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Civil Rights Timeline
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13th Amendment
The 13th amendment stated “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.” This was a big step in American because it was a step towards equality for all people that lived in the U.S.. This changed the nation forever for good and propelled the U.S. towards a better nation. -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment was close to the 13th and 15th and was seen as one of the Reconstruction amendments. This admendment was meant to be put forward towards citizenship laws. The amendment made every race either born or naturalized in the united states was a citizen. The states could not infringe on citizens privileges and immunitites and made most thing equal for all races. -
15th Amendment
This was seen as the last of the Reconstruction Amendments after the civil war and was meant to fix the post war problems. This was the amendment that gave all men the righrt to vote no matter what ethnicity they were. But this was hindered by the the southern states putting legeslation in place to try to stop African Americans from voting. The main preventative was literacy tests. These were eventually made illegal and all men had the right to vote. -
Jim Crow Laws
The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws that mandated that racial segregation in all public facilities but this was all based on the idea that everything was seperate but equal. The seperate but equal was not true. The african americans public facilities had a far lower standard then the whites public facilities.This led to discrimination of the african americans and made there living conditions awful all around including schools. -
Poll Taxes
The pole taxes were put in act in the south as part of the Jim Crow laws that were put in place to try to go against the fifteenth amendment. This would impose a tax on people that were trying to vote. There was a catch though that was the grandfather clause that made most not have to pay the poll taxes. This was put in place to try to stop minorites from voting. -
Literacy Tests
Literacy test were apart of the Jim Crow laws along with poll taxes that were trying to prevent african americans from voting. These were put in place mainly in the southern states that didnt want african americans to have a say in politics. These were eventually put to a stop because of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
This was a huge supreme court case that reinforced the idea of separate but equal. This reinforced the racial segregation laws saying that it was constitutional as long as it was equal. This was contreversal because things were said to be equal but theyr were not equal because the standards of the blacks facilities were not as good as white peoples facilities. -
19th Amendment
This amendments purpose was to give anyone the right to vote no matter what sex they were. This was a huge advancment in womens rights. The movement that was behind this was the womens temprace movement. Women wanted a say in politics and showed there power by putting womens support behind prohibition and getting that achvied soon after. -
Korematsu v. United States
This was a supreme court case that was regarding executive order 9066. This was a order form the president during World War 2 that made all people living in America of Japenese decendent go to interment camps during the war so they could not be spies for the foriegn nations at the time. One person took this all the way to the supreme court saying it was constitutionally illegal to do something like that and he won with a 6-3 decision. He and any other Japenese were reimbursed for there trouble. -
Sweatt v. Painter
This was as supreme court case that challenged the idea of serperate but equal. The idea of seperate but equal had just been reafirmed from Plessy v. Ferguson but that was now being challenged since conditions were not equal for both races. This was based on Texas not having and black students in there white schools which was challenged and overulled by the supreme court. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This was a landmark case that the supreme court stated that decided that having seperate white and black schools were not constitutional. This went against a previous supreme court decision that was called Plessy v. Ferguson and that said that it was constitutional to have seperated schools. This was also a huge case becuase it was as unanimous decision from the justicies which is very rare. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights movement by african amerians to try to protest the segregated buses that made the African Americnas sit in the back. The start of this was when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and was arrested. This angered african americnas so athey protested the public buses and walked everywhere instead of riding the bus. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges contribution to african american civil rights was she was the first african american girl to attend an all-white school. The supreme court had ruled it illegal now to have segregated schools and now it was time for the schools to be integrated but many were very hesitant becuase of the backlash that they feared would come from the whites. But Ruby Bridges mom put her into an all white school and she made history by doing so. -
Affirmative Action
This piece of legeslation was put in place by John F. Kennedy in 1961. It was put in place in order to prevent racial discrimination when hiring in the work place. It stated that employers could not turn down a applicant just because of there skin color, national orgin, and creed. This was mainly to help stop discrimination in the work place so that African Americans could find jobs easier and not be turned down because of there race. -
24th Amendment
The 24th amendments main purpose was to make it illegal to have a poll tax or any other tax to try to prevent people to vote. The poll taxes were mainly in southern states before this amendment was passed. The reason that this amendment was passed was because having a poll tax was because it was against the equal protection clause that was in the 14th amendment. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The civil rights act of 1964 was put in place and outlawed discrimination based on many things like race,color, religion, sex, or nation of origin. At first the civil right act was iwas enforced stronger and but over the years it was enforced stronger and was enforced everywhere and made everthing more equal. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This was a civil act that was put in place to prevent race discrimination in voting. This was put in place during the height of the all the civil rights movements. This piece of civil rights legeslation was seen as one of the most effective pieces of legeslation ever to be put in place. This prohibited things like literacy tests and poll taxes which made it hard for people to vote. -
Loving v. Virginia
This was one of the biggest supreme court cases that has been decided. This adressed the law in Virginia that prohibited interracial marriage. The case was brought up by a black women who wanted to marie a white man in Virginia but it wasnt allowed by the state so she took it to the supreme court. There has been a day named after Lovely to remember what she did for the U.S. -
Robert Kennedy Speech
Robert Kennedy was attempting to get the 1968 Democratic Presidential and to do so he was flying around the nation trying to support his campaign. But when he came to Indianapolis to have his speech he learned that MLK had been assasinated and feared what the repurcution would be. He feared riots and much worse because he was having a speech in the african american ghetto part of the U.S. He instead of having his planned speech talked about MLK and suggested that rioting would not fix anything b -
Reed v. Reed
The Reed v. Reed cause was esintialy a equal protection case the said administrators of estates cannot discriminate who stays in there place based on sex. The couple was split and there sons estate was undecided who it went to and it went to the husband because males must be perferred to females. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
This was also a landmark supreme court case that upheld and supported affirmative action. This supreme court decision case specifically talked about allowing the factor of race and some other things were allowed in colleges making decisions of admissions. But this also made specific quotas for races were impermissible. -
Equal Rights Amendment
This was a proposed amendment that was meant to make sure women have equal rights and equal protection. This amendment made it past both the house and congress but all the states did not ratify it. This was to reinforce the 19th amendment because many women thought that it was being violated and women were being discriminated against. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
This was a court case that was a 5-4 supreme court decision that upheld the Georgia law that two people of the same sex could not engage in oral or anal sexy in private. This was eventually overturned by the justicies in 2003 saying it was illegal to have a law like this because it was against the equal protection act. -
Americans With Disabilities Act
This document is similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in that it prevented discrimination but it was against discrimating against other things beside race. The act prevented discrimination against people with disabilities. This was protecting people with mental and physical disabilities or conditions. It includes many things like deafness, autism, and many other varying types of disabilities. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas was about a very contriversial topic at the time. This was about the sodomy laws that were in place in 13 states at the time. These laws stated that it was illegal to engage is same-sex sexual activities. The supreme court saw these laws as unconstitutional and struck them down in a 6-3 decision. After this decision same-sex activities were legal in all states in the U.S. -
Fisher v. Texas
This was a supreme court case that was based of the idea of affirmative action. The court overruled the decision of a lower court becasue they thought the court had not applied strict scrutiny in there decision. The University of Texas was being brought up on charges because Abigail Fisher said that they were not being race concious when they made there decisions and this went against prior supreme court decisions and rules.
