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Reign of the Poll Tax
A poll tax is a tax of a fixed amount per person levied on adults and often linked to the right to vote. Poll taxes have been utilized by many countries throughout history and some still to this day, but the primary purpose of them in the U.S. was to exclude African-Americans from voting following the ratification of the 15th Amendment. Poll taxes became illegal in 1964 with the 24th Amendment. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked the power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. -
13th Amendment
During the Civil War, Lincoln realized amending the Constitution was the only way to officially end slavery. The 13th Amendment forever abolished slavery as an institution in all U.S. states and territories. In addition to banning slavery, the amendment outlawed the practice of involuntary servitude and peonage. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” This strengthened the federal government's power over the States, particularly regarding State treatment of citizens. It provided the legal framework for the civil rights movement relating to racial discrimination. -
15th Amendment
The purpose of this amendment was to ensure that states or communities were not denying men the right to vote simply based on their race, such as black codes that limited African-American social and working rights. -
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White Primaries
Southern Democratic party chapters started to use white primaries in the late 19th century, as part of efforts to suppress black voting and weaken the Republican Party in the South. In order to keep African Americans out of the political process, this rule excluded them from party membership. White primaries finally came to an end as part of the decision regarding Smith v. Allwright in 1944. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
This case was important because it essentially established the constitutionality of racial segregation. As a controlling legal precedent, it prevented constitutional challenges to racial segregation for more than half a century until it was finally overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote, prohibiting any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified following the women's suffrage movement. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The decision in Brown v. Board of Education marked a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States. On this date, the Court stripped away constitutional sanctions for segregation by race and made equal opportunity in education the law of the land. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action ensures colleges and universities provide opportunities to those historically shut out of the system because of their race, ethnicity, income, or identity. There is "substantive evidence" that affirmative action regulation has played an important role in reducing differences in wage and in unemployment rates between white men and women, and between majority and minority workers (Yale). -
24th Amendment
Historically, citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in a national election. This fee was called a poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the United States ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials. The poll tax exemplified “Jim Crow” laws, developed in the post-Reconstruction South, which aimed to disenfranchise black voters and institute segregation. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and federally funded programs. It also strengthened the enforcement of voting rights and the desegregation of schools. The Civil Rights Act has been referred to as the nation's benchmark civil rights legislation. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. Above all, it was also responsible for creating a significant change in the status of African Americans throughout the South. -
Reed v. Reed
Half a century ago, the Supreme Court invalidated an Idaho law that required the selection of a man over a woman to serve as administrator of an estate when both were equally qualified. It was a landmark decision, eventually ruling that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. -
Equal Rights Amendment
When the U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787, the rights it affirmed were guaranteed equally only for certain white males. 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. While it was passed by Congress in 1972, the deadline to ratify has since gone by. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
In this case, the Court ruled a university's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process unconstitutional but held that affirmative action programs could be constitutional in some circumstances. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
This case, which is not even 35 years old, ruled that the Constitution does not protect the right of gay adults to engage in private, consensual sodomy. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. The ADA gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. It protects the rights of people with disabilities in all aspects of employment, in accessing public services such as transportation while also guaranteeing access to private establishments. -
Lawrence v. Texas
This case (which is somehow younger than most seniors!) ruled that U.S. laws prohibiting private homosexual activity, sodomy, and oral sex between consenting adults are unconstitutional. The sodomy laws in a dozen other states were thereby invalidated. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
A legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that state bans on same-sex marriage and on recognizing same-sex marriages duly performed in other jurisdictions are unconstitutional under the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.
