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Dred Scott was a slave that resided in Missouri until his owners had taken him to Illinois, which was a free state meaning they could not own slaves. Scott argued in Missouri court that he was a free man but the court ruled against him. He took his case to federal court and again they ruled against him saying that he people of color were not included in the initial meaning of all citizens in the Constitution. It was also a case that set precedent to think of applying federal law to the states.
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This amendment was the abolishment of slavery. The amendment was a federal law however, and was not initially applied completely to the states. It also originally had slavery as a use of punishment but this was revised in 1992. It took time and the 14th amendment for African American citizens to gain the rights that this amendment was intended to entail.
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This amendment guaranties citizenship to any person, no matter origin of parents, that is born in the United States. This was a very important amendment because it meant the citizenship of many slaves whose parents had come from Africa but they were born in the U.S. This amendment also protects every individuals right to due process and a fair and speedy trial in which no one can take away their life, liberty or property.
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This amendment also known as the equal protection clause is important to the development of the rights of people of color in the U.S. It also includes "previous condition of servitude," meaning former slaves still obtain the same rights as all other people. It granted African-American men the right to vote.
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These are associated with the former confederate states of America, they were voting fees for citizens that were at the polls. It was applied to limit the amount of people that could pay to those more wealthy and willing to pay the tax. It was a legal way to keep African Americans from voting.
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This was a landmark case in which Plessy, a Louisiana-considered black man, sat in a whites-only rail car and was convicted. He argued that this was unconstitutional according to the 13th and 14th amendment, however the court said that the railway could follow and uphold the "equal but separate" clause that allowed for the races to be apart.
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These were primary elections held in southern states solely for voters that were white. It was another way to restrict the voice of the people of color in the southern states. These enhances Jim Crow laws (laws that limited colored voters) and allowed for candidates to go on that were primarily and solely white.
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This amendment allowed for women to be included in the definition of who was able to vote in elections. Before, this was luxury only allowed to men. This started the expansion for more independent rights for women.
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This was a landmark case for the separation of schools based on color. That court ruled with Brown in saying that the separation of color in school was "inherently unequal." It had violated the equal protections act as well as the 14th amendment and changed the approach of all public schools moving forward a s mixed race schools.
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This amendment gives citizens the right to vote and not be stopped by officials to vote due to any unpaid taxes the person may have. This is a landmark amendment because it allowed for citizens to vote even if they had not done their "duty" as a citizen to pay for the taxes their country had asked for them to pay for. It was also big because many people vote based on candidates proposals to change tax collections.
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This act prohibited discrimination of any kind in any place. This included the discrimination on the basis of color, sex, religion etc. in the work place or any other place. This was a large adjustment for many states and took a long Tim and many efforts for Americans to except these others as equals. Discrimination is still and issue but this law benefitted people of color and women significantly.
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Affirmative action is defined as positive steps taken to include minority groups or sets of people that need representation. This started many organizations etc. in the 90s and early 2000s to include groups such as women, African Americans and other "outsiders." It was to improve the educations and employment fields especially to eliminate unlawful discrimination.
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This outlawed the discriminatory acts of voting practices, in which many places required literacy tests. This prevented many people of color from voting because they were uneducated and unable to participate.
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This case addressed the rights of women based on the Constitutional amendment being applied to the states. According to Idaho law, "males were preferred over females" and in the incident of their son's death, the mother challenged this matter of estate in court. The court ruled unanimously that the law was unconstitutional and unlawful to make this decision on the basis of sex
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This is the amendment that states all rights of every citizen of the United States is equal no matter the sex. This gave women more rights then they had ever been able to attain. It included rights to own property, vote and live life as easily as a man.
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This case was argued in Supreme Court and stated that Bakke was excluded from this university, even with his outstanding qualifications, because of his race as a white man to make room for an affirmative action program that included a group of non white students. The court ruled that this did and didn't violate the 14th amendment. This meant it was in fact wrong to put a racial quota on admittance to the school but the use of race in admissions was still acceptable.
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This case found the unconstitutionality of the Georgia law that prohibited sodomy. The act had happened first in the privacy of Bower's home where a police officer only saw from a window and was able to arrest. They were both consenting adults and this had gone against a constitutional law of the United States. However the court ruled that the arrest and Georgia law was valid because it did not fall under standards and didn't want to make "judge-made constitutional law."
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This is a civil rights law that passed in the 90s that prohibits the discrimination of a person based on their disability. This granted more rights and ability for those with disability similarly to the acts that had come before that protected the rights of women as well as the rights of African Americans and other groups that have been discriminated against.
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A Texas law, similar to that of Georgia in Bowers v. Hardwick, prohibited certain same-sex sexual activity and Lawrence and his partner were charged. Again this law was tested on whether or not it was constitutional. he court established that it was in fact unconstitutional and went against the due process clause and their ability to engage in their own activity without interference of the government.
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This case involved many midwest states and their bans on same-sex marriage. This was an issue that had been addressed a limited amount of times but was now finally addressed in larger courts with a larger group of people. The courts ruled that it was unconstitutional for states to not recognize other states same-sex marriages and did not violate their 14th amendment right. However each still was able to decide whether or not they would issue license for legal same-sex marriage.
