Civil Rights Timeline

  • Slaughter-House cases

    Privileges or Immunities Clause only protects legal rights associated with U.S. citizenship
  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    "separate but equal" ; constitutionality of racial segregation
  • Shelley v. Kraemer

    struck down racially restrictive housing
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    racial segregation in public schools
  • Gideon v. Wainwright

    states are required to provide defendants with an attorney in criminal cases
  • Miranda v. Arizona

    restricts prosecutors to use statements made in response to interrogation as evidence in trial
  • Loving v. Virginia

    anti-miscegenation statutes in Virginia found as unconstitutional
  • Roe v. Wade

    fundamental right of abortion
  • Grutter v. Bollinger

    affirmative action in student admissions
  • Obergefell v. Hodges

    fundamental right to marry is guaranteed by same-sex couples