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Freedmen's Bureau

(Encyclopedia)Freedmen's Bureau, in U.S. history, a federal agency, formed to aid and protect the newly freed blacks in the South after the Civil War. Established by an act of Mar. 3, 1865, under the name “bureau...

skunk

(Encyclopedia)skunk, name for several related New World mammals of the weasel family, characterized by their conspicuous black and white markings and use of a strong, highly offensive odor for defense. The scent gl...

bear, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)bear, large mammal of the family Ursidae in the order Carnivora, found almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere. Bears have large heads, bulky bodies, massive hindquarters, short, powerful limbs,...

Reconstruction

(Encyclopedia)Reconstruction, 1865–77, in U.S. history, the period of readjustment following the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War, the defeated South was a ruined land. The physical destruction wrought by t...

Odessa, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Odessa ōdĕsˈə [key], city (1990 pop. 89,699), seat of Ector co., W Tex.; founded 1881, inc. 1927. Great oil deposits just to the south changed Odessa from a small ranch town into a large and growi...

Lorain

(Encyclopedia)Lorain lôrānˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 71,245), Lorain co., N Ohio, on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Black River; inc. 1834. Once an important ore-shipping point, Lorain has shipyards, steelworks, au...

Moton, Robert Russa

(Encyclopedia)Moton, Robert Russa mōˈtən [key], 1867–1940, black American educator, b. Amelia co., Va., grad. Hampton Institute, 1890. He was commandant (1890–1915) of Hampton Institute, then principal and p...

Sand to Snow National Monument

(Encyclopedia)Sand to Snow National Monument, 154,000 acres (62,000 hectares) in the San Bernadino Mountains, S Calif. It rises from the Sonoran Desert floor to Mount San Gorgonio (11,503 ft/3,506 m), the highest p...

Shaw, Robert Gould

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837–63, Union hero in the American Civil War, b. Boston. An ardent white abolitionist, he was colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first body of black troops raised i...

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

(Encyclopedia)Cumberland Presbyterian Church, branch of the Presbyterian Church in the United States founded in 1810. In 1906 many of its congregations were united with the main body of the church. It began as a re...