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Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was an African American slave who had previously resided in the abolitionist states of Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory. Scott filed a claim for freedom, claiming that because he had lived in a free area and state, he was a free man. A federal court ruled against Scott in 1854 and declared him to still be a slave. The Supreme Court heard arguments in 1856 and issued its ruling the following year after Scott's attorneys filed an appeal with it. -
13th Amendment
Abolition of slavery: Slavery is not allowed in any state or territory under the government of the U.S.A. -
14th Amendment
Civil Rights in the States; All persons born or naturalized in the United States are subject to its laws and cannot be denied any of the rights and priviledges contained in the Constitution. -
15th Amendment
Black suffrage: Citizens cannot be denied their right to vote because of their race or color or because they were once slaves. -
Plessy v. Fergurson
Separate railroad cars for blacks and whites were mandated by Louisiana state law. Homer Plessy, who was 1/8 black, sat down on a Louisiana train's "whites only" car in 1892. He was detained after he refused to go into the car designated for black people. -
NineTeenth Amendment
Makes it illegal to deny the right to vote to any citizen based on their sex. -
Jim Crow Era
Jim Crow laws were state and local regulations that were enacted from the conclusion of Reconstruction in 1877 until the middle of the 1950s. They allowed white southerners to reassert their power by depriving African Americans of fundamental social, economic, and civil rights like the right to vote. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Linda Brown was a young Black American student in the Topeka, Kansas, school system around the beginning of the 1950s. She and her sister had to walk to the bus stop each day to get to their all-black school, Monroe. Linda Brown attempted to enroll in the nearby Sumner School, but the Topeka Board of Education rejected her application due to her color because the school was only accepting white students. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Made it illegal to discriminate in the workplace, allowed for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and forbade discrimination in public areas. The civil rights legislation contained in this text was the broadest since Reconstruction. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
revoked the use of any test or device to prevent voting and Authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had previously disenfranchised blacks; as more blacks became politically active and elected black representatives, it boosted jobs, contracts, and facilities and services for the black community, encouraging greater social equality and narrowing the wealth and education gap. -
Affirmative Action
Steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business. -
Reed v. Reed
The appointment of an estate administrator cannot be made in a way that is discriminatory based on gender. -
Equal Rights Amendment
According to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), everyone, regardless of gender, has the same access to the rights granted by the Constitution. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
The 14th amendment's equal protection clause was broken by racial quotas, the court found in favor of Allan Bakke. The University of California was to admit Bakke, per the court's directive. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
A Georgia police officer saw Michael Hardwick performing consenting homosexual sodomy with another adult in the bedroom of his house. Hardwick contested the validity of the sodomy-criminalizing law in Federal District Court after being charged for breaking it. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
A federal civil rights law aimed at preventing discrimination and allowing people with disabilities to fully participate in society. -
Motor Voter Act
Was passed in 1993 and stipulates that voter registration forms must be posted at motor vehicle, public assistance, and military recruitment offices. It also mandates that all states must permit voters to register by mail when renewing their driver's licenses. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence filed an appeal after the men were found guilty and punished, claiming that the Gay Conduct rule was unconstitutional because it discriminated against homosexuals in violation of their right to privacy and the Equal Protection Clause of the -
Obergefell v. Hodges
In order to challenge the constitutionality of those states' prohibitions on same-sex marriage or refusal to recognize legal same-sex marriages that took place in jurisdictions that permitted such marriages, groups of same-sex couples sued their relevant state agencies in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee.