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13th amendment
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared 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." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States" -
jim crow
The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws -
15th amendment
granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids 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.” By directly mentioning the role of the states -
15th amendment
granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
literacy test
government practice of testing the literacy of potential citizens at the federal level, and potential voters at the state level. For other nations it has been a matter of ideal immigration policy. -
plessy vs ferguson
Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal". -
19th amendment
prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex -
equal rights amendment
a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women. -
poll taxes
many Southern states enacted poll tax laws as a means of restricting eligible voters; such laws often included a grandfather clause, which allowed any adult male whose father or grandfather had voted in a specific year prior to the abolition of slavery to vote without paying the tax. -
Korematsu v. United States
Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II regardless of citizenship. -
sweatt vs painter
case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation -
brown vs board of education
a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
montgomery bus boycott
Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. -
ruby bridges
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall is an American activist known for being the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. -
affirmative action
policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who are perceived to suffer from discrimination within a culture.[ -
24th amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. -
civil rights act of 1964
outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.[6] It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations"). -
voting rights act of 1965
Designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Act allowed for a mass enfranchisement of racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South. -
loving vs virginia
civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage. -
kennedys speech after MLKs death
That evening Kennedy addressed the crowd, many of whom had not heard about King's assassination. Instead of the rousing campaign speech they expected, Kennedy offered brief, impassioned remarks for peace that is considered to be one of the great public addresses of the modern era -
reed vs reed
an Equal Protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court ruled that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy -
Bowers v. Hardwick
overturned in 2003, that upheld, in a 5–4 ruling, the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals.[1] -
americans with disabilities act
The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 -
lawrence vs texas
the Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in thirteen other states, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory. The Court overturned its previous ruling on the same issue in the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute and did not find a constitutional protection of sexual privacy. -
fisher vs texas
Court case concerning the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Texas at Austin.
