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Dred Scott v. Sandford
In April of 1846, After their owner's death, Dred Scott and his wife filed a local lawsuit hoping to be granted their freedom from the state of Missouri, mainly upon the statute that they could not be re-enslaved after having lived in free states. Their cases were accepted and then rebuked, and ownership was transferred over to John Sanford, their previous owner's brother-in-law. After losing in Missouri's court, Scott appealed to SCOTUS but officially lost his case in 1857. -
The 13th Amendment
During the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, the 13th amendment is passed, which officially outlaws slavery as an institution in the US after the Emancipation Proclamation's failure to do so. -
The 14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all citizens born in the United States and declared equal protection under the law for all citizens. -
The 15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment was ratified as protection of voting rights for all men regardless of color, race, or previous enslavement during Reconstruction for equal suffrage. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
In 1892 a black man named Homer Plessy refused to sit in the train car for black people after a Louisiana law was passed segregating train cars. Plessy was arrested and SCOTUS ruled that a simple distinction between the races was legal. This idea of "separate but equal" would be the basis of many Jim Crow Laws and discrimination in many states. -
Jim Crow Era
Jim Crow was a character played by a white actor who would do blackface, wear dirty clothes, and jump around while singing a song that was "inspired" by the song and dance he'd seen from enslaved black people in the south. After the abolition of slavery, black codes were no longer legal, so they were transformed into a similar system that became known as Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow laws denied African-Americans the right to vote, hold a job, get an education, and more for about a century. -
The Nineteenth Amendment
The nineteenth amendment was a major achievement in the women's rights movement that first grew in the mid-1800s and again in the early 20th century. The Seneca Falls Convention occurred in 1848 led by women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucrecia Mott, At the time it was radical to request total suffrage, but some did. But their efforts were overshadowed by the Civil War until they emerged again in the 1900s with the National American Woman Suffrage Association who secured the right to vote. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The ruling in Plessy v Ferguson allowed for a lot of discrimination and segregation that prevented the progression of the Civil Rights Movement for many years. Schools were separated, but not equal. Black students often had to attend far away schools with far fewer resources in every way. Oliver Brown was told that his daughter could not attend the close white school, and so they took it to court, eventually reaching SCOTUS, which unanimously overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
First proposed by President John F. Kennedy during the Civil Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The Act stated that segregation in public places was illegal and additionally that discrimination in the workplace or in employment consideration was also banned. Kennedy first proposed this idea because of violent police brutality against protestors in the south. He declared that the US "will not be free until all of its citizens are free." -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action was introduced during the Lyndon B Johnson administration as a way to further dismantle Jim Crow and other discriminatory laws and create a more even playing field for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. It has continued to consider factors like race, gender, disability, ethnicity, etc to give equal opportunity to marginalized groups like these, despite being rather controversial for being labeled "reverse discrimination" by more conservative politicians. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The 15th amendment was established during Reconstruction to grant equal voting rights to all men, regardless of race. In an effort to enforce this, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was introduced and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This Act was meant to derail barriers to voting that Black people were subject to, from literacy tests to brutal violence. The Voting Rights Act was a huge step forward in Civil Rights. -
The Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced National Woman's Political Party in 1923, just 3 years following the ratification of the 19th amendment. The new amendment essentially stated that all discrimination on the basis of sex would be illegal. But unfortunately, this law didn't reach Congress until the 60s during a revival in the Feminist Movement. The Amendment was actually passed by Congress but because of opposition from the conservative right, was never ratified by the states. -
Reed v. Reed
In 1971, 16-year-old Richard Reed committed suicide, leaving his parents to administer his small estate. At the time, it was automatically the father's responsibility and decision what to do with a minor's estate in these situations, even in cases where the mothers were equally as qualified. To combat this, Sally Reed took the issue to court with her attorney, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.SCOTUS ruled that, at least in cases concerning deceased children, the 14th amendment protected equal rights. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Allan Bakke was a white man who had twice unsuccessfully applied to medical school at the University of California. At the time the University of California was admitting 16% minorities in the name of affirmative action, but Bakke argued that his scores and other qualifications were higher than those of many minority students who had been admitted and that this was reverse discrimination. SCOTUS ruled that race could be considered, Bakke would be admitted, but that quotas were unconstitutional. -
Motor Voter Act
The purpose of expanding the pool of voters in the US is to create a healthier political setup that's more representative of the people's real wants and needs. After laws to ease registration for the elderly, handicapped, and military personnel were introduced, voter turnout was still low in the 1980s, so congress introduced the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. This mandates that every state offer registration procedures through driver's license applications, mail, and in person. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
While executing an unknowingly invalid warrant for Michael Hardwick's arrest, a police officer actually arrested Michael and his partner for sodomy. Hardwick argued that this violated his right to privacy and additionally argued about the chilling effects these anti-sodomy statutes had on heterosexual couples as well. SCOTUS ruled 5-4 that the antisodomy laws be upheld, although this decision would later be overturned in Lawrence v. Texas. -
Lawrence v. Texas
In 1998 police responded to a report of a "crazy" gunman in the house next door to the person who had made the call. The police found and arrested two men engaging in sexual intercourse. Both men were found guilty and fined $200. The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund argued that the Texas anti-sodomy laws be struck down and that the Bowers case be overturned. 6 Justices agreed and Lawrence won the case. -
The Americans with Disabilities Act
It became clear during civil rights movements in the 1900s that barriers faced by people with disabilities were perhaps because of discrimination and prejudice rather than the disabilities themselves. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 set the precedent for anti-discrimination among the disabled community that was later copied and expanded on by the ADA which guaranteed equal opportunity in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state, and local government services, etc. -
Obeergefell v. Hodges
In 2013 Jim Obergefell married his terminally ill partner who died soon after. When Obergell wanted his name recorded as the legal spouse on his husband's death certificate, the state of Ohio refused. Eventually, Obergefell's case made it to the Supreme Court where they ruled 5-4 that the due process and equal protection clauses of the fourteenth amendment made same-sex marriage legal nationally, forcing states to recognize all marriage licenses of same-sex couples, regardless of state laws.
