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13th Amendment
" 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." The 13th amenemdment formally abolished slavery in the United States. -
14th Amendment
" All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law chich shall abridge the priveleges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any peron of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." -
15th Amendment
"Right of the 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." Promise of the 15th amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. -
Poll Taxes
The poll tax emerged in some states as a part of the Jim Crow laws. Many of the Southern states enforced poll taxes in an attempt to restrict eligble voters from voting. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
This case upheld the " separate but equal" doctrine. In a 7 to 1 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities. -
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 in the United States at the state and local level. These laws mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in Southern states of the former Confederacy. -
Literacy Tests
Literacy Tests were the government practice of testing the literacy of potential voters at the state level. Many southern states used literacy tests as a way of denying suffrage to African Americans. -
19th 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." Although this amendment was ratified, many states did not comply right away. It took time for it to be followed in all states. -
Korematsu V. United States
This case ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II, regardless of citizenship. -
Sweatt V. Painter
This case challenged the separate but equal doctrine. The Texas law schools were not equal like they were supposed to be. There was a law school for whites and a law school for blacks and they were far from equal. The Supreme Court said that the separate schools failed to qualify under spearate but equal. -
Brown v. Board of Education
In Brown V. Board of Education, the Supreme Court declared laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy V. Ferguson decision. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was the first black child to attend al all-white elementaru school in the Sough. She attended William Frantz Elementary School. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is the policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who are perceived to suffer from discrimination within a culture. -
24th Amendment
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll or other tax." -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Act regulated the administration of elections. It provides nationwide protections for voting rights. It prohibits any state or local government from im posing any voting law that results in discrimination against racial or language minorities. -
Loving V. Virginia
This court case invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage. -
Robert Kennedy Speech in Indianapolis
The gathering was a planned campaign rally for Robert Kenedy in an attempt to help get the 1968 Democratic nomination for President. When he arrived, he realized that the crowd did not know that Martin Luther King Jr. had died. He then began to speak and broke the news. -
Reed V. Reed
The case Reed V. Reed was an equal protection case in the United States in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. It was a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution to guarantee equal rights for women. The amendment passed both houses of Congress and went to the state legislatures for ratification. The amendment needed 38 state ratifications and it only received 35. -
Regents of the University of California V. Bakke
This decision upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. The justices had 6 different opinions, none of them in full majority of the court. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
In this court case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not protect the right of gay adults to engage in private, consensual sodomy. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act is a law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It protects mental and physical disabilities. It applies to job application procedures, hiring, advancement and discharge of employees, job training, and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment. -
Lawrence V. Texas
This court case made same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S state and territory. It overturned the decision made in Bowers V. Hardwick. -
Fisher V. Texas
The decision in this case was stated " It is equally settled that universities may use race as a part of a holistic admissions program where it canot otherwise achieve diversity." -
Indiana's Gay Rights
The 7th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago approved a stay sought by Indiana's attorney general of the appeals court's s ruling that found Indiana and Wisconsin's gay marriage bans to be unconstitutional.
