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The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration plays an important role in our world today and in recent history. This document is one of the main reasons that girls have the same equality as men today. Without the words of our founding fathers some of the civil rights that have been passed might never have come to light. -
The 19th Amendment
The 19th amendment gave all American women the right to vote. This was very difficult to get the government to pass, but through many struggles and protests it happened. Starting in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured to achieve what had to be done. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920. -
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It took place in Seneca Falls, New York for 2 days. It was soon followed by another women's rights conventions, including one in Rochester, New York two weeks later. In 1850 the first in a series of annual National Women's Rights Conventions met in Worceste. -
The 13th Amendment
This amendment finally banned slavery in America. This amendment also gave Congress the power to enforce the article through legislation. -
The 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. It also forbid states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” -
Colorado becomes the first state to grant women the right to vote
Colorado was the first state in the union to enfranchise women by popular vote. This was a landmark in civil rights history. -
The 15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote. Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Though the 1875 Civil Rights Act had stated that all races were entitled to equal treatment and value in all public accomidations. Confusion about the legality of segregation continued until it was challenged by Homer Plessy.
In 1892, Plessy boarded a train in New Orleans and sat in the car reserved for whites only and it turned into an uproar. -
NCAAP was Founded
Founded Feb. 12. 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest, largest civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, campaigning for equal opportunity. -
Executive Order 10450
President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450 on April 27, 1953. Effective May 27, 1953, it revoked President Truman's 1947 Executive Order 9835 and dismantled its Loyalty Review Board program. Instead it charged the heads of federal agencies and the Office of Personnel Management. -
Inc vs. Olesen
This case is a landmark incivil rights history. 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. In January 13, 1958, for the first time in American history, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of free speech for homosexuals in the case of One, Inc. v. Olsen, in an era of anti-homosexual sentiment. -
Illinois becomes first state to repeal its sodomy laws
This is a step towards equal rights for the homosexuals and also a landmark in civil rights history because Illinois becomes the first state that takes away it's sodomy laws. Homosexuals now have the right to engage in a healthy relationship without breaking a criminal law. Illinois became the first state in the U.S. to get rid of its sodomy law. It did so in 1961, when it adopted an overall revision of its criminal laws. The revision closely followed. -
The 24th Amendment
During the Civil rights movement the 24th Amendent was ratified. The 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America abolished the poll tax for all federal elections. A poll tax was a tax of anywhere from one to a few dollars that had to be paid annually by each voter in order to be able to cast a vote. -
Civil Rights Act 1965
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. In subsequent years, Congress expanded the act and also pas -
Voting Rigths Act 1965
By 1965 concerted efforts to break the grip of state disfranchisement had been under way for some time, but had achieved only modest success overall and in some areas had proved almost entirely ineffectual. The murder of voting-rights activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, gained national attention, along with numerous other acts of violence and terrorism. Finally, the unprovoked attack on March 7, 1965, by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, -
Stonewall Inn Riots
The Stonewall riots inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights, and within two years after the riots, gay rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United States. This riot urked people to dicuss civil rights amongst them. -
Title XI
On June 23, 1972, the President signed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §1681 et seq., into law. Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. The principal objective of Title IX is to avoid the use of federal money to support sex discrimination in education programs and to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices. -
APA Removes homosexuality as a mental disorder
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder. The American Psychological Association Council of Representatives followed in 1975.[3] Thereafter other major mental health organizations followed, including the World Health Organization in 1990. Consequently, while a minority today believes homosexuality is a mental disorder, the body of current research and clinical literature supports that it's perfectly healthy. This is a step towards equal right -
Brown vs. Board of Education
On May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. The Brown case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement, inspiring education reform everywhere and forming the legal means of challenging segregation in all areas of society.
After Brown, the nation made great strides toward opening the doors of education to all students. With court orders and active enforcement of federal civil rights laws, progres -
Defense of Marriage Act
On June 26, 2013, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Windsor v. United States that Section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that denies legally married same-sex couples over 1,100 protections and responsibilities of marriage, is unconstitutional. By striking down Section 3 of DOMA, the Supreme Court has affirmed that all loving and committed couples who marry deserve equal legal respect and treatment. This is a step towards equal and civil rights for homosexuals. -
Massachusetts Legalizes Gay Marriage
as a result of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry. Massachusetts became the sixth jurisdiction in the world (after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec) to legalize same-sex marriage. It was the first U.S. state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.This was a step towards equal rights. -
Don't Ask Don't Tell
There are many ways to define government oppression of its citizens, and certainly many examples of it in U.S. history. And no doubt some government impositions on individual freedom have been broader than others or have had more widespread and deadlier consequences. Perhaps that was the point that James Antle intended to make in his recent article “Why Conservatives Say No” when he derided the comparison of the black civil rights struggle of the 20th century with the gay civil rights struggle o -
Don't Asl Don't Tell is Repealed
The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 (H.R. 2965, S. 4023) is a landmark United States federal statute enacted in December 2010 that established a process for ending the Don't ask, don't tell (DADT) policy allowing gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to serve openly in the United States Armed Forces. It ended the policy in place since 1993 that allowed them to serve only if they kept their sexual orientation secret and the military did not learn of their sexual orientation.
