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Primary elections decide which people within a party will run for office. During Reconstruction, many Southern states did not allow African-Americans to participate in these elections, preventing them from nominating a candidate they supported. This is important because the Democratic party was essentially the only party in the South at the time, so this really silenced the entire vote of African-Americans.
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Poll Taxes have existed since colonial times but they weren't really used as a way to suppress votes on the basis of race until the passage of the 15th Amendment which granted the right to vote to all citizens regardless of color. They effectively suppressed the votes of the impoverished, who "coincidentally" tended to be Black. This is an example of ignoring the 15th amendment to maintain the status quo.
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The 13th Amendment made slavery illegal in the United States, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed and ratified following the conclusion of the Civil War, which had already emancipated slaves in the Confederacy. This is significant because a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing this right is essentially set in stone.
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This Amendment grants citizenship to all people born on American soil and those who are naturalized. It also prohibits states from passing laws that infringe upon Constitutional rights. States can also not deprive citizens of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny equal protection to any citizen within its jurisdiction. This is incredibly important because it broadens the definition of citizenship and it is also the basis for incorporation of the Constitution.
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This Amendment protects voting rights. It states that voting rights cannot be denied on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It makes it illegal to deny slaves the right to vote, though it was often ignored in the South. It is significant because it gives former slaves a voice in the democratic process, however it also does not extend the right to vote to women. They weren't happy about that.
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This court case ruled that the Constitution did not grant rights to Black people whether they were enslaved or not. A Black person was not an American citizen. This is significant because it is an explicit denial of constitutional rights solely on the basis of race. It upheld in the courtroom the racial ideas of the general population.
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This case upheld the constitutionality of a Louisiana law requiring separate railway cars for White and Black people. They reasoned that it did not violate the 14th amendment so long as there was no meaningful difference between the two cars. This set a precedent for upholding state-imposed racial segregation for decades to come.
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This Amendment gave women the right to vote. Specifically, it says the right to vote shall not be denied on the basis of sex and that Congress can enforce it with proper legislation. This is significant because it added an entire half of the population to the voting population.
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This Supreme Court Case declared public school segregation on the basis of race to be unconstitutional. It went against the "separate but equal" doctrine and reasoned that separating students on the basis of race instilled a sense of inferiority that negatively affected students. This put an end to state-imposed school segregation. It was also a unanimous decision that was intended for the general public to understand.
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Affirmative Action aims to increase the proportion of minorities in universities. Though it has been ruled unconstitutional to have racial quotas in admitting students to college, race can still be considered an important factor in the decision. This has generated a lot of controversy in American politics.
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This Amendment states that the right to vote in any federal election cannot be denied because someone fails to pay a poll tax. It essentially makes poll taxes unconstitutional. This is significant because the 15th Amendment had plenty of workarounds in the Reconstruction-era South, and this made one of them, the poll tax, unconstitutional. It is a step towards realizing that voting rights must be actively protected.
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This act passed by Congress prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin in all public accommodations and federally funded programs as well as in the hiring process. It also enforced voting rights more strongly and desegregated of schools. This is significant because it doesn't directly relate to a constitutional right but instead regulates the racist behavior of individuals and businesses.
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This Act sought to enforce the 15th Amendment as literacy tests and harassment of colored voters at the polls effectively silenced the votes of minorities. It outlawed literacy tests and provided legal grounds for poll taxes in state and local elections to be declared unconstitutional. This is significant because it actually exercises the second clause of the 15th amendment which says Congress can enforce the first clause. It is a landmark act against voter suppression.
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This Supreme Court Case declared unconstitutional an Idaho law that instructed hirers to prefer males over females. They said this law was the kind of arbitrary distinction that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment is supposed to outlaw. This is significant because it applied the 14th amendment to the hiring process of women.
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This is a proposed Constitutional amendment that would make it illegal to deny equal rights under the law on the basis of sex. This has yet to be ratified by enough states to be an amendment, but the idea behind it is an important step to realizing equality under the law. It was passed by Congress on March 22, 1972.
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This case decided that denying a qualified white student (Bakke) admission solely on the basis of race was unconstitutional, although including race as one of several criteria in the admissions process is constitutionally permissible. This was a difficult and nuanced case, and although there was an 8-1 majority, there was no clear consensus. Ultimately, it upheld affirmative action in a softer sense, but also decreased white opposition to the process.
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This case decided that there was no Constitutional right to consensually engage in an act of sodomy like homosexuality. It was a 5-4 decision, and the majority reasoned that there was no legal precedent for declaring this a right, and doing so would undermine the legitimacy of the Supreme Court in the future. This is a failure to secure equal rights for homosexuals, though it was overturned in 2003.
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This act passed by Congress prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas like employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to government programs and services. This is significant because it ensures rights to a large sector of the population that had previously been neglected.
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This case overturned Bowers v. Hardwick by saying that a Texas state law making homosexuality illegal violates Americans' rights to privacy and liberty under the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment. They claimed there was no legitimate state interest for prohibiting homosexual acts between two consenting adults.
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This case declared that the 14th amendment requires states to license marriages to same-sex couples and that these must be recognized in other states. It was a controversial 5-4 decision in which the dissenters argued the Court was overstepping its bounds and becoming a legislative entity. It did require a loose interpretation of the 14th amendment.
