This is a partial list of
terms used on this site.

Glossary of Terms

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Abbreviations -
NL - National League
AL - American League
NLB - Negro League Baseball
NLBM - Negro League Baseball Museum
NNL - Negro National League
RFDL - Resources for Diverse Learners
MVP - Most Valuable Player

Activism - Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of a controversial argument.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activism, 2006)

American Reconstruction - A period in United States history, 1865–1876, that attempted to resolve the issues of the American Civil War when both the Confederacy and its system of slavery were destroyed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction, 2006)

Antietam - Creek that was the site of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of the Civil War. More than 23,000 men lost their lives on Sept. 17. General George McClellan had moved to intercept a Southern advance into Maryland. After being shown a copy of General Lee's to his commanders, McClellan, who was north, moved to intercept. His move was not quick enough to catch Lee by himself, though. Stonewall Jackson, recently returned from a victory at Harper's Ferry, joined Lee for the savage battle outside the town of Sharpsburg. Tactically, the battle was a draw. But the result was a Southern retreat, which gave not only the appearance of a Union in command but the opportunity for Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
(Social Studies for Kids, http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/wwww/us/uslistcivilwar.htm)

Anti-Semitism - "Discrimination against or prejudice or hostility toward Jews.”
(Webster's Dictionary)

Artifact - Any object manufactured, used or modified by humans. Common examples include tools, utensils, art, food remains, and other products of human activity.
(National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 2006. http://www.cr.nps.gov/seac/terms.htm)

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Barnstorming - When teams traveled from place to place, challenging local teams in small towns and rural areas.
(Teacher's Field Trip Guide to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum)

Bigotry - "Stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own."
(Webster's Dictionary)

Blog (an abbreviation for Weblog) - "To author an online diary or chronology of thoughts."
(Webster's Dictionary)

Boycott - A refusal to deal with an employer, involving refusals to purchase products, refusals to work or both.
(www.labor-studies.org/glossary.htm, date unknown)

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Civil Rights - The rights of each citizen to liberty, equality, etc.; spec. in the U.S., the rights of Black people as citizens.
(Oxford English Dictionary, 1989)

Civil Rights Movement - The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all citizens of United States. It has been made up of many movements, though it is often used to refer to the struggles between 1955 and 1968 to end discrimination against African-Americans and to end racial segregation, especially in the U.S. South.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Civil_Rights_Movement, 2006)

Civil War - The war (1861-1865) between the northern U.S. states, which remained in the Union, and the southern states, which seceded and formed the Confederacy. The victory of the North ended slavery and preserved the Union.
(U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs, http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/gloss.htm)

Clown Team - Novelty baseball teams that performed comic routines that included numerous exaggerations of racial stereotypes coupled with extraordinary baseball skills.
(Teacher's Field Trip Guide to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum)

Confederate - Also called the South or the Confederate States of America, the Confederacy incorporated the states that seceded from the United States of America to form their own nation. Confederate states were: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The President of the Confederacy was Jefferson F. Davis.
(Civil War Preservation Trust, http://www.civilwar.org/historyclassroom/hc_glossary.htm)

Crank - A term for baseball fans in the late 1800s.
(What It Means to Be a Fan. Peter Morris. 2003, Society for American Baseball Research Convention)

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Discrimination - To be excluded from participation in, or be denied the benefits of a program, activity, organization or facility.
(U.S. Dept. of Justice, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972)

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eMuseum (Virtual Museum) - The concept of the Virtual Museum demonstrates how limitations imposed by the traditional method of organizing and presenting information can be overcome in the context of museum visits. In a nutshell, the Virtual Museum provides multiple levels, perspectives, and dimensions of information about a particular topic: it provides not only multimedia (print, visual images through photographs, illustrations or video, and audio), but, more important, it provides information that has not been filtered out through these traditional methods.
(Hoptman, 1992, p. 141)

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Fascism - "A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism."
(Webster's Dictionary)

Folklore - "The traditional beliefs, legends, customs, etc., of a people; lore of a people."
(Webster's Dictionary)

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Gentleman's Agreement - The ‘old gentleman’s agreement’ was an agreement between Major League owners not to sign Black baseball players to their team. This agreement helped keep Black baseball players out of the Major Leagues and helped continue segregation not only in baseball but in life.
(Shadowball)

Graphic Organizer - A graphic organizer is a visual and graphic display that depicts the relationships between facts, terms, and or ideas within a learning task. Graphic organizers are also sometimes referred to as knowledge maps, concept maps, story maps, cognitive organizers, advance organizers, or concept diagrams
(Center for Applied Special Technology, http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_go.html)

Griot - Any of a class of musician-entertainers of western Africa whose performances include tribal histories and genealogies.
(http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/griot)

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Hispanic - of, relating to, or being a person of Latin American descent living in the U.S.; especially: one of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin.
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/hispanic)

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Integration - Incorporation as equals into society or an organization of individuals of different groups (as races).
(Teacher's Field Trip Guide to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum)

International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) - ISTE is a nonprofit professional organization with a worldwide membership of leaders and potential leaders in educational technology.
(ISTE, 2006)

