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African Americans - 3/5 Compromise
The Three-Fifths Compromise was a compromise reached among state delegates during the 1787 United States Constitutional. The compromise solution was to count three out of every five slaves as a person for this purpose. -
African Americans - 24th Amendment
The right of citizens to vote which cannot be denied due to failure to pay any form of poll taxes -
African Americans - 13th Amendment
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 -
Women - Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions is signed
It is a document, outlining the rights that American women should be entitled to as citizens, that emerged from the Seneca Falls Convention in New York in July 1848. ... It argues that women are oppressed by the government and the patriarchal society of which they are a part of. -
African Americans - Scott v. Sandford
Decision: “a negro, whose ancestors were imported into [the U.S.], and sold as slaves,” whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen -
African Americans - Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. -
African Americans - 14th Amendment
Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States -
African Americans - 15th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. -
African Americans - Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal" -
African Americans - Founding of the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans -
Women - 19th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. -
African Americans - Smith v. Allwright
Supreme Court case that ruled it was unconstitutional for the state to delegate its authority over elections to the Democratic Party in order to allow discrimination to be practiced. -
African Americans - Truman ordered the desegregation of armed forces(Executive Order 9981)
Executive Order 9981 is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces. -
Hispanic Americans - Hernandez v. Texas
A Supreme Court that ruled that Mexican Americans and all other nationality groups in the United States had equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. -
African Americans - Brown v. Board
A Supreme Court case that ruled that American state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. -
African Americans - Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. -
African Americans - Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil rights and U.S. labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
Hispanic Americans - Cesar Chavez publicized the plight of migrant workers
A strike organized by Cesar Chavez against all California table grapes in order to draw attention to the plight of farm workers. -
Women - National Organization of Women organized
The National Organization for Women is an American feminist organization founded in 1966. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. -
African Americans - Jones v. Mayer
Supreme Court case, which held that Congress could regulate the sale of private property to prevent racial discrimination -
Hispanic Americans - Founding of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund(MALDEF)
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is a national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States. -
Sexual Orientation - Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. -
Women - Reed vs. Reed
It was an Equal Protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court ruled that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. -
Women - ERA passed by Congress
First proposed by the National Woman's political party in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment was to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. -
Women - Title IX
Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 is a federal law that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." -
Hispanic Americans - Multi-member electoral districts in Texas outlawed(White v. Regester)
In 1973, a case from Texas went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that MMDs could not be used to disenfranchise racial groups. -
Women - Congress opens all military service academies to women
In 1980, the first women graduated from the service academies as a result of Public Law 94-106 signed by President Gerald Ford on Oct. 7, 1975. The law passed the House by a vote of 303 to 96 and the Senate by voice vote after divisive argument within Congress, resistance from the Department of Defense and legal action initiated by women to challenge their exclusion. -
Women - Craig vs. Boren
A Supreme Court case and was the first case in which a majority of the United States Supreme Court determined that statutory or administrative sex classifications were subject to intermediate scrutiny under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. -
Women - Dothard v. Rawlinson
Supreme Court case which was the first United States Supreme Court case which the bona fide occupational qualifications defense was used. -
Women - ERA introduced into Congress
The amendment was introduced in Congress for the first time in 1921 and has prompted conversations about the meaning of legal equality for women and men ever since -
Hispanic Americans - Plyer v. Doe
A Supreme Court case in which the Supreme Court of the United States struck down both a state statute denying funding for education to undocumented immigrant children in the United States. It found that any state restriction imposed on the rights afforded to children based on their immigration status must be examined under an intermediate scrutiny standard to determine whether it furthers a "substantial" government interest. -
Women - Civil Rights and Women Equity in Employment Act
Amends the Revised Statutes of the United States to declare that all persons within U.S. jurisdiction shall have the same right to take certain actions, including making and enforcing contracts, as is enjoyed by male citizens. -
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Sexual Orientation - "Don't Ask Don't Tell"
"Don't ask, don't tell" was the official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration on February 28, 1994, when Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 issued on December 21, 1993, took effect, lasting until September 20, 2011. -
Sexual Orientation - Massachusetts legalizes same sex marriage
The result of a ruling in Supreme Court case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts Constitution to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry. -
Sexual Orientation - United States v. Windsor
A Supreme Court case in which the United States Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to opposite-sex unions, is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. -
Sexual Orientation - Obergfell v. Hodges
A Supreme Court case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. -
Sexual Orientation - Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act was a United States federal law that, prior to being ruled unconstitutional, defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman, and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. -
Sexual Orientation - Masterpiece Cake shop v. Colorado
A case in the Supreme Court of the United States that dealt with whether owners of public accommodations can refuse certain services based on the First Amendment claims of free speech and free exercise of religion, and therefore be granted an exemption from laws ensuring non-discrimination in public accommodation
