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Dred Scott v Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave belonging to an owner who moved to the Missouri Territory; however this territory had not yet legalized slavery, so Scott sued his master as he believed he deserved to be free. The case made its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled 7-2 in favor of his masters. They reasoned the US Constitution did not confer citizenship to black people (and so scott had no rights), and they also overturned the Missouri Compromise that made slavery illegal in federal territories. -
Union victory in the civil war; Amendments 13, 14
One civil war, a few presidents, and a union victory later, the ruling in Dred Scott v Sandford would be overturned by two amendments to the constitution; the 13th amendment outlawed slavery, and the 14th amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people born in the US, and all the rights/privileges and responsibilities that come with it. The 14th amendment also introduced the concept of incorporation, where states had to observe their citizens' constitutional rights. -
Poll Taxes & white primaries
While the constitution guaranteed rights to all males to vote regardless of race, some states tried to circumvent the law by instilling poll taxes that in practice only affected poor African american former slaves and their descendants. They also used "white primaries" which only allowed white people to attend to nominate their presidential candidates, to reduce the power black people had in electing officials. Poll taxes were overturned by the 24th amendment -
15th Amendment
Similar to 13, and 14, the 15th Amendment was a post-civil war reconstruction amendment that prevented the federal government and states from denying a citizen's right to vote solely based on their race/ethnicity. This did not extend voting rights to women, and it took a while longer to be proposed and ratified, which it did on Feb 3, 1870. -
19th amendment
Not only freed African Americans, but also women fought for civil rights; they especially wanted the right to vote and got their goal achieved by the ratification of the 19th amendment, which prohibited preventing people from voting based on their sex. -
Plessy v ferguson, Brown v Board of education, and other landmark cases
In 1890, the SCOTUS heard a case from Harold Plessy, and "octaroon" (1/8 black) American citizen who was discrimitnated agaist for his ancestry. Their "separate but equal" philosophy upheld segragation until in 1954, when a very different SCOTUS ruled 9-0 in favor of another family of african americans who were forced to go to a far away balck-only school. The ruling in this case essentially overturned PvF, because separation of public schools was deemed unequal by default -
Civil and Voting rights acts, 1964 1965
The the 1950s and 60s, African Americans faced a turning point in their battle for civil rights. Their efforts yielded a pair of important civil rights laws passed in 1964 and 65 that guaranteed that no american citizen could be denied the right to vote based on teir race; the civil rights act next year took it further and banned all racially-based discrimination. -
24th amendment
African Americans would continue to be disenfranchised from voting well into the 20th century anyway; poll taxes were one way they would be blocked. Ratified Jan 23, 1964 the 24th amendment made it illegal for any election of a public official have poll taxes as a hard requirement to vote.
