Civil Rights Timeline

  • Period: to

    Reconstruction Era

    -During this congress passed and enforced laws to promote civil and political rights for African Americans
    -The 13/14/15 A were passed during this time
    -Many African Americans took up these rights, responsibilities, and new opportunities
    -many served in elected public offices (government)
  • Scott V Standford

    -Dred Scott was a slave.
    -His owner Dr. Johnson Sanford moved to Wisconsin where slavery is banned.
    -Dred Scott was able to hire himself out of work and tried to buy his freedom, but Sanford refused.
    -The supreme court ruled against Scott.
    -They decided that Americans of African descent, free or not, were not able to sue in federal courts.
    -They also decided that slaves were considered property which is protected under the fifth amendment.
  • 13 Amendament

    -Ended/ Abolished slavery
    -Part of the reconstruction efforts
  • 14 Amendament

    -States must provide due process
    -Guaranteed African Americans the rights of American citizenship
  • 15 Amendament

    Guaranteed African-American men the right to vote (women couldn't vote yet)
  • Period: to

    Jim Crow Era

    discrimination laws against African Americans:
    -signs appeared to enforce racial discrimination
    -when a marriage between a white party and the other party that is ⅛ African American, it was void
    African Americans couldn't:
    -play with white people
    -go to the same school as white people
    -live in some neighborhoods
  • Plessy V Ferguson

    -Homer Plessy entered white only part of a train and refuse to leave to protest Jim Crow laws
    -The Supreme Court decided segregation was ok if it was "separate but equal" (Plessy Standard)
  • 19th Amendament

    -Allowed women to vote
    -Sex could not stop someone from voting
  • George Stinney Case

    -14-year-old boy charged with murder
    -due process violated
    -is executed
  • Brown V Board

    -Challenged segregated schools and the "separate but equal" doctrine
    - Had to go past the tangible factors
    - It made the African American Students feel inferior
    - Decided that schools couldn't be segregated
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    -Because the South continued to have segregation/ Jim Crow laws
    -The federal government pulled funding to those states to enforce it
    -It was the most comprehensive civil rights legislation enacted by congress
    -it was made to combat racial discrimination
    -removed Jim Crow/segregation laws
    -it assured equal education, public facilities, housing, hiring/jobs
    -strengthen African American voting rights, but it was weak and people went around it
  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    -To stop states from going around the 15 Amendment with literacy tests, poll taxes...
    -Used pre-clearance meaning that states with a history of circumventing the 15 Amendment had to run new voting laws by the federal government before they are put in effect