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13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment stated that slavery must be ended. It included the 3/5 Comprimise that made it so each African American vote equals 3/5 of a person. This amendment was the start of the Civil Rights Act and it eventually led African Americans to complete freedom. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment granted that all people who were born or naturalized in the United states were to be considered citizens. This was a big milestone because it allowed all African Americans and slaves to be considered a citizen. This meant that they got all equal protection under the law. Although slavery and citezenship was now granted, it was not an easy transition for anyone to go through. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote. Although this was a big part of history, a lot of southerners created tactics to stop the African Americans from voting. The most well known tactics were threats to them and their families along with literacy tests. -
Jim Crow
There are many stories about who exactly Jim Crow was, but there was another man who painted himself black and had shows of himslf making fun of this one black man. He called himself Jim Crow. This enactment started in 1876 and ended in the 1900's. Finally the Jim Crow laws passed stating that seperate is not equal. -
Poll Taxes
Poll Taxes were used as a tactic of keepiing African Americans from voting. In order for people to vote they had to pay a poll tax. Whites did this because they knew that blacks at that time would not be able to pay that tax, resulting in no vote for them. -
Literacy Tests
Literacy tests were another tactic that the whites used in order to keep blacks from voting. They knew that blacks could not afford an education and were mostly illiterate. That is why they chose literacy tests to keep blacks from voting. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
This decision was consider a “landmark decision in the jurisprudence of the United States. Homer Plessy created this idea of separate but equal. Separate but equal meant that people should be segregated in life, such as schools, bathrooms, and drinking fountains but each group that was segregated should have equal rights within their segregation. For example, if children will be segregated into a black and whites schools, each school should be equally as nice and have equal the mount of resource -
Sweatt v. Painter
A U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. This case involved a black man who was refused the admission to a law school. At that time no law school in Texas would admit blacks into their school but soon Heman Marion Sweatt was the exception. -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment was passed in 1919 and it allowed women the right to vote. The gain of suffrage for women was a huge deal! Women were looked at by pretty much being stupid in the day and they were not allowed to do half of the things men were able to do. African Americans got the right to vote before women gained their suffrage. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in 1923 and was passed in 1972. This Amendment finally allowed women to have equal rights. This was the first time that the constitution explicity states equal rights of women. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional? This went against the whole, separate but equal” thing. This declared that whites a blacks should be together, and this caused blacks and whites to begin using the same restroom and going to the same school. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks. This was a 13 month protest that led the supreme court to decide that segregation on the bus was not equal. What happened during this protest? Well African Americans refused to even use the busses at all. They would walk to whereever they needed to go and this led to integration. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was the first person to attend an all white elementary school in the south. She was only 6 years old. She was the only African American that passed a test that allowed her to go to a whire school. She was escorted into the school by marshals. As they made their way towards the school doors everyonewas yelling and throwing objects. Ruby spent that whole day in the principal's office. -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment banned poll tax on voting. By taxing people to vote, the whites were keeping the African Americans from being able to vote because they did not have much money. This simply invaded the right of equal oppurtunity. The 24th Amendment allowed more Africans Americans to actually be able to eevote. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was focused on equal employment oppurtunity. This was important because it didn't only target African Americans and males, but also women! It was originally put in this act to make law passers not pass the law, but it backfired on them because they passed it anyway. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made sure that all discriminatory voting practices that many southern states had out into play. This law had an immediate impact. The next day there were a quarter of a million more registered voters. -
R. Kennedy's Speech in Indy about MLK death
Robert's speech in Indianapolis was originally supposed to be a speech prepared for his campaign of the democratic party, but when he arrived he was informed that MLK had been assasinatied. When he arrived to the location of the speech, everyone was in an ubeat mood about his presence and Kennedy quickly found out that the audience was not informed about the death of MLK. -
Reed v. Reed
Was an Equal Protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court ruled that the administrators of the places cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. This stopped a lot of discrimination between sexes and gave women more power than they were used to. This meant women were in jobs that were not normally meant for women. -
Regents of the University of California v Bakke
This decision was made by the Supreme Court. It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. The full case name is Regents of the University of California v. Allan Bakke. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
This criminalized oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals. Basically this was against homosexuals completely. This disagreement was about if it was okay for homosexuals to have oral or anal sex behind closed doors and if it was okay. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
This was a law that was enacted by the U.S. congress. This allowed many with different people with disabilities to not be discriminated against. This mean that if you can perform the basic needs of a job you will be given a fair and equal chance of getting that job, even with a disability. -
Laurence v. Texas
This was a 6-3 ruling made by the United States Supreme Court. This case made same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory. This case completely turned the Bowers v Hardwick upside down disagreeing with what it said. The purpose of this case was to legalize the sexual activity giving more of a free will, which was the complete opposite turn out of Bowers v. Hardwick. -
Affirmative Action
This policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who are perceived to suffer from discrimination within a culture. The positive discrimination seemed to differ from one region to the next. Some countries, like India, use a quota system. This infers that certain jobs a vacancies should be put aside for members of a certain group. -
Fisher v. Texas
The Supreme Court's ruled in favor of Fisher and did not directly revisit the constitutionality of using race as a factor in college admissions. This made it so many different colleges started to accept blacks into their college. This was very rare in Texas colleges or even in Texas in general. -
Indiana Gay right court battle
So far the Indiana gay rights battle has continue. The right to marry was granted to gay people for a short amount of time. Thy brought up how not allowing the right or gays to marry was unconstitutional. Soon they changed their minds and they called it all off. Now the case will, in my prediction, work its way up to the Supreme Court. -
Korematsu v. United States
This concerned the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II regardless of citizenship. Many started to discriminte again japenese who were here illegally. They began to create laws that would discriminate aginst the Japenese.
