert Horatio, 1911–78, U.S. Vice President (1965–69), b. Wallace, S.Dak. After practicing pharmacy for several years, Humphrey taught political science and became involved in state pol...

Maddox, Lester G.

(Encyclopedia)Maddox, Lester G. (Lester Garfield Maddox, Sr), 1915–2003, U.S. public official, governor of Georgia (1967–71), b. Atlanta. He achieved national notoriety in 1964 when he drove African Americans f...

Great Society

(Encyclopedia)Great Society, in U.S. history, term for the domestic policies of President Lyndon Johnson. In his first State of the Union message, he called for a war on poverty and the creation of a “Great Socie...

Keppel, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Keppel, Francis, 1916–90, American educator, b. New York City. A Harvard graduate, Keppel was named dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education in 1948. There he introduced television into educat...

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