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African American: 3/5 compromise
Three-fifths compromise refers to a constitutional convention concluded in Philadelphia that allowed the government to count slaves as partial people, settling the dispute over counting slaves. -
Women: Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions is signed
Described women’s grievances and demands. Written primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, it called on women to fight for their Constitutionally guaranteed right to equality as U.S. citizens. Next came a list of 11 resolutions, which demanded women be regarded as men’s equal. -
African Americans: Scott v. Sandford
Decision declared the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. -
African Americans: 13th amendment
Abolished slavery or involuntary servitude -
African Americans: 14th Amendment
The 14th amendment gave citizenship to all people born in the US including slaves who were recently freed. -
African Americans: 15th amendment
Gave African American men the right to vote. -
African American: Plessy v. Ferguson
Landmark case which upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation as long as those segregated facilities are equal in quality. -
African Americans: Founding of the NAACP
The NAACP was a civil rights organization. Formed by black and white activists in response to the ongoing violence against the African Americans in the country. -
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. -
Women: ERA introduced into Congress
Prompted conversations about the meaning of legal equality for women and men ever since. -
African Americans: Smith v. Allwright
Landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court with regard to voting rights and, by extension, racial desegregation. -
African Americans: Truman orders the desegregation of armed forces
An executive order which abolished discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin -
Hispanic Americans: Hernandez v. Texas
In a unanimous ruling, the court held 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 of Education
landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court 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
Nine black students were enrolled at an all-white school. -
African Americans: 24th amendment
Outlawed poll taxing as a voting requirement in federal elections. -
African Americans: Civil Rights Act of 1964
Ended segregation in public places as when as banning employment discrimination on race, sex, religion, and national origin. -
Hispanic Americans: cesar chavez publicizes the plight of migrant workers
Brought his struggle into the light of the nation. Chavez was a dominant force when it came to bringing the plight of the migrant farm workers into the public's view. -
Hispanic Americans: Multi-member electoral districts in Texas outlawed
To fight vote dilution, these districts are drawn so that a majority of the voting age population are minorities. -
African Americans: Voting Rights Act of 1965
Expanded the 14th and 15th amendments by banning racial discrimination in voting practices. -
Women: National Organization of Women organized
NOW was created in order to mobilize women, give women's rights advocates the power to put pressure on employers and the government, and to promote full equality of the sexes. It hoped to increase the number of women attending colleges and graduate schools, employed in professional jobs instead of domestic or secretarial work, and appointed to federal offices. -
Hispanic Americans: Founding of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)
A national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States. -
African Americans: Jones v. Mayer
Allowed Congress to regulate the sale of private property to prevent racial discrimination. -
Sexual Orientation: Stonewall riots
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 v. Reed
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: Title IX
Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. -
Women: Congress opens all military service academies to women
President Ford, signed Public Law 94-106 requiring the services to open the hallowed halls of West Point, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy to women -
Women: Craig v. Boren
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
appealed to the Supreme Court claiming that sex, height and weight requirements were valid occupational qualifications given the nature of the job. The Court ruled 8-1 that the height and weight restrictions were discriminatory, and that the employer had not proven that the height and weight standards were necessary for effective job performance. -
Women: ERA passed by Congress
the ERA was reintroduced in 1982
This "three-state strategy" is based on the fact that the original deadline was not part of the amendment's text, but only the Congressional instructions. -
Hispanic Americans: Plyer v. Doe
Court 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's equity in Employment Act
Amends the Civil Rights Act 1964 and contains a Glass Ceiling Act of 1991 and a Government Employee Rights Act of 1991. Inter alia, provides for enlarged penalties for employment discrimination and sexual harassment. -
Sexual Orientation: "Don't Ask Don't Tell"
The official United States policy on military service by gays, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration.The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. -
Sexual Orientation: Defense of Marriage Act
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: Massachusetts legalizes same sex marriage
In the Supreme Court ruling in 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
landmark civil rights 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, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. -
Sexual Orientation: Obergfell v. Hodges
Landmark civil rights 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: Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado
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. Like refusing to provide creative services, such as making a wedding cake for the marriage of a gay couple, on the basis of the owner's religious beliefs
