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13th Amendment
Formal emancipation. This abolished slavery in the United States and provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime wherof the party shall have been dully convincted shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
14th Amendment
This granted citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," including former slaves that were recently freed. It also forbid 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 laws." The fourteenth amendment expanded greatly the protectiion of civil rights to all Americans. -
15th Amendment
This granted African American men the right to vote by saying 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." -
Poll Taxes
After the ability to vote was extended to all races by the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment, many Southern states enacted poll tax laws as a means of restricting eligible voters. Breedlove v. Suttles (1937), found the poll tax to be constitutional. The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, abolished the use of the poll tax as a requirement for voting in federal elections. In the 1966 case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, the Supreme Court overruled its decision in Breedlove v. Suttles -
Literacy Tests
Literacy tests were put in to place to legally limit the amount of African Americans that could vote. Literacy tests were administered at the discretion of the people in charge of voter registration. If the administer wanted someone to ask, they could ask an easy question. If they wanted a person to fail, they would ask a series of hard questions where one wrong answer could jeopordize their chances of voting. Later on and further despcribed on the timeline, the 24th amendment outlawed it. -
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow Era brought upon Jim Crow laws and segregation. Jim Crow Laws focused on disenfranchising and segragating African Americans. There was institutionalized segregation everywhere from drinking fountains to colleges. Electoral laws were legally put in to place to limit blacks from voting by issuing a poll tax and literacy test. When this test proved to be a difficulty for older white men, the Grandfather Clasue was made. This protected poor and/or illiterate white males. Ended in 1933. -
Plessy v Ferguson
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the white car on a train. He appeared white, but is considered black. Plessy deliberately sat in the white section and announced that he was actually considered black. It went to the Supreme Court and Plessy’s lawyer argued that the Separate Car Act violated the 13th and 14th amendments. This court case was the precedent for the separate but equal doctrine. -
19th Amendment
This granted women theright to vote. This was due to the several women and men who stepped up for womens' rights. Poeple wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to win over more rights for women. The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1869 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to fight for the right for women to vote. The American Woman Suffrace Association was led by Lucy Stone. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action are policies in which an institution or organization actively engages in efforts to improve opportunities for historically excluded groups in American society. In layman’s terms, it is the act of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who are perceived to suffer from discrimination. It has to do with equal opportunities and diversity. The concept of affirmative action was reborn by Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25th, 1941. It had a lot to do with fair admissions in college. -
Korematsu v United States
In this case, Korematsu violated the Civil Exclusion Order of the U.S. Army. During World War II, the Presidential Executive Order 9066 and other statutes gave the military authority to exclude citizens of Japanese heritage to protect national defense and potential espionage. The court sided with the government in a 6-3 vote and stated that the need to protect against espionage was more important than the individual’s rights. -
Sweatt v Painter
In 1946, Herman Sweatt, a black man, applied to admission at the law school at the University of Texas. By state law, the university access was to whites only, so the university attempted to provide separate but equal facilities for black law students. Ultimately, the court, in a unanimous decision, required Sweatt to be admitted to the university under the Equal Protection Clause. -
Brown v Board of Education
This case had to do with the segregation of schools, and the fact that schools for blacks and whites were very unequal and thus violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. Another argument in this case was that segregation had a psychological effect and that black children felt inferior to white children. A social scientist, Kenneth Clark, did what is now known as the doll test to prove this theory. At the end, the vote was unanimous vote that segregation was unconstitutional. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Although roots of the bus boycott began years before the arrest of Rosa Parks, her arrest sparked the protests that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The importance of this event was that it demonstrated the potention for nonviolent protests to successfully challenge racial segregation. This officially ended on the 5 of June in 1956 due to the ruling in the Browder v. Gayle case. -
24th Amendment
This outlawed any poll tax to be placed in elections. Poll taxes were used to keep low-income citizens from participation in elections. The 24th amendment allowed all democratic participation, regardless of one's own ability to pay -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This put a law into place that authorized the national government to end segregation in public education, public accommodations, in discrimination, and in religion. For public accommodations, The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made sure that no discrimination would be made in employment due to race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This aimed to overcome legal barriers, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It completely abolished the legal barriers. -
Robert Kennedy Speech
Robert Kennedy was in Indianapolis due to a speech that he gave at Notre Dame when he heard that MLK was assasinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Kennedy decided to give a speech at 17th and Broadway in the heart of Indianapolis. People who were a part of the crowd, blacks and whites alike, compared what they experienced to a religious experience. People said that he reached out and touched everyone in the crowd. While the crowd walked awak hurt by the news, they did not take revenge like other cities -
Reed v Reed
In this case, Sally and Cecil Reed were battling over the estate of their dead son. At the time, in Idaho, males were to be preferred to females so Mr. Cecil Reed was named the administrator of the estate. Mrs. Sally Reed challenged this in court. The court said that the unfair treatment between men and women was unconstitutional and that it violated the 14th amendments Equal Protection Clause. The official reasoning was that the choice cannot be bases solely on the sex of the individual. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was put in place to stop sexual discrimination. It was added to the Civil Rights act of 1964. On top of that, the National Organizatiokn for Women, or NOW, .was set up to keep pushing for wqual rights for women -
Regents of the University of California v Bakke
Allan Bakke applied for admission to the University of California Medical School. He was rejected both times he applied because they set aside places for qualified minority students. Bakke argued that his qualifications well exceeded that of the minority students and that he was turned down unfairly solely based on the fact of race. The court had a split vote, but ultimately Bakke was admitted. The deciding factor said that racial quotas violated the 14th amendment. -
Bowers v Hardwick
In this case, Michael Hardwick was observed by a police officer engaging in consensual homosexual sodomy in his own home. He was charged with violating a Georgia statute that made sodomy a crime. Hardwick challenged the constitutionality of the statue, but the court dismissed it. On appeal, the court reversed the ruling saying the statute was unconstitutional. The lawyer for Georgia appealed to the Supreme Court and went on. The court found that tere was no constitutional protection for sodomy. -
Americans With Disabilities Act
This law prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protects against discrimination to Americans with Disabilities as the civil rights act aof 1964. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations provide a list of conditions that should easily be concluded to be disabilities. -
Lawrence v Texas
In this case, a police officer responded to a reported weapons disturbance for a private residence and found two men having consensual sex. Both men were arrested and convicted of deviate sexual intercourse which violated a Texas statute forbidding two persons of the same sex to engage in intimate sexual conduct. The Court of Appeals held that the statute was unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment. The court said they were adults and free to engage in their conduct. -
Fisher v Texas
This case has to do with the affirmative action admissions at the University of Texas at Austin. Abagail Fisher asked the court to declare the University’s race dependent admissions inconsistent with a previous case which had established that race has an appropriate but limited role in the admissions process. This case was in favor of the university at district and fifth circuit levels. The Supreme Court sent it back for reconsideration. The university is still allowed to use affirmative action. -
Indiana’s Gay Rights
Indiana has only legalized 2 marriages.The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals declared that Indiana’s ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional. The state appealed the decision. On June 25, 2014, the district judge struck down Indiana’s ban on marriage for same sex couples stating that it violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and due process. On August 19, 2014, the same district judge ruled that same-sex couples legally married in other states must be respected as married in Indy.
