Segregation

American segregation was the separation of whites and Blacks in every aspect of daily life. Until the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, it was legal to have separate schools for white and Black children. Even after that ruling, lunch counters, busses, bathrooms, water fountains, and countless other places of business, worship, and routine living were segregated. Signs that said "Whites Only" were everywhere in the South, and there were legal (and extra-legal) punishments for anyone who dared to defy these ordinances.

Jim Crow

Jim Crow laws were the local and state ordinances that enforced segregation in the formerly slave-owning states. Although it's hard to pin down exactly when they started popping up, they were certainly in full effect from around the end of the Reconstruction Era (1877) until the mid-1960s. "Jim Crow" was a character white supremacists used to make fun of African Americans.

Non-Violent Resistance / Direct Action / Civil Disobedience

The use of peaceful demonstration, non-cooperation, and protest to create political change. Famous proponents include Dr. King, Mahatma Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, and Leo Tolstoy. Good company. 

Moratorium

A suspension or delay, usually in a legal context but sometimes when you just wish your BFF would put a moratorium on her "that's what she said" jokes. 

"The Supreme Court's decision of 1954"

The Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education overturned the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896, which had allowed for segregation in schools. Local and state governments in the South defied the Brown decision at every turn, which is why we needed the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The lesson: ignorance, like toenail fungus, is stubborn. 

The Boston Tea Party

You know, that time a bunch of Bostonians boarded British trading vessels and dumped hundreds of crates of tea into the harbor, helping to kick-start the Revolutionary War. Now that's what we call a wild party. 

KKK

The Ku Klux Klan was (and amazingly, still is) a white supremacist terrorist organization that used intimidation and violence against the black community and its white allies. It was originally started after the Civil War to terrorize blacks during Reconstruction. We repeat: toenail fungus. 

White Citizens' Councils

White Citizens' Councils were white supremacist organizations started during the 1950s in the American South. They shared the same goals as the KKK, but met in public and primarily used "legal" means to fight desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement. 

Black Nationalism

Black Nationalism was a movement with starkly different goals from the Civil Rights Movement of Dr. King. While there were many differences within their movement as a whole, Black Nationalists were united by the idea of racial pride, the desire for self-determination in Black communities, and some form of separation from mainstream white-dominated America. 

Zeitgeist

German for "spirit of the times." Translated literally, it can be rendered as "Time Ghost," which sounds to us like a great new sitcom. Don't ask us what it's about, though. 

Ekklesia

A Greek term referring to the Christian Church as a whole throughout history. It's basically everything that is or ever was Christian, from the Holy Roman Empire, to Joan of Arc, to the Pope's hat. In the letter, however, Dr. King has something else in mind. He says the "true ekklesia" is the "inner spiritual church, the church within the church" (34).