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13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment was ratified on this date, and it said, "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." In short, this amendment outlawed all slavery in the country. This led to a large national dispute between the slavery-opposing North and slavery-advocating South. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment was ratified on this date, and it said, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." In short, this amendment explained what a U.S. citizen is, and what each U.S. citizen is equally granted for being a citizen. -
15th Amendment
The 15th amendment was ratified on this date, and it said, "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." Basically, this amendment explained that all U.S. citizens have the equal right to vote. The Civil Rights Movement aimed to re-evaluate the nation's definition of the amendment because African American citizens' right to vote was being infringed. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The state of Louisiana enacted a law that required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Adolph Plessy--who was seven-eighths Caucasian--took a seat in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train. He refused to move to the car reserved for blacks and was arrested. The Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" (AKA segregated) public facilities are constitutional, and that equal rights for blacks do not equate to mutual coexistence with whites. -
19th Amendment
This amendment was ratified on this date, and it said, "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 sex." In short, it guaranteed equal voting rights for both men and women. -
Korematsu v. United States
Presidential Executive Order 9066 and congressional statutes gave the military authority to exclude citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to national defense and potentially vulnerable to espionage. In essence, America was extremely paranoid about being attacked by Japanese-American citizens, and thus ostracized the Japanese-Americans. Many innocent Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps for the duration of World War 2. -
Sweatt v. Painter
In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, a black man, applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School. State law restricted access to the university to whites, and Sweatt's application was automatically rejected because of his race. When Sweatt asked the state courts to order his admission, the university attempted to provide separate but equal facilities for black law students. The Supreme Court ruled that he should have been admitted, and that everything was "separate and unequal" after all. -
Jim Crow Laws End
Jim Crow laws were segregatory and discriminatory laws that favored whites and discouraged non-whites. That is, public places had to separate white people from black people, and some places include restrooms, restaurants, waiting rooms, etc. It all started with the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that "separate but equal" is constitutional, meaning that "equal rights" do not equate to "coexistence" in the nation. These racist laws ended on this date. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Black children were denied admission to public schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to the races. The white and black schools approached equality in terms of buildings, education, qualifications, and teacher salaries, but the long-held doctrine of "separate but equal" facilities was ruled unconstitutional and inherently unequal in the context of public education. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, in order to protest against the segregated seating of public transportation. The event was preluded when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, and was promptly arrested afterward. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to power as the national leader of the Civil Rights Movement as a result. -
Affirmative Action
Executive Order 10925 was signed by JFK on this date, and it
was made to enforce affirmative action: securing racial diversity in educational settings, workplaces and government contracts, to remedy continuing systemic discrimination against people of color, and to help ensure equal opportunities for all people. The order also established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, now known as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). -
24th Amendment / Poll Taxes
Many Southern states adopted a poll tax in the late 1800s. This meant that even though the 15th Amendment gave former slaves the right to vote, many poor people, both blacks and whites, did not have enough money to vote. Thanks to this Amendment, the right of all U.S. citizens to freely cast their votes has been secured, and poll taxes are now illegal. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act said, "All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin." In summary, it outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and required equal access to public places. -
Literacy Tests
(unknown date) Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to nonwhites. These procedures included literacy tests, which were set up all participants for failure, and even if one were to pass the rigged test, biased registrars rigged the results and judged whether or not one was literate enough to vote. AL, LA, MS, and SC were known states that enforced literacy tests. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act was passed on this date, and it said, "No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." In short, it allowed voting equality between white people and non-white people. -
Robert Kennedy's Speech in Indianapolis upon Death of MLK
The people of Indianapolis had not yet known of MLK's assassination, and the job of informing them of this was taken up by RFK, and he spoke of King's dedication to "love and to justice between fellow human beings, [...] he died in the cause of that effort." He also sought to heal the potential racial wounds by referring to the death of his own brother, President JFK. The IN black community actually remained calm after receiving the news, unlike other communities nationwide. -
Reed v. Reed
The Idaho Probate Code specified that "males must be preferred to females" in appointing administrators of estates. The separated Sally and Cecil Reed sought to be named the administrator of their recently-deceased son's estate. According to the Probate Code, Cecil was appointed administrator and Sally challenged the law in court. The Supreme Court ruled that this instance of sexism was unconstitutional. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Allan Bakke, a thirty-five-year-old white man, believed that he was excluded from admission to the Univ. of CA solely on the basis of race. Five of the Supreme Court members believed that any racial quota system supported by government violated the CRA of 1964; the other four members believed that the use of race as a criterion in admissions decisions in higher education was constitutionally permissible. -
Equal Rights Amendment
This amendment was proposed on this date, but never ratified, and it said, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article." In short, this proposed amendment was designed to create equality between all people on the basis of gender. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Michael Hardwick was caught engaging in the act of consensual homosexual sodomy with another adult in the bedroom of his home, and was charged with violating a Georgia statute that criminalized sodomy. The Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional protection for acts of sodomy, and that states could outlaw those practices. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
This act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities; it also establishes requirements for telecommunications relay services. The U.S. Department of Labor enforces this act to prevent future dscirmination against people with disabilities. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Responding to a reported weapons disturbance in a private residence, Houston police entered John Lawrence's apartment and saw him and another adult man, Tyron Garner, engaging in a private, consensual sexual act. Lawrence and Garner were arrested and convicted of deviate sexual intercourse in violation of a Texas statute forbidding two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. The Supreme Court ruled that the consensual act was constitutional. -
Fisher v. Texas
Abigail N. Fisher, a Caucasian female, applied to the Univ. of Texas, but was denied. She believed that the use of race as a consideration in admission decisions was in violation of the equal protection cause of the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment permits the consideration of race in undergraduate admissions decisions, but only under a standard of strict judicial scrutiny, and thus sided with Fisher. -
Indiana's Gay Rights Court Battle
On this date, the United States Supreme Court denied review of the 7th Circuit's ruling in favor of the freedom to marry. The decision means that the 7th Circuit ruling stands and same-sex couples will be free to marry in IN The federal Supreme Court court cases involved with Indiana's fate were Baskin v. Bogan, Bowling v. Pence, Romero v. Brown, and Love v. Pence. IN is now officially more equal with the issue of marriage.
