Civil Rights Timeline

Dred Scott v. Sandford

1857

Dred Scott and wife, who were enslaved, sued for freedom because they lived in a territory where slavery was banned. Supreme court ruled that enslaved Americans weren't citizens of the U.S. therefore don't get protection from government.

13th amendment

1865

This amendment was passed after the civil war. It made slavery illegal in all states. It was ratified on December 6th, 1865.

Jim Crow Era

1865

Jim Crow laws were made right after the thirteenth amendment that abolished slavery. These were made to basically keep blacks in slavery but indirectly. They called these black codes and they took blacks voting rights, education, and other opportunities away from them.

14th amendment

1868

This amendment was passed on June 8th, 1866 but wasn't ratified until two years later on July 9th, 1868. This amendment granted citizenship to everyone born or naturalized in the U.S., including the formerly enslaved. It explains how no state can take life, liberty, or pursuit from any person without due process of law.

15th amendment

1870

This amendment was passed on February 26th, 1869 but wasn't ratified until February 3rd, 1870. This amendment gave African American men the right to vote. This infuriated many women's rights activists because this protection of racial discrimination in voting only applied to men.

Plessy V. Ferguson

1896

plessy v. Ferguson, a significant 1896 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, upheld the "separate but equal" principle's justification for racial segregation. The incident that gave rise to the case occurred in 1892 when Homer Plessy, an African American train passenger, refused to sit in a car designated for Black people.

19th amendment

1920

This amendment was passed on June 4th, 1919 but wasn't ratified until August 18th, 1920. This amendment gave American women the right to vote. This ensured that citizens could no longer be denied the right to vote because of their sex.

Motor Voter Act

1933

Some voter registration criteria with regard to elections for federal offices are outlined in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. States must provide voter registration options at State motor vehicle offices, according to Section 5 of the NVRA. This sound to raise voter registration in states.

Brown v. Board of Education

1954

The Supreme Court declared racial segregation of students in public schools to be unconstitutional. It overturned the "separate but equal" tenet established in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case and marked the end of officially sanctioned racial segregation in American schools.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

1964

This act prohibited discrimination against race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This act was presented by president Kennedy in a speech after Birmingham police reacted to a peaceful desegregation in a bad way.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

1965

This act prohibits racial discrimination in voting. They passed this to enforce the 15th amendment because there was still some racial discrimination in voting going on.

Affirmative Action

1965

Affirmative action is a collection of policies intended to end illegal discrimination against candidates, address the effects of such discrimination in the past, and foresee future instances of such discrimination. Candidates can be looking for professional employment or admittance to a school of higher learning.

Reed v. Reed

1971

The Supreme Court used the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment for the first time in history to invalidate a legislation that discriminated against women. Claimed that dissimilar treatment between men and women is unconstitutional.

Equal Rights Amendment

1972

The equal rights amendment guaranteed equal rights of all citizens regardless of sex. It was failed to be ratified though.

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

1978

In the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case, the Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that a university's admissions requirements that used race as a specific and exclusive basis for an admission decision were unconstitutional. They said this was true under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Bowers v Hardwick

1986

In Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), the U.S. Supreme Court debated whether someone had a constitutional right to have homosexual relations. In this instance, Georgia approved a law making both oral and anal intercourse illegal.

Americans with Disabilities Act

1990

The Americans with Disabilities Act forbids discrimination against anyone who have a disability in a number of settings, including employment, public places, etc. This act makes it possible for americans with disabilities to participate in everyday activities in life.

Lawrence v Texas

2003

In the historic case of Lawrence v. Texas, the United States Supreme Court of the United States, by a vote of 6-3, struck down the sodomy laws that were in place all over the country. This legalized same-sex relationships in every State and US territory.

Obergefell v Hodges

2015

The case was heard on April 28, 2015. On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that the 14th Amendment requires all states to license marriages between same-sex couples and to recognize all marriages that were lawfully performed out of state.