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Dred Scott v. Sandford
A court case ruling that Americans of African Decent, whether free or not, were not officially American Citizens.It also declared that slaveowners were protected under the 5th Amendment because slaves were counted as property instead of people. -
13th Amendment
This amendment was passed alongside the 14th and 15th amendments following the conclusion of the civil war. It ended all forms of slavery in the united states effectively freeing the slaves from the confederate southern states -
14th Amendment
This amendment was passed alongside the 13th and 15th amendments following the conclusion of the civil war. It forbids the states from denying "equal protection of the laws". -
15th Amendment
This amendment was passed alongside the 14th and 15th amendments following the conclusion of the civil war. It protected the right to vote to American citizens, noteably African American males. -
Poll Taxes
First implemented among the southen states following the civil war, poll taxes were a way for racist white southerners to prevent African Americans from voting. A grandfather clause that let people vote if their grandfather could vote prior to the Civil War was also a part of the poll taxes to help protect poor, illiterate whites. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
This Court case declared that a seperation of the races (seregation) was perfectly legal, so long as it meets the terms "Seperate but Equal" -
White Primaries
Primary elections in southern states that African Americans were banned from participating in. This limited their involvment with the political spectrum by a great deal. -
19th Amendment
This Amendment included women in those who who able to legally vote. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This court case responed to the "Seperate but Equal" ruling from Plessy v. Ferguson by stating that seperate facilities are inheritely unequal, and thereby unconstitutional. This statement effectively overturned Plessy v. Furguson and made segregation of the races illegal. -
Rosa Parks Arrest
Upon refusing to surrender her seat to a white man on a crowded bus, the driver of said bus had her arrested. This is considered to be the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement as it lead to the extensive mobilization of African Americans -
Affirmative Action
The policy or action of favoring members in a society who are percieved to suffer from discrimination within a culture. The term was first used in executive order 10925 by President John F. Kennedy in the aforementioned date -
24th Amendment
This Amendment effectively eliminated any abridgement to an individual's right to vote. These abridgemnets included such things as poll taxes. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Act outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It also required equal access to public places and employment, and it enforced desegregation of schools (turning over the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896) and the right to vote. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act banned the use of literacy tests and poll taxes to aid in voting for African Americans -
Reed v. Reed
This court case's ruling prohibited discrimination on the bases of sex. -
Equal Rights Amendment
Entended te due rights given to each individual american citizen to those of the female gender -
Bowers v. Hardwick
This court case upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals -
Americans with Disabilities Act
This act proibits discrimination of any kind against or aimed towards Americans who have some form of disability -
Lawrence v. Texas
This Court case nullified the Bowers v. Hardwick case of 1986 on the basis that it was unconstitutional to prohibit homosexual acts amongst consenting adult citizens as it violated an individual's sexual privacy -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
This court decision upheld affirmitive action as a factor in college administration with the restriction of specific minority quotos
