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13th Amendment (Ending Slavery)
Abolition of Slavery
"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 (Citizenship Granted)
The 14th amendment granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids 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 the laws.” -
15th Amendment (The Right To Vote)
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." Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Poll taxes, literacy tests, intemidation taxes, etc. were enacted enable voters. -
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In Response to the 15th Amendment : (Poll Taxes / Literacy tests)
As a prerequisite for voter registration literacy tests, were designed and administered in ways intended to prevent African Americans and Latinos from voting. In accordance to the literacy test there were anual poll taxes to vote in the anual election, failure to pay meant no voting. -
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(A Jim Crow South)
The Jim Crow law’s, named after a minstrel routine Jump Jim Crow; began during the late 1870’s after the Reconstruction period. Jim Crow became a derogatory epithet for blacks and a designation for a segregated life. The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated. It was not until the early 1960’s would there be an overwhelming call for change. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
Plessy V. Ferguson was a court case that began much like that of Rosa Park's protest, but instead being instructed to move to the back of the bus, Mr. Plessy was ordered to sit in the back of the train. Plessy belived that it was his right to sit where he pleased according and Louisiana laws violated his 13th and 14th amendments.This court case led to the doctrine of "seperate but equal". The races will have seperate public facilities but one shall not be better than the other. -
(Women & the Right to Vote)
The 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Civil Rights was key toward the advancement of many minorities that deserved more civil liberties than was granted. -
Korematsu V. United States
The court case Korematsu V. United States challenged the order the oders Japanese Americans, even those with citizenship, into internment camps during WWII. The court decided with the United States and stated that it was constiutional. This court case ended with a very controversial decision and has still not been overturned to this day. -
Sweatt V. Painter
Sweatt V. Painter was the court case that challenged the "seperate but equal" doctrine. This case began when an African American man was declined his acceptance into the University of Texas School of Law because they had a standing law against integrated schools. The school eventually made a african american law school on their campus in a seperate building. It was visible to see that the two school were not equal and that the "seperate but equal" doctrine was not effective. -
Brown V. Board of Education
Numerous cases helped to solidify the case of Brown V. Board of Education by creating a solid foundation, one in particuar was Plessy V. Ferguson. This three year long court case began in 1951. It decided that seperate public school for blacks and whites was unconstitutional. The courts came to the decision that it was against our 14th amendment rights. This led to the Little Rock Nine and the beginning of integrated schools. -
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(Montgomery Bus Boycott)
Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks the Montgomery Bus Boycott; in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating began December 5, 1955 and lasted for 381 days until December 31, 1956. The boycott was regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system. -
Affirmative Action
Although it was first introduced on March 6, 1961, affirmative action is still in place to this day. It was first intriduced in the Executive order 10925 that was signed by JFK. This order required employers to not discriminate against any employee or during the employee hiring process due to ones race, creed, color, or nationality. The orders have since been expanded into new orders that included sex in the undisciminated categories. -
24th Amendment (No Money Needed)
Not long ago, citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in a national election. This fee was called a poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the United States ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials. President Lyndon Johnson noted that: "There can be no one too poor to vote." Thanks to the 24th Amendment, the right of all U.S. citizens to freely cast their votes has been secured. -
(Civil Rights Act)
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. -
(Upholding the 15th amendment)
The Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson; outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. The law had an immediate impact. By the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new black voters had been registered, one-third by Federal examiners. -
(King, Kennedy, and the Power of Words)
Robert Kennedy's heartfelt speech resignated with multitudes and allowed for a start to ward a needed healing. In 1968, people responded to what King and Kennedy told them. During that tumultuous 24-hour period in 1968, people cried aloud and chanted in Memphis. Words struck a chord in Indianapolis, too, and decades later former mayor (and now U.S. Senator) Richard Lugar told writer Thurston Clarke that Kennedy’s speech was “a turning point” for Indianapolis. -
Reed V. Reed
Reed V. Reed was a court case that was between a seperated couple fighting over their deceased son's estate. The law previous to this court case stated that teh malle gets teh estate over the women. The court decided that " the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that descriminates between sexes". -
Equal Rights Amendment
This amendment was designed to give women equal rights as men. Written by Alice Paul and first proposed in 1923."Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction." -
Regents of the Univeristy of California V. Bakke
This year long court case challenged that race cannot be a factor in the college admissions process. The Court decided to stick with affirmative action and keep that upstanding law. Although, they added to the law stating that 16 out of every 100 students must be of the minority in the college acceptance process. -
Bowers V. Hardwick
Bowers V. Hardwick was an interesting court case! Mr. Bowers believed that his 14th amendment rights; equal protection under the law, were being infringed upon, when he was arrested for engaging in homosexual activity. The state of Georgia opposed stating that Hardwick was in violation of the Sodomy law. In the end the Supreme Court ruled in the Georgia's favor stating, that statutes addressing sodomy did not exist within the 14th Amendment. -
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Indiana Gay Rights Battle
Battles between same sex marriage being constitutional has been an ongoing battle between all the states in the United States for a long time. In Indiana specifically we have had a more recent happening. On June 25, 2014 Indiana had same sex marriage legal for two days. Many couples got married during this two day period. Yet, with a soon after supreme court ruling that it was unconstitutional the Indiana law was taken away and it was again illegal in Indiana for same sex marriage. -
Lawrence V. Texas
The Lawrence V. Texas case the challenged the sodomy law in Texas. It went to the supreme court and the overall court decision was that the sodomy law was unconstitutional. This made same sex sexual activity legal in all 50 U.S. States. -
Fisher V. University of Texas
The Fisher V> Univeristy of Texas was a case taken to the supreme court over affirmative action admission policies at the University of Texas at Austin. The supreme court decided that the lower courts did not apply strict scrutiny to the case and sent it back down to them to decide. After it had gone through the lower courts properly , it came back to the supreme court. The final ruling was that universities can use race as a factor for college admissions.
