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13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "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." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States, the 13th Amendment was passed by the Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868, and granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. -
15th Amendmemt
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. -
Plessy V Ferguson
May 17th 1954 the supreme court ruled to integrate schools -
Medez V West Minster
Sylvia Mendez, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a 2011 White House ceremony, was a child when she was turned away from a California public school for "whites only." During a two-week trial, the Mendez family's attorney David Marcus took the then-unusual approach of presenting social science evidence to support his argument that segregation resulted in feelings of inferiority among Mexican-American children that could undermine their ability to be productive Americans. -
Delgado V Bastop ISD
In 1948 the League of United Latin American Citizens, joined by the American G.I. Forum of Texas, successfully challenged inequities of the Texas public school system in Delgado vs. Bastrop ISD. -
Executive Order 9981
Executive Order 9981 is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948 by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces and eventually led to the end of segregation in the services. -
Sweatt V Painter
In 1950 it ruled in sweatt v. painter that state law,schools had to admit qualified african american applicants, even if parallel black schools existed. -
BrownV Board of Education
In 1945, when his children went to register for school, Gonzalo expected that they would be attending Westminster Main School, the same school that he had attended with other Mexican and Anglo children until he was forced to drop out to help support his family. Much to his surprise, when his children returned home, they informed him that they would have to attend the Hoover School, which was located in a different school district, and furthermore, all of the students there were Mexican or Mexica -
Hernandez V Texas
Hernandez v. Texas (1954),[1] was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that decided that Mexican Americans and all other racial groups in the United States had equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. Although influential southern congressman whittled down the bill?s initial scope, it still included a number of important provisions for the protection of voting rights. It established the Civil -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. In subsequent years, Congress expanded the act and also pas -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America abolished the poll tax for all federal elections. A poll tax was a tax of anywhere from one to a few dollars that had to be paid annually by each voter in order to be able to cast a vote. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73) on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. -
Edgewood V Kirby
EDGEWOOD ISD V. KIRBY. In Edgewood Independent School District et al. v. Kirby et al landmark case concerning public school finance, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed suit against EDGEWOOD ISD V. KIRBY. In Edgewood Independent School District et al. v. Kirby et al., a commissioner of education William Kirby on May 23, 1984, in Travis County on behalf of the Edgewood Independent School District, San Antonio, citing discrimination against students in poor school distric