IB History Methods Used by the African American Civil Rights Movement to Create Change Key Definitions

A supporter of the abolition (ending) of slavery and the extension of equal rights to formerly enslaved people.

The deliberate, non-violent refusal to obey unjust laws or government demands, as a form of political protest. Gandhi's civil disobedience campaigns (1930-1934) involved mass law-breaking, including the Salt March, refusal to pay taxes, and boycotts of British goods and institutions.

The granting of the right to vote. In the context of the suffrage movement, it refers to extending voting rights to women. In the Canadian Indigenous context, it had a different meaning: the process by which an Indigenous person gave up their legal status and rights as an Indigenous person in exchange for Canadian citizenship.

The approach of working within existing political and legal systems to achieve gender equality through legislation, litigation, and lobbying.

In the suffragette context, the use of increasingly aggressive and confrontational tactics to advance political goals. WSPU militancy escalated from heckling and disruption (1905-1908) to window-smashing and arson (1912-1914). The term was debated within the movement, with some seeing it as necessary and others as counterproductive.