Unit 2: Chapter 9

13 words 34 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. literacy
    the ability to read and write
    Literacy is the ability to read and write.
  2. assimilation
    the process of absorbing one cultural group into another
    Assimilation is the process by which people of one culture become part of another culture.
  3. philanthropist
    someone who makes charitable donations
    In response, educators and philanthropists, people who give donations to worthy causes, established private women's colleges with high academic standards.
  4. vaudeville
    a genre of variety show with songs, comic acts, etc.
    The most popular kind of live theatrical performance was vaudeville, a type of inexpensive variety show that first appeared in the 1870s.
  5. yellow journalism
    sensationalist reporting or headlines
    Because of heated competition, publishers urged their reporters to discover lurid details of murders, vice, and scandal—anything to sell more papers. Such sensational news coverage came to be called yellow journalism, a reference to the yellow ink used in a popular comic strip of the era.
  6. ragtime
    music with a syncopated melody (usually for the piano)
    Ragtime originated among black musicians in the South and Midwest in the 1880s. This infectious music featured melodies with shifting accents over a steady, marching-band beat.
  7. poll tax
    an amount to be paid as a requirement for voting
    Some states required voters to own property or to pay a poll tax, a special fee that must be paid before a person was permitted to vote.
  8. grandfather clause
    an exemption to a rule based on prior circumstances
    To ensure that the literacy tests did not keep too many poor whites from voting, some states passed special laws with grandfather clauses. These laws exempted men from certain voting restrictions if they had already voted, or if they had ancestors (grandfathers) who had voted prior to blacks being granted suffrage.
  9. segregation
    a social system that provides different facilities for minority groups
    During this period many states also instituted a system of legal segregation. This system ensured that African Americans were treated as second-class citizens. Segregation means separation of people by race.
  10. lynch
    kill without legal sanction
    The worst kind of violence against blacks was lynching, or the murder of an accused person by a mob without a lawful trial.
  11. department store
    a large shop organized into sections
    Growing urban populations, an abundance of manufactured goods, the expansion of public transportation, and electric lighting led to the development of department stores. These large retail establishments carried such a wide variety of goods they were divided into departments.
  12. rural
    living in or characteristic of farming or country life
    Despite the protests of local shopkeepers, the United States Post Office began offering rural free delivery (RFD) in 1896 to any group of farmers who petitioned their congressman.
  13. catalogue
    a complete list of things, usually arranged systematically
    This free service gave farm families access to big-city goods through mail-order catalogs, or printed materials advertising a wide range of goods that could be purchased by mail.
Created on Tue Jul 27 16:02:34 EDT 2021 (updated Thu Jul 29 12:47:18 EDT 2021)

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