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RIght after the Civil War, the North had won but there were still slaves in America. The 13th Amendment freed these slaves. This ended slavery(for the most part) although it received a lot of resistance from many of the southern slaves.
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The 14th Amendment was ratified during the reconstruction stage of America. The Civil War had just ended and all of the former slaves were free but still did not have the rights that the white men had. The 14th Amendment guarenteed these freed slaves the same protection under the law as the other Americans.
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The third and final of the reconstruction amendments was the 15th. After the slaves were freed and given protection under the law, the last major right they had left was the right to vote. The 15th gave them this right. Once again however, it was resisted heavily by the south through literacy tests and poll taxes.
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As reconstruction was coming to a close and civil rights movements were gaining some power, this court case came about. The supreme court ruled that segregation was constitutional and that as long as it was equal, it was legal. This put an end to any of the movements at the time.
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Jim Crow Laws were brought about after the civil war and lasted up until the mid 1900s. They were laws that were aimed at blacks in order to keep them either lower than white people or to keep them segregated.
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Poll taxes were the other way that blacks were kept from voting. If they weren't educated enough for the literacy tests, they would have to pay a tax. Most blacks could not pay the tax so, once again, they could not vote.
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These tests were used in the south as a way of keeping most blacks from voting in the elections. They tested to see if the person voting was educated(most blacks were not) so many blacks did not get representation they deserved.
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The 19th Amendment allowed people of all sex to vote in America. Women could finally voice themselves in the government. The
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First introduced in 1923, this amendment was created to give women equal rights in the country. Although it didn't quite work 100%, over the years it has significantly helped women. There is still a way to go but it is getting better year by year.
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This case was concerning the internment of Japanese people during WWII. The court sided with the United States. This meant that they thought it was constitutional to lock up innocent japanese people just because they were japanese.
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A black student wanted to attend a law school that would not accept him because it was a white school. He said that this could not be both separate and equal because there was no black law school. This case later influenced Brown v. Board a few years later.
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This was the case that determined that seperate was naturally unequal. The schools the blacks were going to were not any where near the quality of the white ones. The court ruled that these students must be allowed to attend the white school. This started the desegragation of the schools in the south.
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After the whole Rosa Parks incident, many people started to boycott the Montgomery Bus System. It was a way of speeding up the process in which buses were desegragated.
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Affirmative Action is a way of "positively discriminating". It gives advantages to a certain group of people that do not have the same oppurtunities as more privelidged groups.
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This amendment prevents any state or federal government from creating anything that may limit someones right to vote. This got rid of the poll taxes and literacy tests in place in the south.
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This amendment outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or origin.
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This act disallows the restriction of voting based on race. This removed any laws preventing someone from voting based on their race.
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Given in Indianapolis Indiana, Kennedy gave a speech aobut the death of MLK. He outlined what needed to be done now that the leader of the civil rights movement had now died.
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When their son died, this separated couple both wanted his estate. The previous law said that a male must be prefered to a female when it came to who gets the property. It was found to be unconstitutional and this law was removed.
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This case had to deal with Affirmative Action. It allowed colleges to base some of the admission process on race. It did not allow however colleges to set aside a specific amount of spots.
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This case criminalized oral and anal sex in a consenting couple. This was later overturned in 2003.
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This act outlawed discrimination based on a disability.
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This case legalized same-sex sex in every state in the country.
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It once again upheld Affirmative Action when a student questioned the policy used by the University of Texas.
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Recently it was found that Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and was revoked. Indiana now recognizes marriage that happens here and in other states as well.
