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Scott v. Sanford
Supreme Court ruled that African Americans whether free or slave are not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. It also declared that the rights of slave owners were constitutionally protected by the 5th amendment. -
Reconstruction/Reconstruction amendments
Viewed as an era of destruction, the goal was to grant former slaves citizenship. Had to find a way to keep up the economy without the slaves doing a lot of the dirty work. Former slaves had a harder time finding jobs because they had no education and could not read because it was illegal to educate slaves. Reconstruction Amendments: 13th (abolishes slavery), 14th (EQP clause, due process/incorporation clause, citizenship clause) and 15th (right to vote cannot be denied because of the race) -
Jim Crow Era
Jim Crow was a made-up character meant to be a stereotypical black person. Many laws were made in this era such as -unlawful for black and white people to play together
-marriages are void if one of them is one-eight or more black, Japanese, or Chinese blood
-separate schools can be formed for black and white people, and they cannot go to each other’s schools (white go to a black school, vice versa) -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy boarded a white train car and he was arrested. Supreme court decalred that the Jim Crow segregation was legal. Court ruled that “seperate but equal” accomodations were permitted in the constituition. -
19th Amendment
Woman’s suffrage, cannot deny the right to vote based on sex. Gave women the right to vote. -
Scottsboro Boys
In March 1931, a train was filled with a whole bunch of people on the way to the west. A group of white people complained to the deputy sheriff that a bunch of black people on the train had attacked them. To make matters worse, a group of girls said to protect their reputation and protect themselves that the group of boys ages 9 to 13 raped them. -
George Stinney case
George was arrested and charged for supposedly murdering two girls age 11 and 7. A month later he was found guilty and executed on June 16th, 1944. He was the youngest person put to death in the 20th century in the US. During his trial he was not given the due process rights he should have, such as a good lawyer, having no witnesses and the trail that put him to death only took 3 hours (extremely fast) -
Brown v. Board
The case was based on the segregation of public schools on the basis of race. The schools said they were "separate but equal" They argued that this segregation violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. The court ruled that this was unconstitutional and violated the equal protection clause. -
James Meredith enrolls in Ole Miss University
James Meredith was the first African American to enroll in Ole Miss University in Missippi. He had to be guided around with people to help protect him because so many white students attacked him because of his race -
civil rights act of 1964
outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin -
voting rights act of 1965
doesn't allow jurisdictions to making changes to voting without receiving preapproval from u.s attorney general. (have to go to federal gov and justify why they are changing the voting law-to get pre cleared/preclearence) -
civil rights act of 1968
expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin -
california v. bakke
University set aside 16 out of the 100 seats for non-white people. The white students sued to say it violated the equal protection clause. Affirmative action programs do not automatically violate the EPC but this one did because rigid quota systems do so the white student won. -
Gratz v. Bollinger
UM uses a 100 point system where if you get 100 points you are likely to get in. 20 points are automatically given to people of color. White students sued because of the equal protection clause. A white student won. -
Meredith v. Jefferson Co Board
Can a student enrollment plan that requires each school population to be between 15% and 50% African-American meet the 14th Amendment's requirement that racial classifications be narrowly tailored to a compelling government interest? and Do Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger allow a school district to use race as the sole factor to assign high school students to public schools? Both no "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." -
Shelby County v. Holder
Does the renewal of Section 5 of the Voter Rights Act under the constraints of Section 4(b) exceed Congress' authority under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and therefore violate the Tenth Amendment and Article Four of the Constitution?
Conclusion: 5-4 vote that yes section 4 of the voting rights act is unconstitutional