-
13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
14th Amendment
Under the 14th amendment, all persons born or naturalized in the US are citizens of the US and of the states where they reside. It also prevents states from interfering in the rights of US citizens. -
15th Amendment
The right of citizens of the US to vote shall not be denied by the US or any state because of race, color or previous condition of servitude. Congress has the power to enforce by appropriate legislation. -
Period: to
poll taxes and literacy tests
These methods were used to disenfranchise black voters epecially. Poll taxes applied to poor black and white sharecroppers every year whether they voted or not, and prohibited a vote until they were fully paid. Literacy tests were used to ensure African Americans, many of whom could not read or write, were unable to support their candidate. -
Period: to
Jim Crow
The system of racial segregation imposed upon blacks by law and custom, known widely as “Jim Crow” made "separate but equal" the law in southern states, outlawing interracial marriage. Most public places and many private businesses had Whites Only and Colored facilities. These included schools, seating areas, drinking fountains, work spaces, government buildings, train stations, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, theaters, barbershops, laundries, and even public restrooms -
Plessy v Ferguson US Supreme Court approves separation of the races by law and policy
The Court contended that the law separated the two races as a matter of public policy and the separation was not inherently unequal. -
19th Amendment ratified for women to vote
The 19th Amendment was proclaimed incorporated into law on this date, giving women the right to vote. -
Korematsu v US approved executive orders detaining Japanese citizens.
The US Supreme Court approved Roosevelt's order to detain Japanese citizens in relocation centers to prevent espionage. The decision was limited to the Executive Order 9096 and has not been overturned. -
Sweat v Painter US Sup Ct separate is not equal for Texas law schools
The Supreme Court said the new Texas law school for Negroes was not separate but equal and there was little opportunity to engage with other lawyers who were practicing. -
Brown v Board of Education
The US Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. This overturned Plessy v Ferguson as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Separate was no longer equal and school integration was required. -
Period: to
Montgomery bus boycott
a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. -
Ruby Bridges begins at William Frantz Elem School
The first day of school for Ruby Bridges and for an African American to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. It was her 6th birthday. -
Period: to
Affirmative Action
is often instituted for government and educational settings to ensure that certain designated "minority groups" within a society are included "in all programs".[clarification needed] The stated justification for affirmative action by its proponents Affirmative Action is applied by Executve Order or in admission and preference policies to compensate for past discrimination, persecution or exploitation by whites in the US and to address existing discrimination. Pres Kennedy began this practice. -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment outlawed the poll tax which discriminated against African American and poor white voters. The poll tax exemplified "Jim Crow" laws in the post-Reconstruction South. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination for race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and in facilities that served the general public, as well as unusual voting restrictions. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law
This act reinforces the 14th and 15th Amendments to prohibit racuak discrimination in voting. -
Loving v Virginia overturns interracial marriage laws
The US Supreme Court recognized the freedom to marry between races and banned all state interracial marriage laws in Loving v Virginia. -
Robert Kennedy speech in Indianapolis the night Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed.
The night Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Robert Kennedy addressed the nation in Indianapolis, Indiana. -
Reed v Reed US Supreme Court rules sex discrimination can't be statutory.
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. The Idaho case that the state statute prefers males was determined artbitrary and discriminatory. -
Regents of Univ of California v Bakke strikes down quotas
The US Supreme Court upheld affirmative action and found diversity to be a compelling state interest, then ruled that specific quotas, such as the 16 out of 100 seats set aside for minority students by the University of California, Davis School of Medicine, were impermissible. -
Equal Rights Amendment dies without ratification
Was to prohibit discrimination on basis of gender. It failed to be ratified by a sufficient number of states. -
Period: to
Indiana's gay rights court battle is almost settled
An Indiana ban on gay marriage since 1986 was struck down by the 7th Circuit U.S. appeals court 3-0 on Thursday Sept 11 declaring that gay marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana are unconstitutional, on the same day that 32 states asked the Supreme Court to settle the issue once and for all. -
Bowers v Hardwick US Supreme Court approves state sodomy laws
Upholding the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals found that the Constitution did not confer "a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy..." -
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
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. Title II of this access prohibits local school corporations from limiting program access that might be obstructed by discriminatory policies or procedures of the entity. -
Lawrence v Texas US Supreme Court approves all same-sex sexual activity
The US Supreme Court rules same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory as protected under the 14th Amendment substantive due process clause. -
Fisher v Univ of Texas holding race has an appropriate but limited role in deciding admission
The US Supreme Court declared the University's race-conscious admissions inconsistent with the Bakke and Grutter cases, which had in 2003 established that race had an appropriate but limited role in the admissions policies of public universities.
