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In the case of Dred Scott V. Sanford the Supreme Court ruled that black men, whether free or enslaved had no right , was bound to respect. In 1857 the United State Supreme Court upheld slavery in United States territories, denied the legality of black citizenship in America, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. -
After the Civil War, there was a period from about 1865 to 1877 where federal laws offered observable protection of civil rights for former slaves and free blacks; it wasn't entirely awful to be an African American, even in the South. starting in the 1870s, as the Southern economy continued its decline, Democrats took over power in Southern legislatures and used intimidation tactics to suppress black voters. -
The 13th Amendment was passed to Congress on January 31, 1865. The 13th Amendment says that "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." The 13th Amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War before the Southern states had been restored to the Union, and should have easily passed in Congress. -
The 14th Amendment was passed by the Senate on June 8, 1866 and ratified two years later on July 9, 1868. It granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including formerly enslaved people, and provided all citizens with equal protection under the laws, extending the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states. -
The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and any state from denying or abridging the right of citizens to vote "because of race, color, or previous conditions of servitude." It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and final Reconstruction Amendment. -
The case originated in 1892 as a challenge to Louisiana’s Separate Car Act 1890. The law required that all railroads operating in the state provide “equal but separate accommodations” for white and African American passengers and prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned on the basis of their race. -
The 19th Amendment was signed into law on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change i the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920. -
On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. This historic decision marked the end of the "separate but equal" precedent set by the Supreme Court nearly 60 years earlier in Plessy v. Ferguson. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
ended segregation in public places and prohibited discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex, or national origin, wish considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. It was first proposed by President John F. Kennedy, but met with strong opposition from southern members of Congress, and was then signed into law by Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders present at the ceremony. The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the non-white population had registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections. -
President John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10925 used affirmative action for the first time by instructing federal contractors to take "affirmative action to ensure that applicants are treated equally without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” Established the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. -
In 1971, the United States Supreme Court invalidated an Idaho law that required the selection of a man over a woman to serve as administrator of an estate when both were equally qualified. The landmark Reed v. Reed decision, marked the first time in history that the Court applied the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to strike down a law that discriminated against women. -
On March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed by U Senate and sent the states for ratification. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. It failed to achieve ratification, but women gradually achieved greater equality through legal victories that continued the effort to expand rights, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which ultimately codified the right to vote for all women. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke is a 1978 Supreme Court case that held that a university's admissions criteria which used race as a definite and exclusive basis for an admission decision violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
The case happened on August 3, 1982, when a police officer who had been admitted to the home of Michael Hardwick in Atlanta witnessed him and a male companion in a bedroom engaging in sex. The officer had been executing a warrant for Hardwick’s arrest for failing to appear in court on a charge of public drinking, it was later determined that the warrant was invalid because Hardwick had already paid the $50 fine. The officer promptly arrested both men for violating Georgia’s statue. -
The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. -
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 sets forth certain voter registrations requirements with respect to elections for federal office. The requirements of the NVRA apply to 44 States and the District of Columbia. Six States Idaho, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming are exempt from the NVRA because, on and after August 1, 1994, they either had no voter-registration requirements or had election-day. -
Lawrence v. Texas is a landmark case, in which the Supreme Court of the United States, in 6-3 decision, invalidated sodomy law across the United States, making same sex sexual activity legal in every State and United States territory. -
Obergefell v. Hodges is a legal case in which the U.S Supreme Court ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage and on recognizing same-sex marriages duly performed in other jurisdictions are unconstitutional under the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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