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Civil Rights
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Emancipation Problamation
Throughout the war, abolitionists pressured President Lincoln to free all African Americans. Union soldiers were not just fighting to preserve the Union, but to also end slavery. They said that freeing slaves would give them more recruits to be drafted into the war. Emancipation or liberation from slavery reasoned that the Fugitive Slave law no longer applied to Southerners. After the secession from the union they could no longer claim to be protected by Union's laws. -
13th Amendment; Slavery
This Amendment was the final step in ending slavery in the United States. It also prohibits the binding of people to perform a personal service due to debt. This Amendment is the first adopted to be divided into sections. The Supreme Court has held that the draft is not a violation of the amendment. -
14th Amendment
The reason for this amendment was to penalize Southern States that refused to grant African Americans the right to vote, also to keep former confederate leaders from serving in government. Also to forbid payment of the confederacy's debt by the federal government and to insure payment of the war debts owed by the federal government. -
15th Amendment; right to vote
Part of the 14th amendment was replaced by the 15th amendment. But despite this prohibition, African Americans were denied the right to vote by many states by such means as poll taxes, literacy tests, and white primaries. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Homer Adolph Plessy argued that the state law which required east Louisiana railroad to segregate trains had denied him his rights under the 13th and 14th amendments. John Howard Ferguson ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies as long as they operated within state boundaries. Plessy was convicted and sentenced to pay a $25 fine. This case was argued April 18, 1896 and decided May 1896 -
19th Amendment; Womens Suffrage
This amendment extending the vote to all qualified women in federal and state elections, was a landmark victory for the woman suffrage movement, which had worked to achieve this goal for many years. The Woman's movement had earlier gained full voting rights for women in four western states in the late nineteenth century. -
Smith v. Allwright
Lonnie E. Smith sued a county election official, S. S. Allwright for the right to vote in a primary election being conducted by the democratic party. The court agreed that the restricted primary denied Smith his protection under the law and found in his favor. This case was reguarded January 12, 1944 and decided, April 3, 1944. -
Executive Order 9981
Issued by president Truman, this order abolished racial esgregation in the armed forces. It expanded on the executive order 8802.
Statement: "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the president that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces, without reguard to race, color, religion, or national origin." -
Brown VS. Board of Education
In Topeka Kansas in 1954 the Supreme court helped overturn that school segregation did not originate in the South., by selecting a case from outside th south, the court hoped to emphasize that th question of school segregation was a national one. -
Emmett Till Murder
On August 28, 1955 in Money, Mississippi, A young black boy named Emmett Till was murdered by 2 men named Roy Bryant and John Milam. Emmett reportedly "wolf whistled" at Carolyn Bryant, Roy's wife. Emmett was badly beaten and shot in his head, then Bryant disposed of his body in the Tallahatchie River, where his body was found 3 days later. Bryant and Milam were found not guilty. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
This boycott was intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit systems. This campaign lasted from December 1, 1955 to December 20, 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
This law passed in 1957 and in 1960 gave the attorney general power to sue in federal courts on behalf of African Americans denied the right to vote because of their race. This act was to help African Americans obtain voting rights. -
Greensboro and Nashville Sit-Ins
They were a series of nonviolent protests. These lasted from February 1, 1960 - May 28, 1963. The first sit-in was at Woolsworth Store lunch counter. four black people sat down until the store closed without being waited on. After that, more than 20 black peolpe would go sit-in at lunch counters. In Nashville, they all did sit-ins at lunch counters in 3 different stores. Most of them ended up being exspelled from school and put in jail. -
Freedom Riders
Freedom riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the "segregated southern United States". Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored most of the rides. The freedom rides followed dramatic sit-ins against segregated lunch counters conducted by black students and youth throughout the south. -
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
This was one of the largest political rallies in U.S. history. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech during this march. There were 200,000 police involved, There were approximatley 300,000 participants marching, which 75&-80% of them were black. -
"Sunday School Bombing"
The 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed as an act of racially motivated terrorism. On Sundey morning, 4 men from the Ku Klux Klan planted a box of dynamite under the steps of the church near the basement. While the kids went down to the basement assembly room, the bomb exploded, killing 4 young girls and injuring 22 kids. Robert Chambliss was sentenced to life imprisonment after being identified by a witness as the man who placed the box under the steps of the church. -
24th Amendment; Abolition to the Poll Tax
A "Poll Tax' was a fee that persons were required to pay in order to vote in a number of the sourthern states. This amendment ended poll taxes as a requiremet to vote in any presidential or congressional election. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This Act forbided segregation in hotels, motels, resturants, lunch counters, theaters, and sporting arenas that did business in interstate commerce. Most businesses in the south desegregated immediately after this act was passed. This act made bringing discrimination cases the job of the federal government. -
Voting Rights Act 1965
This is a landmark piece of national legislation that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. This act prohibits states from inposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, standard practice or procedure to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color". -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The racial attitude and behavior of white Americans towards black Americans were in patterns of discrimmination and prejudice. An African American migration to the cities followed by thw white flight to the suburbs and in the existence of African American ghettos.
