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13th amendment
The 13th amendment ended slavery and involuntary servitude. This is one of three Reconstruction amendments. Although it ended slavery, it didn’t stop the south from keeping black codes that still forced African Americans into forced labor. -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment granted all people born or naturalized in the United States citizenship. This was the second of three Reconstruction Amendments. It also forbade states from denying anyone “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”. This greatly expanded protection of Americans civil rights. -
15th Amendment
The 15th amendment prohibited both federal and state governments from denying any person the right to vote because of race or color. This is the final Reconstruction amendment. They south then started making blacks take literacy tests or making them pay poll taxes. -
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Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws was racial segregation against the blacks after the black codes. Jim Crow laws made African Americans second class citizens. It said that blacks could have separate but equal facilities as established in Plessy vs. Ferguson even though they were never equal or sometimes non-existent. They also found ways to stop blacks from voting with literacy tests and poll taxes. -
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Literacy Tests
Literacy tests were given to black voters in southern states to allow them to vote. These tests were extremely hard and most if not all voters that were African American did not pass. It was hard because some did not know how to read or write and because of that, they could not pass. They ended this because it was unconstitutional and was not fair to blacks. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson was a court case where a black man sat in the white section of a railway car and was arrested. The case was settled when the Supreme Court ruled that as long as both parts are equal, Louisiana can have separate places for blacks and whites. The separate but equal doctrine was then expanded to include all public areas. -
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Poll Taxes
A poll tax was put in place to limit the African Americans from voting. It said that if you did not fit into the grandfather clause then you had to pay the poll tax. The grandfather clause said that if your father or grandfather voted prior to the United States abolishing slavery then you did not have to pay the poll tax. -
19th Amendment
The 19th amendment said that you could not deny anyone the right to vote based on their sex. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were the leaders who played big parts in the Women’s suffrage and who also helped to draft the amendment that gave women the ability to vote. -
Korematsu vs. United States
This court case decided whether putting Japanese Americans into internment camps was constitutional. The court case sided with the government in that they should ignore Korematsu’s rights did not outweigh the rights of the American citizens. The court case was overturned in 1983. -
Sweatt vs. Painter
The court case of Sweatt vs. Painter was a big court case because the University of Texas did not allow Heman Sweatt into the school because he was black. No law school in Texas would allow blacks and this court case was pushed back for six months giving the state time to build a law school for blacks. This established The Thurgood Marshall School of Law. They then took it to the supreme court and the supreme court said that the other school did not qualify. -
Brown VS Board of Education
Brown vs. Board of Education was one of the biggest court cases in history because it said that having separate schools for blacks and whites was unconstitutional. This court case had a unanimous decision and swiftly overturned segregation in schools. This case also overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson. This case also stated the de jure segregation was unconstitutional because of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was defiance against the local and state governments to not ride the busses. Rosa parks played a large part in the boycott in that she sat in the white only section and refused to get up and was arrested. Many people think that she was the first to do this kind of defiance but in fact she was not and was following in the footsteps of others who had done it before her. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was the first African American to attend an all-white school in the south. She attended William Frantz Elementary School. Six kids took the test to go to an all-white school. Two decided to stay at their old school, three went to McDonough and Ruby went to school by herself. She could not eat school lunches because people said they would poison it and was accompanied by U.S. Marshals the whole day. -
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Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is when you favor a group of disadvantaged people because they are perceived to suffer from discrimination within a culture. The point of this was so other institutes would comply with the Civil Rights act of 1964. Many executive orders were signed by Kennedy and Johnson that promoted equal rights for all people who live in America. -
24th Amendment
The 24th amendment stopped all types of poll taxes and anything else the abridged African Americans from voting. This made is so all African Americans could vote and not be stopped by anyone. This also meant that the government would have to provided appropriate National Guard members and others so that they could vote. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights act of 1964 was a monumental piece of legislation because it outlawed any discrimination against any one race, color, sex, national origin, or religion. It ended all unequal voting registration and segregation in schools. Both parts of this bill are protected by the 14th amendment and the 15th amendment. This bill was signed by Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was to help in discrimination against minorities in voting. It was signed into action during the height of the American Civil Rights movement. This act was designed to better enforce the 14th and 15th amendment. This act is considered to be the most effective piece of legislation passed during the Civil Rights movement. -
Loving vs. Virginia
Loving vs. Virginia was a court case that stopped the marriage of interracial couples. This law clearly violated the due process and equal protections clauses of the 14th amendment. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional and also overturned the 1883 case of Pace vs. Alabama. This court case then allowed interracial couples to be married and is used today to decide on whether they should allow same-sex marriages in the United States. -
Robert Kennedy Speech in Indianapolis after death of MLK
Robert Kennedy, who was the Senator of New York, was campaigning in Indiana. He had recently visited Notre Dame in South Bend and Ball State in Muncie to give speeches campaigning for his election. He then visited a rally in the center of African American ghettos in Indianapolis. He gave a moving speech that instead of talking about his election, he talked about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. It is ranked as one of the greatest public addresses in history. -
Reed vs. Reed
In the case Reed vs. Reed, they had a disagreement about who should get their deceased son’s estate. Idaho’s law said that it goes to the male instead of the female. This case was taken to the Supreme Court and the court ruled that Idaho’s law violated the 14th amendment, discrimination against sex. There is a plaque where the home was in honor of Sally reed because she changed Idaho’s law and helped the women’s equal rights activists. -
Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke
Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke was a court case in which a white man was rejected admission into California because the only spots that were left were set for “qualified minorities”. The court case made it to the Supreme Court and was argued on the basis of the 14th amendment. He was ordered to be accepted into the University and that they should not take race into consideration when accepting applications. Bakke was considered the most known freshman of all time. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The equal rights amendment was action in trying to provide women equal rights. This amendment was added to the 19th so that it could include women. This amendment was nicknamed the Lucretia Mott amendment for the 75th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention. -
Bowers vs. Hardwick
Bowers vs. Hardwick was a court case that battled whether homosexuals were allowed, if consenting, to have sex in their own home. The court ruled that the constitution did not allow homosexuals did not have a fundamental right to homosexual sodomy. The court then overruled their ruling with the court case Romer vs. Evans and Lawrence vs. Texas. -
Americans with Disabilites Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act that prohibits discrimination when pertaining to race or color. This also included both mental and physical disabilities. This act of legislation brought a lot of court cases where people were trying to get jobs with disabilities like deaf people driving cars. This helped a lot even though most opponents said that it decreased employment with people with disabilities. -
Lawrence vs. Texas
The court case of Lawrence vs. Texas that was based on whether same sex sodomy was legal. This case overturned the court case of Bowers vs. Hardwick. This court case was helped by the 14th amendment. This court case was celebrated by many gay rights advocates and hoped that they further legal advances might be soon to come. -
Fisher vs. Texas
The court case of Fisher vs. University of Texas was all about whether they should take race into consideration when accepting applications. The case was argued that it was inconsistent with the Grutter case because that case was argued that it plays a role but not a large part. The decision is vacated, and the case remanded for further consideration. -
Gay Rights Court Battle
The court case of Indiana in regards to the gay marriages will have to wait until the Supreme Court rules. Same sex marriage is legal in 19 states and the district of Colombia and the gay rights advocates want to make all 50 states allow it. They want to show that making gay rights illegal is a violation of the constitution and they want to make everything equal between all walks of life.
