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announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.
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The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman".
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The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
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the amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.
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The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
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Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal."
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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States
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The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex.
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Colorado was the first state in the union to enfranchise women by popular vote
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case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.
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used to define a security risk were largely political, that is, affiliation with suspect organizations or a clear demonstration of disloyalty.
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it was the first U.S. Supreme Court ruling to deal with homosexuality and the first to address free speech rights with respect to homosexuality.
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civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
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The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution 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.
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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
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they are widely considered to constitute the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.
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creating a National Foundation for Postsecondary Education and a National Institute of Education
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before then, psychiatrists and psychologists looked at homosexuality as a perversion and as a deviant behavior, but the idea that it was a mental illness was considerably more controversial.
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is a United States federal law that allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states.
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in the decade since the highest court in Massachusetts issued its landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, 14 other states and the District of Columbia have legalized it, with Illinois poised to become the 16th in a few days.
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which outlawed a variety of sexual acts, were historically universal.
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Gay and lesbian Americans eager to serve the country but not willing to compromise who they are as individuals will, for the first time ever, be able to openly join.
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the law prohibiting gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the military—is officially in the dustbin of history. For 17 years, the law prohibited qualified gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces and sent a message that discrimination was acceptable.
