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• Brown v. Board of Education
the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. -
•Dred Scott v. Sandford
In a decision that later was nullified by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the Supreme Court held that former slaves did not have standing in federal courts because they lacked U.S. citizenship, even after they were freed. -
• 13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "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." -
• 14th Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people, and provided all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,” -
• 15th Amendment
The amendment reads, “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.” The 15th Amendment guaranteed African American men the right to vote. -
• Jim Crow Era
The segregation and disenfranchisement laws known as "Jim Crow" represented a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South. -
• Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine -
• Nineteenth Amendment
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 sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. -
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
This prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. -
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
• Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is defined as a set of procedures designed to; eliminate unlawful discrimination among applicants, remedy the results of such prior discrimination, and prevent such discrimination in the future. -
• Equal Rights Amendment
a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would invalidate many state and federal laws that discriminate against women; its central underlying principle is that sex should not determine the legal rights of men or women. -
• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke is a 1978 Supreme Court case which held that a university's admissions criteria which used race as a definite and exclusive basis for an admission decision violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
• Bowers v. Hardwick
this decision found that the Fourteenth Amendment does not prevent a state from criminalizing private sexual conduct involving same-sex couples. -
• Americans with Disabilities Act
prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in several areas, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications and access to state and local government' programs and services. -
• Motor Voter Act
sets forth certain voter registration requirements with respect to elections for federal office. Section 5 of the NVRA requires that States offer voter registration opportunities at State motor vehicle agencies. -
• Lawrence v. Texas
is a landmark case, in which the Supreme Court of the United States, in 6-3 decision, invalidated sodomy law across the United States, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every State and United States territory. -
• Obergefell v. Hodges
the 14th Amendment requires all states to license marriages between same-sex couples and to recognize all marriages that were lawfully performed out of state.