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13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment is the ablition of slavery. On December 6, 1865 Congress ratified this amendement and 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." This amendment was a turning point in our country so that we could no longer enslave people. The plight of African Americans still continued after the ratification. -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment to the US Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868 during the Reconstruction era. This amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws and was proposed in response to issues presented by freed slaves, This amendment has 5 sections. In section 2 it is stated that representativesare apportioned by the size of their state. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution 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." Ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise wasn't fully accepted for about a century. -
Jim Crow
Rigid anti-black laws in the south following the Civil War. These laws made blacks second class citizens and were not close to equal. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-black racism. Blacks were brutally victimized in the south at this time due to pro-segregation public officials and police officers. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
In 1892, Homer Adolph Plessy, who was seven-eighths white, took a seat in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train. He refused to move to the car reserved for blacks and was arrested. The case went to the Supreme Court and, in a 7 to 1 decision, the "separate but equal" provision of public accommodations by state governments was found to be constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. This decision drew a lot of attention from blacks and soon lead to the Sweatt v. Painter case. -
19th Amendment
Ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, ending "women's suffrage". The women's suffrage movement went to a national level after a convention in Seneca where they started demanding rights. This amendment progressed America to the equality we have been striving for. -
Korematsu v. United States
President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, banning all of American citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to domestic security. The Court ruled against Korematsu and accepted that the loyalties of some Japanese Americans resided with Japan, and that because separating "the disloyal from the loyal" was impossible, the order had to apply to all Japanese Americans. This case was extremelt controversial and made the U.S. look bad. -
Sweatt v. Painter
In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, a black man, applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School. State law restricted access to the university to whites, and Sweatt's application was automatically rejected because of his race. When Sweatt asked the state courts to order his admission, the university attempted to provide separate but equal facilities for black law students. This was later argued that the separate school facilities negatively affected the black students. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This case unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, but it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and motivated the beginning of civil rights movement into a full revolution. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A series of protests in which blacks wouldn't ride city buses to protest segregated seating. This time period includes Dr. Martin Luther King and the famous Rosa Parks protest when a white male told her to move. After enough violence, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to integrate city buses. -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment outlawed the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections. This was ratified on August 27, 1962. This amenment helped end "Jim Crow" laws, as they were unfair to the balcks' right to vote. Some thought that this amendment didn't do enough to protect young black voters. -
Poll Taxes
Upon the freedom slaves in the Jim Crow south, local governemnts would give poll taxes to eliminate the blacks from voting. Usually the taxes would be very high for blacks and whites would be very small of payed for by the government. Along with poll taxes, Klan members and prosegreation officers would be standing near voting booths to scare away blacks. The 24th Amendment Ended the Poll Tax
January 23, 1964. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This Act finally followed through with the 14th amendment, passing the right to vote. Also Companies can not discriminate when hiring people. Segregation was banned in public places such as theaters or libraries. These laws made the landscape for equality that we have today. -
Affirmative Action
The policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who are perceived to suffer from discrimination within a culture. President Lyndon B. Johnson issued this order which required government employers to "hire without regard to race, religion and national origin". This was very influential and still is in our lives today. -
Voting Rghts Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73) on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. -
Robert Kennedy Speech in Indianapolis upon MLK death
Amid the tragedy of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King on Thursday, April 4th, 1968, an extraordinary moment in American political history occurred as Robert F. Kennedy, younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy, broke the news of King's death to a large gathering of African Americans that evening in Indianapolis, Indiana. -
Reed v. Reed
Sally and Cecil Reed, a separated couple, were in conflict over which of them to designate as administrator of the estate of their deceased son. Idaho Code specified that "males must be preferred to females" so Sally Reed was represented at the Supreme Court and argued that the Fourteenth Amendment forbids discrimination based on gender. The Supreme Court delivered a unanimous decision that held the Idaho Code's preference in favor of males was arbitrary and unconstitutional. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Allan Bakke, a white man, had twice applied to the University of California Medical School at Davis, but was rejected both times. The school reserved sixteen places in each entering class of one hundred for "qualified" minorities. Bakke argued that he was excluded from admission solely on the basis of race. The Court ruled in favor of Bakke, which also minimized the white opposition for the goal of equality. -
Equal Rights Amendment
"Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." This amendment gave full rights to people other than whtie males. From 1972 to 1982 people would protest their unequal rights. Pushed by Women's activists, this amendment gained momentum towards national equality. This amendment was passed but not fully ratified by all states. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Michael Hardwick was observed by a Georgia police officer while engaging in the act of consensual homosexual sodomy with another adult in the bedroom of his home. He was charged with violating a Georgia statute that criminalized sodomy, so he challenged the statute's constitutionality in Federal District Court. It got to the Supreme Court and was ruled that the Georgia statute is constitutional. This was one of the first cases involving homosexuals and was very controversial. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities. Increased numbers of students with disabilities have been entering post-secondary education settings, making them the largest growing minority group of the college population and adding even more importance to the ADA. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Houston police entered John Lawrence's apartment and saw him and another adult man engaging in a private, consensual sexual act. They were arrested and convicted of deviate sexual intercourse in violation of a Texas statute forbidding two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. The Supreme Court ruled that state laws banning homosexual sodomy are unconstitutional as a violation of the right to privacy. This case added to the controversy with homosexuals -
Fisher v. Texas
Abigail Fisher was denied summer and fall admission into the 2008 freshman class at the University of Texas at Austin. Fisher said that the admissions policies and procedures of the University of Texas at Austin discriminate against her on the basis of her race and in violation of her right to equal protection of the law under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court ruled that a university’s use of race must meet a test which sates courts will need to prove it's necessary to use race in admissions. -
Indiana's Gay Rights Court Battle
On June 25, a federal judge denied Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage. The federal appeals court in Chicago affirmed that decision Sept. 4, and both sides in the argument have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. Both decisions have been temporarily halted from taking effect. Indiana has asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the decision from taking effect until the Supreme Court can rule on the issue. The issue has been widely discussed and will most likely be legal soon -
Literacy Tests
During the Jim Crow south, blacks would have fixed poll taxes as well as literacy tests. These literacy tests would be harder for blacks to pass so that it would be difficult for them to vote. The white man's literacy test was much easier if they ever had to take one. Literacy tests was another way of trying to restricts black persons' rights. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended literacy tests.
