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Dred Scott vs. Sandford
Decision of the Supreme Court denying African Americans the right to citizenship was known as the Dred vs. Sandford case. It ensured that Africans weren't allowed the basic rights of the constitution that other citizens had. -
13th Amendment
On December 6, 1865, the Congress finally decided to create the 13th amendment which abolished slavery in the United States. This amendment was the first amendment to be passed during the reconstruction era. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation didn't end slavery for good, but this amendment did. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment, stating that all persons should be granted citizenship and be protected equally under laws, was passed by the senate in 1866 and ratified two years later in 1868. This amendment established the definition of the and citizenship in the US. Many people see this as a rebirth of democracy. -
15th Amendment
The 15th amendment allowed African American men to vote. It stated that the right to vote shouldn't be denied by "race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Almost immediately after this amendment was passed, African American men were eager to vote. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
A significant 1896 case by the U.S. Supreme Court known as Plessy v. Ferguson established racial segregation as constitutional under the "separate but equal" principle. Many of these rulings supported or even mandated Jim Crow policies in Southern states. They restored to whites their superiority over blacks, which had been taken away by the 13th Amendment following the Civil War. The final step in overturning the Reconstruction-era regulations was Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Jim Crow Era (late 1800s-early 1900s)
Jim Crow was a made up character on show. It was acted by a white actor who painted his face with black paint. In the show he exaggerated the roles to present a stereotypical black character. Jim Crow was being used to describe laws and customs that oppressed African Americans. It lead to Jim Crow laws which legalized racial segregation. -
19th Amendment
Ratified by Congress in 1920 was the right to allow women to vote, the nineteenth amendment. It allowed all American women to vote. The 1848 Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention was the start to women's rights movement. -
Brown v. Board of Education
In the famous 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the court ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. One of the pillars of the civil rights movement was Brown v. Board of Education, which established establish a standard that "separate but equal" education and other services weren't equal at all. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act ended discrimination against race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It ended segregation in public places and ended employment discrimination. It was proposed by president John F. Kennedy. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
After the 15th Amendment, African Americans weren't freely able to vote even though the amendment was supposed to guarantee their voting rights. This act signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, was made to ensure all Africans can have the right to vote fairly. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is a word used to describe a policy that aims to give underrepresented groups in our society more chances in the job and in education. Affirmative action emphasizes groups with historically low representation in positions of authority, the workforce, and academia. It is frequently viewed as a way to combat discrimination against specific populations. -
Reed v. Reed
The Supreme Court of the United States made history in Reed v. Reed (1971).It declared that naming estate administrators in a fashion that is biased against one gender or another is illegal. The Supreme Court declared in Reed v. Reed that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution banned discrimination based on sex for the first time. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment ensured that all American citizens should have equal rights. It was aimed to erase the discrimination towards women. While many opposed the amendment, it finally was passed in 1972. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
In the case 1978, the question of whether limiting educational possibilities for white people The Supreme Court of the United States issued a precedent-setting judgement in the case. It supported affirmative action and permitted race to be one of many criteria used in college admissions. The University of California, reserved 16 out of 100 places for minority students, but the court concluded restrictions were unconstitutional. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
The Supreme Court came to the conclusion that the Constitution does not guarantee gay adults' right to private, voluntary homosexual acts. Initially, the Supreme Court argued that the fundamental "right to privacy," which is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution against the states, did not give "homosexuals the freedom to engage in sodomy." The Court ruled that even though it was intended to "legislate" morals, rejecting Hardwick's argument -
The Americans with Disabilities Act
On July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was ratified. Making American society more welcoming to those with disabilities is its ultimate purpose. The ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) was enacted in 2008. Its goal is to enlarge the definition of disability, which has been limited by rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court. -
Motor Voter Act
The National Voter Registration Act, sometimes known as the "Motor Voter Act," enables Americans to sign up to vote when they receive a driver's license. The law also mandates that states establish mail-in registration forms and accept national registration forms created by the Federal Elections Commission in an effort to increase the number of Americans who register to vote. More than 11 million new voters registered throughout the first full year after the adoption. -
Lawrence v. Texas
a Texas state law that made certain intimate sex acts between consenting adults of the same sex illegal was unconstitutional. This rendered invalid the sodomy statutes in a dozen other states. It reversed the court's decision in Bowers v. Hardwick. Conservatives denounced the judgement as evidence of the nation's moral decline, while gay rights organizations welcomed it as a watershed moment in the history of civil rights in the United States. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
In order to challenge the constitutionality of their states' bans on same-sex marriage, groups of same-sex couples filed lawsuits against the appropriate state agencies. In each case, the plaintiffs claimed that the state laws were in violation of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Additionally, one plaintiff organization asserted rights under the Civil Rights Act.
