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13th Amendment
Officially outlawed slavery and involuntarily servitude. First of the three reconstruction amendments. -
14th Amendment
Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling by the Supreme Court (1857) that held that blacks could not be citizens of the United States. Its Due Process Clause prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. -
15th Amendment
Prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude -
Plessey V Ferguson
A landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal. -
19th Amendment
The Nineteenth Amendment (Amendment XIX) to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920. -
Executive Order of 1948
Executive Order is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948 by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. It abolished racial segregation in the armed forces. [1] -
Brown vs Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954),[1] was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional -
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Parks' act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement and Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including boycott leader Martin Luther King, Jr., helping to launch him to national prominence in the civil rights m -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, United States, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
A voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since Reconstruction following the American Civil War. The goal of the 1957 Civil Rights Act was to ensure that all Americans could exercise their right to vote. -
24th Amendment
The Twenty-fourth Amendment (Amendment XXIV) prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. Poll taxes appeared in southern states after Reconstruction as a measure to prevent African Americans from voting, and had been held to be constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1937 decision Breedlove v. Suttles. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
A landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. The bill was called for by President John F. Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11, 1963. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. Prohibits the following:- Refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of his/her race, color, religion or national origin. People with disabilities and families with children were added to the list of protected classes by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988.