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13th Amendment
- Abolished slavery in the United States.
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14th Amendment
- Granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States" including recently freed slaves.
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Plessy vs. Ferguson
- Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal".
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Mendez vs. Westminster School District of Orange County
- United States Courts held that the segregation of Mexican and Mexican American students into separate "Mexican schools" was unconstitutional.
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Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka
- The Supreme Court ruled that segragation in public schools is unconstitutional.
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Emmett Till
- Emmett Till was kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
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Rosa Parks
- Refused to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger and was arrested which lead to the beginning of the bus boycott.
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Little Rock Nine
- Nine black students are blocked from entering the school which was later intervened by President Eisenhower who sent federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students.
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Freedom Riders
- Student volunteers begin taking bus trips to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities.
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Birmingham Alabama
- During civil rights protests police uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators.
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"I Have A Dream"
- About 200,000 people march to Washington DC to hear Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speach.
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Civil Rights Act
- Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin.
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Voting Rights Act
- Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal.
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Death of Martin Luther King
- Shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room.
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Housing Act
- Prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
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15th Amendment
- Granted African American men the right to vote.