This glossary was compiled as an easy reference for vocabulary used throughout these web pages.

Busing
The transporting of students across school-district boundaries, usually court-ordered, to make schools more racially balanced.

Civil Rights
The personal freedoms of citizens guaranteed by the 13th and 14th amendments to the US Constitution.

Civil Rights Act of 1964
The federal laws making it illegal for schools and businesses to treat people differently on the basis of their race, religion or the country of their birth.

Class action suit
A lawsuit filed by one person on behalf of a group of people who have the same complaint.

Desegregation
The ending of the separation of members of one race from members of another race.

Discrimination
The unfair treatment of one group of people by another group because they are of a different race, gender, religion or culture.

Dual attendance zones
There was a directory of Richmond City Schools that listed all the white schools in one division and all the black schools in another one. Therefore it looked like there were "dual attendance zones." The Pupil Placement Board used this directory to make their pupil assignments.

Fair Housing Act of 1968
The federal law that makes it illegal for businesses to discriminate against or treat unfairly different races in the sale of rental of places to live.

Freedom of choice
In Richmond, students requested which school they would like to attend, which would then be approved by the Virginia Pupil Placement Board.

Grade-pairing/Feeder schools
This plan was created to reduce busing and keep students together through their entire public education. After finishing elementary school, children would attend a nearby middle school; after middle school children would attend one central high school.

Gray Plan
The collection of recommendations made by Senator Garland Gray and his committee. The committee suggested that the local school boards be given the right decide which students would be assigned to which schools. It also suggested that money be given to parents to send their child to segregated private schools instead of integrated public schools.

HEW
United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This federal organization set up new desegregation guidelines in the mid 1960s. If any school districts resisted integration, they would cut off federal funds to the schools.

Integration
The process of bringing together different races in order for all people to enjoy the same benefits in society.

Interposition
The state's right to resist federal laws that the state considers unconstitutional.

K-5 Plan (1978)
A desegregation plan created by Richmond Public School Superintendent Richard C. Hunter that attempted to keep white families in the city by keeping their younger children in neighborhood schools.

Massive Resistance
A plan to persuade white people to avoid court-ordered desegregation through the passage of state laws.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
An organization started in 1909 in New York City to improve the quality of life for African-Americans.

Passive Resistance
To challenge laws by using nonviolent methods.

Plan G (1979-86)
A plan to prevent the closing of Richmond area high schools by merging the seven schools into three: Marshall-Walker, Armstrong-Kennedy, and Jefferson-Huguenot-Wythe.

Prejudice
The dislike or distrust of people because they are of another race, religion or country.

Pupil Placement Board (Virginia)
A committee that had the right to decide what school a student attended. This decision was based on the students race.

Racism
The belief that a particular race of people is superior to other races.

Segregation
The separation one group of people from another group through peer pressure, laws or personal preference.

"Separate but equal"
A concept that gives states the right to segregate races of people in public transportation. This idea was extended to allow races to have separate but of similar quality facilities, like schools and restaurants.

Southern Manifesto
A public declaration by Southern congressmen of their intentions to resist desegregation.

Strike
To cause work to stop so that attention will be placed on a grievance or complaint.

The Stanley Plan
A collection of 13 acts that were passed to keep schools from integrating.

Tokenism
Pretending to meet public pressure or legal requirements for nondiscrimination by hiring, promoting, or including for membership one or a few minorities or women.

Tuition grants
During massive resistance, Virginia was allowed to give money from public funds to parents to send their child to private schools to prevent integration.

White-flight
A term used to describe the trend of white families out of neighborhoods that black families have moved into.