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Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri and escape to Illinois to become free. He later went back to Missouri to file suit for his freedom against his owner Sandford and lost to the state court. The court ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and slaves were property under the Fifth Amendment. Any law that denies a slave owner property/slave was unconstitutional. -
13th Amendment
The thirteenth amendment which was ratified in 1865, abolished slavery. U.S Senate passed the 13th amendment with the necessary two-thirds majority but the House of Representatives refused to support it. Abraham Lincoln support the law to banned slavery and threw himself into the legislative process in order to have the 13th amendment pass. On January 31, 1865, the House Of Representatives finally approve the law with a bit over two-third votes and passed the 13th amendment. -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment was to grant citizenship to people who are born in the U.S or is naturalized in the U.S. It also guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” This law was mainly for the former slaves in order to abolish slavery. Congress required all states to ratify this law in order to regain representation in Congress. From section 2 to 5, the federal government will punish any states that violate the citizens’ right to vote by reducing states’ representation in Congress. -
15th Amendment
The fifteenth amendment mainly states that African American men have the right to vote. In the south, whites were still discriminated against black and were trying to do everything in their power to prevent them from voting. During the reconstruction period, Confederate states had been readmitted to the Union due to the support of black voters. When the reconstruction era ended, The southern Republican party disappeared leaving the southern government to nullified both 14th and 15th amendments. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Homer Plessy who refuses to sit in a railroad car for blacks only since there was race discrimination. Plessy was arrested and jailed for violating a law in Louisiana. After the law violation, Plessy filed a petition against a judge name Hon. John H. Ferguson for violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. The court ruled the 14th amendment only applies to political and civil rights and not social rights. This case preserves the idea of “separate but equal” is constitutional. -
19th Amendment
The 19th amendment granted the right to vote for American women. Women protest and seek the government to grant voting rights for women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls. They continue to organized other conventions in order to get women’s right and this went on through the civil war until the passage of the 19th amendment was ratified. -
White Primaries
White southerners had various tactics to minimize the economic, political, and social opportunities of former slaves in the primary. A primary is an election within a political party to pick the parties nominee to run for public office. The primary denies the voters of color. White Primaries exclude African American voters. White Primaries was mainly used in the Democratic Party because the Republican Party didn’t have much power due to the numbers of black voters. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The Brown v. Board of Education case rule unanimously that racial segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The case was brought up when a plaintiff named Oliver Brown filed a suit against the Board of Education of Topeka for denying the entrance of her daughter into all-white elementary schools. Earl Warren, governor of California, decides that the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place in public education. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action is a process designed to eliminate discrimination among people. In simple terms, affirmative action is taking any necessary action to achieve something. This term first appears in President Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925 to help applicants employed without the regard to race, creed, color, and national origin. -
Poll Taxes
Poll Taxes was a way to keep African Americans from voting in the southern states and it was legal in the 1890s. It was a payment of some sort in order to vote. Unlike African Americans, poor whites had an excused from payment if they had an ancestor who voted before the civil war. Poll taxes for federal was prohibited in 1964 by the 24th amendment. -
24th Amendment
The 24th amendment basically states that there should not be a poll tax to vote for the federal elections. Fives states during that time still had a poll tax which was preventing the poor African Americans from voting. Adding another section to this amendment was that congress has the power to enforce the 24th amendment if needed to be. South Dakota ratify this amendment in the 1960s. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act ended segregation in public areas and banned employment discrimination of any race, color, sex, or religion. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy and then signed into the law by Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout the years, the civil rights act expanded and help disabled Americans. Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. called this act as the “second emancipation.” This law helped developed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was aimed to overcome any obstacle that was preventing African Americans from their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th amendment. African Americans were mostly illiterate because of the oppression and poverty and would need to take the literacy tests in order to vote. This bill was passed in the U.S Senate by a 77-19 vote. Although the act was passed, local and state enforcement was weak to enforce this law to the southern. -
Reed v. Reed
Reed v. Reed was a case where both divorced parents, Sally and Cecil Reed, filed a petition to be appointed as administrator of their son estate. The Idaho court chose the father over the mother which violated the Equal Protection Clause. There is a law in Idaho stating the parents of a deceased person must make an appointment as the administrator of the estate. The court strikes down the law in Idaho because it was unconstitutional and was discriminating against women. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment states equal rights can not be denied on account of any sex/gender. It was first proposed by the National Woman’s political party. Hawaii would have been the first state to ratify this amendment as the 27th but there was a conservative backlash against feminism supporting this law. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Allan Bakke who was a 35-year old applied to the University of California Medical School and got rejected twice. His qualification was exceeding other minorities that were accepted into the school. So, he took it to the court and found out that he was excluded solely on his race. The court later manages to minimize white opposition and extending gains for racial minorities. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Michael Hardwick was engaging in the act of consensual homosexual sodomy with another adult and was observed by a Georgia police officer. Hardwick was charged by violating Georgia law of sodomy and challenge it in the Federal District Court. The Court of Appeals held that Georgia law was unconstitutional, and the case went into the higher court. The Court decided that the states could outlaw these practices because there was no constitutional protection for the act of sodomy. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became a law. It prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in all public areas. The main purpose of this law was to give the same rights and opportunities to disabilities. There is 5 section to this act. They are employment, state and local government, public accommodation, telecommunications, and miscellaneous provisions. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Police enter Lawrence’s apartment finding him and another man engaging in private consensual sex acts. They both were arrested for violating a Texas statute of forbidding two same-sex persons to engage in sexual activity. The state Court of Appeals held that it was constitutional under the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment. The Court says Texas laws violate the Due Process Clause. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Groups of same-sex couples sue states that ban same-sex marriage or refuse to recognize legal same-sex marriage. The people argue that states' law is violating the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment. The U.S Court of Appeals says states’ ban on same-sex marriage or refusal of recognizing same-sex marriage does not violate the couples’ 14th amendment rights to equal protection and due process.
