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13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment, formally abolished slavery in the United States. -
The 14th Amendment
The 14th amendment grated citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States", this also inlcluded former slaves reecently freed. -
The 15th Amendment
The 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. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
30 year old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. He was arrested and the case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Plessy's lawyer argued that the seperate car act violated the 13th and 14th amendment. -
Mendez V. Westminster
With the aid of his lawyer, Gonzalo discovered that other school districts in Orange County also segregated their Mexican-American students. On March 2, 1945, the attorney representing Mendez and the other plaintiffs filed a class action suit in a U.S. District Court not only on their behalf but also on behalf of some 5,000 other persons of “Mexican and Latin descent.” -
Delgado vs. Bastrop ISD
Delgado vs. Bastrop ISD Delgado vs. Bastrop is a court case which prohibited the segregation of Mexican-Americans in Texas illegal. -
Sweatt v. Painter
A U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Hernandez v. Texas
A landmark United States Supreme Court case that decided that Mexican Americans and all other racial groups in the United States had equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. -
Brown V. Board of Education
It unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the nascent civil rights movement into full revolution. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. -
The 24th Amendment
It marked the culmination of an endeavor begun in Congress in 1939 to effect elimination of the poll tax as a qualification for voting in federal elections. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
Edgewood vs. Kirby
the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that Texas' school financing system violated the state constitutional requirement that an "efficient" system of public education be created to provide for the "general diffusion of knowledge."
