Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Treaty of Paris granting American independence. This area is generally referred to in
the American vernacular as the Midwest. The traditional Midwest covers the states
that border the Ohio River west of Pennsylvania and the Great Lake states. The
traditional Midwest is bounded in the west by the states bordering the Mississippi
River. While the boundaries are not clearly identified, it is generally agreed that the
Midwest is synonymous with the Heartland. The term is often used to describe the
heart of agriculture, of which Iowa is emblematic.
MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), CMSA (Combined MSA), PMSA (Primary
MSA)
: Abbreviations for different types of metropolitan areas as defined by the
Census Bureau. See also glossary entries for “metro area” and “US Census Bureau”.
N
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
: The
NAACP was founded in 1909 in Springfield (Illinois) at the centenary of the birth of
Abraham Lincoln. It is dedicated to promoting the civil rights of ethnic minorities in
the United States. The organization, which boasts 400,000 members, is
headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. From its inception, the NAACP has fought
discriminatory practices known as “Jim Crow” laws established in the southern
states from 1877 and legalized at the federal level by President W. Wilson in 1913.
The proliferation of litigation led to the decisive victory in the Supreme Court in
1954 (
Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education
), which marked the beginning of the
major civil rights movement, which culminated Congress passing the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 (proscribing discrimination) and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Having
gone through a moral and financial crisis between 1993 and 1996, the organization
found itself in sharp disagreement with President George W. Bush, who in 2004
rejected an invitation to speak at the NAACP convention, something no sitting
president had done since Herbert Hoover (1928-32). Following Hurricane Katrina,
the NAACP has regained the influence. In 2006 President Bush accepted the
NAACP invitation and promised to cooperate with the organization despite poor
relationships with the organization's leadership. Even though the NAACP claims to
speak for all minorities, it has always been controlled by the African-American
community whose interests it seeks to promote.
NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations)
:
Second most important financial market in the United States after the NYSE (New
York Stock Exchange, Wall Street), the NASDAQ is a computerized market
specializing in information, computing, and technology listings. The NASDAQ is
based in Trumbull, Connecticut, approximately 100 km north and east of New York.
