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Dred Scott vs. Sandford
Chief Justice Taney bluntly announced that a Black man, slave or free, was "chattel" and had no rights under a White man's government and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in the wester territories. This decision invalidated the hard-won Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to become a slave state on the conditions that northern territories would remain free of slavery. The Scott decision was a milestone for the start of the Civil War. -
Thirteenth Amendment
13th Amendment to the U.S. Constiutuion The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitdue. -
14th Amendment
14th AmendmentThe fourteenth Amendment makes African Americans U.S. Citizens and guarantees "equal protection of the law." This guarantee is widely ignored for nearly a century. -
15th Amendment
An overview of the 15th Amendment The Fifteenth Amendment extended suffrage to African Americans. It states "The right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged b the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or prvious condition of servitude." -
Poll Taxes
Poll TaxesSmall taxes, levied on the right to vote, that often fell due at a time of year when poor African American sharecroppers had the least cash on hand. This method was used by most Southern states to exclude African Americans from voting registers. Poll taxes were declared void by the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Transcript of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)An 1896 Supreme Court decision that provided a constitutional justification for segregation by ruling that a Louisiana Law requiring 'equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races" was not unconstitutional. -
White Primaries
White PrimariesOne of the means used to discourage African American voting that permited political parties in the heavily Democratic South to exclude Afircan Americans from primary elections, thus depriving them of a voice in the real contests. -
Ninteenth Amendment
19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to VoteGuaranteed women the right to vote. -
Brown v. Board of Education
History of Brown v. Board of Education
The 1954 Supreme Court Decision holding that school segragation in Topeka, Kansas, was inherently unconstitutional becaused it violated the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. This case marked the end of legal segregation in the United States. -
24 Amendment
THe 24th Amendment The Twenty-fourth Amendment declared polled taxes void in federal elections. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act The law that made racial discrimination against any group in hotels, motels, and restaurants illegal and forbade many forms of job discrimination. -
Affirmative Action
Civil Rights 101A policy designed to give special attention to or compensatory treatment for members of some previously disadvantaged group. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Voting Right Act The Voting Right Act sends federal registrars to Southern states and counties to protect African Americans' right to vote and gives registrars the power to impound ballots to enforce the act. Executive order requires companies with federal contracts to take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunities. -
Reed- v. Reed
Reed v. ReedThe landmark case in 1971 in which the Supreme Court for the first time upheld a claim of gender discrimination. -
Equal Rights Amendment
U.S. History/ Equal Rights AmendmentA constitutional amendment orginally introduced in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972 and sent to the state legislatures for ratification, stating that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." -
Regents of the University Of California v. Bakke
Expanding Civil RightsA 1978 Supreme Court decision holding that a state university could not admit less qualified individuals solely because of their race. The Court did not, however, rule that such affirmative action policies and the use of race as a criterion for admissions were unconstitutional, only that they had to be formulated differently. -
Bowers v. Hardiwck
Expanding Civil Rights The Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not protect the right of gay adults to engage in private, consensual sodomy. -
American with Disabilites Act
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity CommissionA law passed in 1990 that requires employers and public facilities to make 'reasonable accomondations" for people with disabilites and prohibits discrimination against these individuals in employment. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. TExas::539 US 558 Houston police entered John Lawrence's apartment and saw him and another adult man, Tyron Garner, engaging in a private, consensual sexual act. Lawrence and Garner were arrested and convicted of deviate sexual intercourse in violation of a Texas statute forbidding two persons of the same sex to engage in certain intimate sexual conduct. In affirming, the State Court of Appeals held that the statute was not unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
