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Dred Scott vs. Sanford
legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6, 1857, ruled 7–2 that a slave, Dred Scott who had resided in a free state, and territory where slavery was prohibited, was not thereby entitled to his freedom. The decision added fuel to the sectional controversy and pushed the country closer to civil war. -
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Civil Rights Timeline
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13th Ammendment Ratified
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. This was a great leap into establishing equal rights for African Americans. -
14th Ammendment Ratified
this amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former slaves—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” -
15th Ammendment Ratified
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that 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." This was another huge step for African American rights but there was still a lot of progress that needed to be made. -
Poll Taxes
Many obstacles were set into place to prevent African Americans from voting after the 15th amendment was ratified. An example of this includes, citizens in some states having to pay a fee to vote in a national election. One of the first instances was in Georgia in 1877. -
White Primaries
White primaries were primary elections held in the Southern United States in which only white voters were permitted to participate.The white primary was one method used by white Democrats to disenfranchise most black and other minority voters. -
19th Ammendment Ratified
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote, prohibiting any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. -
24th Ammendment Ratified
This amendment outlawed the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86. This was a huge obstacle for a lot of people in the nation, not just African Americans, and thus was another stepping stone for equal Civil rights. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
this ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. This ended the use of Jim Crow laws as well; basically any type of discrimination was outlawed. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. A great deal of negotiation with president Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. was done for this to get passed, and it was one of MLK's greatest achievements.