-
13th Amendment
Formally abolished slavery in the United States. The Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865 but passed by the states on December 6, 1865. It declared, “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…” -
14th Amendment
This Amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868. This granted people citizenship. This included former slaves recently freed. Also this forbids states from denying any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law”. This Amendment expanded protection of the civil right to all Americans. -
15th Amendment
This granted the African American men the right to vote in elections. This Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870. It was not fully recognized for almost a century. The South took great measure to stop African Americans from voting like poll taxes and literacy test. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The Plessy v. Ferguson was a United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” Homer Plessy was a mixed race who was invited to participate in an orchestrated test case to sit on a white’s only railway car. The court rejected Plessy’s arguments, and the Court determined there to be no difference in the quality in train cars of blacks v. whites, but that didn’t necessaril -
19th Amendment
The 19th amendment prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. This was ratified in 1920. Until the 1910s, most states disenfranchised women. This amendment had been introduced in 1878, but was not approved to be sent in for ratification until 1919. It was ratified by the requisite number of states a year a later. -
Korematsu v. United States
Ruled that Executive Order 9066 was constitutional. This sent Japanese Americans into internment camps during WWII, regardless of their citizenship. -
Sweatt v. Painter
U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. Heman Sweatt was refused admission to the School of Law of the University of Texas on the grounds that the Texas state constitution prohibited integrated education. The Court of Civil Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court denied the appeal, but the case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court sided with Sweatt for the -
Brown v. Board of Education
Declared separate public schools for white and blacks students unconstitutional (9-0). This decision overturned Plessy v Ferguson and paved the way for integration. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The boycott started on December 1, 1955. This is where African American refused to ride the city busses in Montgomery, Alabama. This was to protest segregated seating. Four days before the boycott is when Rosa Parks got arrested for not giving up her seat. This lasted for a little over a year. The Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to integrate their bus systems. -
Literacy Tests
The literacy was used during the 1890s through the 1960s to test the literacy of prospective voters in order for them to vote. These tests were created specifically to disenfranchise African-Americans. For other nations, the literacy test was used because of immigration. Joseph Gurney Cannon, a conservative Republican, worked to defeat the proposed literacy test for immigrants. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 said that the literacy tests were to only be administered in writing and to those who had -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1964. This was passed to address the poll taxes that were stopping people from voting. The Supreme Court struck down these taxes since they were discriminating. This Amendment allowed everyone to participate, regardless of one’s ability to pay. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination. This is considered the crowning achievements of the Civil Rights movement. This idea was first proposed by John F. Kennedy. It had very strong opposition for the Southern members of Congress. -
Jim Crow Laws
The term Jim Crow originally referred to an African American character. Thomas Rice was the main person who blacked his face for one of his routines. Jim Crow laws were established beginning in 1874. These were created to separate the whites and blacks. It was commonly used as “Separate but equal”. In 1964 majority of Jim Crow laws were struck down. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This was designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments. -
Robert Kennedy Speech in Indianpolis
On April 4th, 1968; when Kennedy arrived to Indianapolis to deliver his speech, no one knew that Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. He connected with the people there saying he felt the same pain since his brother John Kennedy was killed by a white man too. Many other cities had protested to King dying but Indianapolis had none. The Community stayed calmed after hearing his words. -
Reed v. Reed
Ruled that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. This decision was the first time that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment prohibited differential treatment based on sex. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The ERA was a proposed amendment to the Constitution to guarantee equal rights for women. It was written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman, and it was introduced to Congress in 1923. It wasn’t until 1972 that it passed each house and went to the state legislature for ratification. 35 of the 38 states necessary had joined, but five later rescinded their ratifications before the deadline. The validity of these rescissions is still debated. -
Affirmative Action
A policy in which an institution or organization actively engages in efforts to improve opportunities for historically excluded groups in American society. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Upheld affirmative action. This allowed race to be a factor in college admission policy. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing both oral and anal sex between consenting adults in private when applied to homosexuals (5-4). -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA of 1990 prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and government activities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces regulations covering employment. The Department of Transportation enforces regulations governing transit. The Federal Communications Commission enforces regulations covering telecommunication. The Department of Justice enforces regulations governing public accommodations and s -
Lawrence v. Texas
Invalidated sodomy laws in 14 states, making same-sex sexual activity lead in every U.S. state and territory (6-3). This decision overturned Bowers v Hardwick. -
FIsher v. Texas
This ruling was consistent with Regents of the University of California v Bakke and did not directly revisit the constitutionality of using race as a factor in college admissions. This upheld affirmative action. -
Baskin v. Bogan
Upheld the district court ruling that denied marriage rights to same-sex couples in a unanimous decision. -
Poll Taxes
This poll tax was enacted in the Southern states between 1889 and 1910. This disenfranchised many blacks and poor whites because the payment of the tax was required in order to vote. Proof of payment was required in states like Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Texas. The 1966 case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections prohibited poll tax in both federal and state elections. This was decided because the poll tax viol
