Civil Rights

13 Amendment Passed

Jan 31, 1865

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

14 Amendment passed

Jul 9, 1868

granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

15 Amendment Ratified

Feb 3, 1870

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."

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Mar 1, 1875

Imposed various criminal penalties against private businesses that practiced racial discrimination. Penalties were imposed on any owner of a public establishment or conveyance who practiced racial discrimination in the conduct of his or her business. Many Northerners and Southerners opposed to Reconstruction saw the law as an infringement of personal freedom of choice.

Jim Crow Laws Placed

May 2, 1876

White Democrats regain power in many southern state legislatures and pass the first Jim Crow Laws

Exodusters

Mar 2, 1879

Thousands of African Americans refuse to live under segregation in the South and migrate to Kansas. They become known as Exodusters

Strauder v. West Virginia

Aug 5, 1880

The Supreme Court rules that African Americans could not be excluded from juries.

Civil Rights Act overturned

Oct 15, 1883

the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. The Court declared that the Fourteenth Amendment forbids states, but not citizens, from discriminating.