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The Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford established that citizens of African descent, regardless of their standing as freemen, were not American citizens. Abolitionists were outraged about this decision and thought the Supreme Court was trying to stop slavery debates in the territories. The Dred Scott decision is seen as one of the most important turning points in the severing of relations between the North and the South. The decision was one of the first catalysts that led to secssion. -
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery within the United States and its territories with exception of utilization as a punishment. The 13th amendment was one of the most important developments in the Civil Rights movement. The 13th amendment showcased that the abolitionists of the north had gained a strong say in the political dealings regarding slavery. Because one of the biggest disputes between the South and the North was the issue of slavery, the 13th Amendment created a huge divide. -
The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States." With the establishment of the 14th Amendment, the decision of Dred Scott v. Sandford was swung the complete opposite direction. All people, including Native Americans, were now established as citizens of the United States. Civil rights were finally strongly established as a cornerstone of American society. -
The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote. The 15th Amendment led to the Reconstruction era, which unfortunately presented the prevalence of Jim Crow laws. The 15th amendment led to controversies that were presented with the presence of literacy tests, the KKK, and other ways to bypass the law in order to discriminate against African-Americans attempting to vote. The 15th amendment, however, was a stepping stone in African-Americans' voice in American politics. -
Plessy v. Ferguson was a Supreme Court ruling that state-mandated segregation laws did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling enabled the South to continue discriminatory voting practices, such as mandated literacy tests or examinations. The ruling also allowed the continuance of public and private segregation, which created the idea of 'separate but equal.' However, there was significant controversy and inequality when African-Americans were given inferior facilities. -
The Jim Crow Era was an era defined by Jim Crow laws, a series of state and local laws that enforced and legalized racial segregation. The era diluted any African-American attempt at political change by discriminating voting rights. The end of the era was marked by the Civil Rights movements of the 1950's and 60's. The end of this era represented a step-up for African-Americans in terms of political and social involvement. -
The 19th Amendment granted women suffrage. By denying discrimination of voting on the basis of sex, women became a new demographic in the election process. By enabling the right to vote to women, there was now no demographic that was held from the right to vote. The only voting discrimination was in the form of segregation practices such as literacy tests, which was still prevalent in the Jim Crow South at the time. -
Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark Supreme Court ruling which stated that the "separate but equal" standards of racial segregation, which were heavily outlined in the case Plessy v. Ferguson, were actually unconstitutional. This ruling forced segregated schools to end and rather become unified schools where citizens of all races were allowed to attend every school. This ruling effectively ended segregation. It also gave every race equal access to an education. -
Affirmative action is a set of procedures designed to eliminate unlawful discrimination, erase the effects of past discrimination, and prevent the possibility of discrimination in the future. The most prominent example of affirmative action in the Civil Rights movement is the Montgomery Bus boycotts in the mid-1950s. The results of affirmative action in the Civil Rights movements include the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments, as well as a number of other political rulings. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The act prevented segregation both in public and private, notably in hiring practices. The passage of this act was preceded by the Civil Rights protests in the 1960s, most notably led by protests such as the Montgomery bus boycotts. The passage of this act further integrated African-Americans into American society. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited discriminatory voting practices such as literacy tests that were prominent in the Southern states. The Voting Rights Act was especially important in not only establishing the right of African-Americans to vote, but ensuring that the right is guaranteed. By placing federal examiners near voting polls to limit discrimination as much as possible, the largest number of African-Americans in a single election were able to vote. This act was immensely impactful. -
Reed v. Reed was a Supreme Court ruling which stated that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth amendment prevented discrimination on the basis of sex. By establishing that both sexes are equal in court, the ruling paved the way for both genders to maintain equal power in court. This case finalized legal decision that men aren't superior in the state of the law. -
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the constitution to guarantee equal legal rights to all American citizens regardless of sex. Preceded by the success of the Civil Rights Movements of the 1950's and 60's, the Equal Rights Amendment sought to gain full equality on the basis of sex. Adopted by a majority of states within a year, the Equal Rights Amendment presented a huge stepping stone into agreements on the gap of rights between male and female citizens. -
This Supreme Court ruling states that racially-based quotas are unconstitutional but that race can be kept as a criteria for admissions processes. The ruling also legalized the use of affirmative action. As a result, several U.S. states prohibited affirmative action programs based on race. This Supreme Court ruling showed that some programs, in an attempt to support the Civil Rights movement, accidentally practiced reverse-discrimination in which they overcompensated to minorities. -
Bowers v. Hardwick was a constitutional ruling which stated that the right to sodomy is not guaranteed by the Constitution and that each state has a right to permit or prohibit sodomy. The ruling made it so that individuals did not have full freedom to their own body, even in their own private domicile, in states which prohibited sodomy. The case was later overturned in Lawrence v. Texas, which further expanded rights to all Americans. -
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination based on disability. The passage of this act provided a pathway for 'Equal-Opportunity Employers,' allowing people with physical and mental abilities to find jobs. Other notable impacts of the Americans with Disabilities Act is the increase in prominence of wheelchair accessibility. By passing the ADA, one of the most discriminated groups in the United States gained the ability to access fundamental places in American society. -
The Motor Voter Act of 1993 required states to allow citizens to register to vote when they sign up for driver's licenses and Social Security Benefits. The Act was put into law in an attempt to expedite the voting process and make a voter's roles as simply and easy as possible. The Act increased the total voting population by making it easier to vote and register to vote. -
Lawrence v. Texas was a Supreme Court ruling which stated that criminal punishment for consensual sodomy between two adults were unconstitutional. The ruling overturned the previous ruling of Bowers v. Hardwick, which gave individual states the right to permit or prohibit sodomy. Lawrence v. Texas, however, guaranteed individuals the right to sodomy on a federal level. -
Obergefell v. Hodges is a Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed the fundamental right to marry to same-sex couples. The ruling allowed lesbian and gay couples to marry at a national level rather than leaving the decision to individual states' jurisdiction. This ruling is the most recent major Supreme Court case which gave a minority further social rights.