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Jim Crow Laws - A term describing the American racist culture against blacks, it originated as a derogatory way of depicting black people in the minstrel shows of early 19th century America. By the 1890s, the term had come to mean the separation of blacks from whites and the general customs and laws that subordinated blacks as an inferior people. Historians have used the term in reference to the process of segregation or setting the races apart--sometimes meaning customary or informal segregation and sometimes meaning legal or codified segregation.
(The History of Jim Crow, http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/home.htm)

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Latino - 1. a native or inhabitant of Latin America.2. a person of Latin-American origin living in the United States.
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/latino)

League - A sports league is an organization which exists to provide a regulated competition for a number of people to compete in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an international professional league making large amounts of money and involving dozens of teams and thousands of players. League is generally used to refer to competitions involving team sports, not individual sports.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_league)

Lynching - "To execute without due process of law, especially to hang, as by a mob."
(Webster's Dictionary)

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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) - The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.
(http://www.naacp.org/about/mission/, 2006)

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) - Founded in 1921, National Council for the Social Studies has grown to be the largest association in the country devoted solely to social studies education. NCSS engages and supports educators in strengthening and advocating social studies.
(NCSS, 2006)

Negro Renaissance - During the 1920's African American art and literature gained recognition as a significant component of world culture. Numerous people of color from the South and the Caribbean moved to Harlem in New York City, where the blending of cultures helped foster a flowering of the arts. Such a prodigious amount of poetry, novels, other literary writing, music, and art was produced during the era between the world wars that it is now known as the Harlem Renaissance.
(Library of Congress: African American Odyssey)

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Oral History - "Information of historical or sociological importance obtained usually by tape-recorded interviews with persons whose experiences and memories are representative or whose lives have been of special significance."
(Webster's Dictionary)

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Plantation System - Large plantations were relatively few in number across the South. A farm worked by at least twenty or more slaves was defined as a plantation.
(PBS Video, 2006)

Prejudice - An irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics.
(Teacher's Field Trip Guide to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum)

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Quest Page (Web Quest) - An inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by students is online. By providing links necessary to complete the quest, the student is able to focus on the material rather than spend time looking for it. The five-part WebQuest (Introduction, Task, Process, Evaluation and Conclusion) promotes critical thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
(Northeast Texas Consortium and the Center for Educational Technologies, http://www.netnet.org/students/student%20glossary.htm)

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Racketeering - The business of racketeers; a system of organized crime directed chiefly to extorting money by gambling, intimidation, violence, or other illegal methods.
(Adapted from Oxford English Dictionary, 1989)

Racism - Belief in the superiority of a particular race leading to prejudice and antagonism towards people of other races, esp. those in close proximity who may be felt as a threat to one's cultural and racial integrity or economic well-being.
(Oxford English Dictionary, 1989)

Rebels - Loyal to the Confederate States. Also Southern or Confederate.
(Civil War Preservation Trust, http://www.civilwar.org/historyclassroom/hc_glossary.htm)

Resources for Diverse Learners (RFDL) - Supplemental materials that support the cognitive load of the lesson plan. These materials were designed for students with mild and moderate disabilities including limitations in reading, writing and organizational skills.

Rookie - A first-year participant in a major professional sports.
(Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/rookie)

Rubric - A set of criteria specifying the characteristics of a learning outcome and the levels of achievement in each characteristic.
(http://www.bridgew.edu/AssessmentGuidebook/glossary.cfm, 2004)

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Segregation - The enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or institution.
(Oxford English Dictionary, 1989)

Shadowball - When baseball players pantomime or pretend they are playing baseball with real equipment.
(Shadowball)

Slavery - Slavery is a condition of control over a person against their will, enforced by violence or other forms of coercion. Slavery almost always occurs for the purpose of securing the labor of the person concerned. A specific form, known as chattel slavery, implies the legal ownership of a person or persons.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery, 2006)

Standards - The broadest of a family of terms referring to statements of expectations for student learning, including content and performance expectations, and benchmarks.
(SABES, n.d.)

State Standards - Statements of expectation in a set of collections of different subject areas that may be proposed by a state for review.
(National Education Goals Panel, 1993, p. 9)

Stereotype - A standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment.
(Teacher's Field Trip Guide to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum)

Storyboard - A graphic plan for the frame-by-frame action in a project, (usually film or on video). Usually done sequentially, a complete storyboard represents a print rendition of the final film or video product.
(Public Broadcast System, www.pbs.org/weta/myjourneyhome/teachers/glossary.html)

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Underground Railroad - The secret system by which slaves were enabled to escape to the Free States and Canada.
(Oxford English Dictionary, 1989)

Union - Also called the North or the United States, the Union was the portion of the country that remained loyal to the Federal government during the Civil War. Union states were: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. West Virginia became a Northern state in 1863 and California and Oregon were also officially Northern but they had little direct involvement in the War. The President of the United States during the Civil War was Abraham Lincoln.
(Civil War Preservation Trust, http://www.civilwar.org/historyclassroom/hc_glossary.htm)

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Yankee - A Northerner; someone loyal to the Federal government of the United States. Also, Union, Federal, or Northern.
(Civil War Preservation Trust, http://www.civilwar.org/historyclassroom/hc_glossary.htm)