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13th Amendment
This Amendment was passed by Abramam Lincoln and is most likely the most well known Amendent in the Constitution. The 13th Amendment is so Significatant because it abolished slavery in the United States for the first time. It states, "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
The 14th Amendent is so significant because it forbid states from treating diffent ethictys diffently. This Amendment states that all colors of skins under the juistiction of the law, shall recieve equal rights. It was later known as the Equal Protection Clause. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment was the first amendment that allowed African American to vote. This Amendement also gave them the oppertunity to run for public offices. This Amendment led to interracial marrige, as well as more oppurtunites for minority races. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy attempted to sit in on an all-white railroad car. After refusing to sit in the black railway carriagecar, Plessy was arrested for violating an 1890 Louisiana statute that provided for segregation "sepreate but equal" railroad accomodations. Those using facilities not designed for their race were criminally liable under statute. -
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were laws that were intened to seperate blacks and white and yet treat them "equally". The Jim term came to be a "derogatory epithet for blacks and a designation for their segregated life." These laws kept most public things bewteen the two races seperates, such as bathrooms, school, and even the military. -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment allowed women the right to vote. This led the way of many changes that were still to come for woman and their abilites and equal oppertunites as an american. -
Korematsu v. United States
During World Was 2 a military commander ordered all persons of Japanese decsent to evacuate the west coast. The Petitoner, Koermastsu, a U.S citzen with Japanese descent, was convicted for failing to comply with the order. -
Sweatt v. Painter
Sweatt was denied admission to the state supported University of Texas law schoool, soley based on his ethnicity. When taken to court, the court argued that the african american univesity was grossly unequal to the University og Texas there for it was no "seperate but equal". -
Affirmative Action
The Affirmative Action was a policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who are percieved to suffer discrimination within a culture. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown was denied access to Topeka's white schools. after the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, many african american used there right of the 14th amendment like Brown. This is significant becayse it unanimously held racial segregation of children in public schools which violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycutt was sparked by the arrest of Rosa parks, an african american woman, who refused to give up her seat to a white person. This boycott laster for 13 months. This is so significant because it is known as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. -
Poll Taxes
The poll tax was on of the Jim Crow laws and it required voters to pay a tax in order to vote. These laws were notorious for discrimination against blacks by making voting seem too costly. These poll taxes were overturned in 1964. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was one of the first African Americans children to attend an all-white school in the south. She attended William Frantz Elementary School and Novemeber first, 1960 was the first day of school this school for her. This is so significant because she helped lead the way for other young african americans children. -
Literacy Tests
Literacy tests were another addition to the Jim Crow laws. These required potential voters to take an exam to test their reading abilities. These were considered unfair towards black americans, since the test were adminstered by white officials who determined who passed and who failed. -
24th Amendment
The 24th amendment is so significant because it stopped states from over taxes those who vote. African American couldnt afford the tax therefor the tax was set up to keep them from voting. This made it so every vote, of any race in America, could vote. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil RIghts Act of 1964 ended segregation in school, ended unfair voting requirments, and made districmination on the base of sex, race, ethnicity in housing and employment, and pay illegal. This act is so important because it struck down the most common areas of segregation. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discrimination in voting. This allowed the black community to have a major voice for the first, For the first time it was a priority for the elected officals to appease the conserns of the southern balck communites. -
Loving v. Virginia
The state of Virginia enacted laws making it a felony for a white person to intermarry with a black peroson or the reverse. The consisution of the statutes was called into quesion. -
Robert Kennedy Speech in Indy upon Death of MLK
Robert Kennedy was in Indiana giving speeches to many colleges when Martin Luther King jr. was assinated. After he found this out, he decided to ghange his speech in an african american getto in Indianapolis to show his respect. This is significant because it gave the african americans hope, beacuse there were elected officals on their side. -
Reed v. Reed
The petitioner, Ms. Reed, the mother of a deceased child, alleges a statute that prefers males over females in the adminitration of an estate to which they hoave equal claims. The court sided with Ms. Reed and agreed that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. -
Egual RIghts Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment states that there should, and will be, "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." This Amendment was said to take place in 2 years after being ratified, although it was three states short of the 2/3 states needed. -
Regents of University of California v. Bakke
Allan Bakke, a 35 year old white man, had applied for admission to the University of California medical school. The school reserved 16 placed in each entering calss out of 100 for "qualified" minorities as a part of the AA program. Qulifications exceded those of any minority students admitted. Bakke conteded first in the California courts then supreme that he was excluded from admission solet based on race. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Michael Hardwick was observed by a Georgia police officer while engaging in the act of Consensual Homosexual Sodomy (which was illegal in Georgia) with another adult in the bedroom of his house. The anti-Sodomy law was ruled consitutional. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disablities Act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accomedations, communications, and governmental activites. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Police found two men engaged in sexual conduct int heri home, and these men were arrested under a texas statute that prohibited such such conduct bewteen two men. While homosexual conduct is not a fundamental right, the intamate sexual relationships beween consenting adults are protected by the 14th Amendment. -
Fisher v. Texas
Abigial Fisher, a white female, applied fro undergraduate admission to the University of Texas in 2008. Fisher was not in the top 10 percent of her class so she copeted for admission with other non-top ten percent in-state applicants. When the University of Texas denied her application, Fisher filed a suit against the University and other related defendants claiming that the University of Texas use of race was condieration of admission decsions was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
