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Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri. For 10 years he lived in the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. After returning to Missouri, Scott filed suit in Missouri court for his freedom, claiming that his residence in free territory made him a free man. After losing, Scott brought a new suit in federal court. Scott's master maintained that no “negro” or descendant of slaves could be a citizen in the sense of Article III of the Constitution. -
13th Amendment
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former enslaved people, and guaranteed all citizens equal protection of the laws. -
15th Amendment
This amendment prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude -
Plessy v Ferguson
Plessy v Ferguson was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal" -
19th Amendment
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States and the states from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex, in effect recognizing the right of women to a vote. -
White Primaries
White primaries were primary elections held in the Southern United States in which only white voters were permitted to participate. Statewide white primaries were established by the state Democratic Party units or by state legislatures in South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, and Georgia. -
Brown v Board of Education
Brown v Board of Education was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking to increase the representation of particular groups based on their gender, race, sexuality, creed or nationality in areas in which they are underrepresented such as education and employment. -
24th Amendment
This amendment prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax -
Poll Taxes
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in the U.S. -
Reed v Reed
In Reed v. Reed, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited differential treatment based on sex. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in matters of divorce, property, employment, and other matters -
Regents of the University of California v Bakke
The Regents of the University of California v. Allan Bakke was a landmark case decided by the United States Supreme Court. The decision had historical and legal significance because it upheld affirmative action, declaring that race could be one of several determining factors in college admission policies, but rejected the use of racial quotas. -
Bowers v Hardwick
Michael Hardwick was observed by a Georgia police officer while engaging in the act of consensual homosexual sodomy with another adult in the bedroom of his home. The divided Court found that there was no constitutional protection for acts of sodomy, and that states could outlaw those practices. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The law made it illegal to discriminate against a disabled person in terms of employment opportunities, access to transportation, public accommodations, communications, and government activities. -
Lawrence v Texas
Lawrence v. Texas was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. laws prohibiting private homosexual activity, sodomy, and oral sex between consenting adults are unconstitutional. -
Obergefell v Hodges
Obergefell v. Hodges is a civil rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.