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13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified on 12/06/1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States except in the case of punishment. The institution of slavery was thereby eradicated, but it did not grant freed African Americans all the same right as already free white citizens. -
14th Amendment
Gave anyone who was born or naturalised in the United States full citizenship rights and gave all citizens equal protection under the law. It resolved the question of African American citizenship rights, granting them full rights under the law. During the decades after its adoption into the Constitution, many African American civil rights advocates attempted to invoke the equal protection clause to claim that racial segregation was prohibiting their equal protection. -
15th Amendment
Gave all citizens the right to vote regardless of race or if they had previously been slaves. Although this still did not grant voting rights to women of any race, this allowed African American men the right to vote, allowing them to have a say in government. Despite this amendment, various discriminatory practices continued to be used to prevent African Americans from voting, including literacy tests to try to prevent former slaves, who wouldn't have learned how to read, from voting. -
Poll Taxes
Poll taxes were implemented following the Reconstruction period and the 15th Amendment. They served as a discriminatory practice to prevent African Americans from exercising their voting amendment. Grandfather clauses prevented the same discrimination from applying to white people. The 24th Amendment legally banned the poll tax for the federal government but said nothing about state elections. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 officially abolished poll taxes. -
Literacy Tests
Literacy tests were another discriminatory voting practice implemented after the Reconstruction period. Since former slaves wouldn't have been taught how to read they wouldn't have passed the literacy tests and wouldn't have been able to vote, thereby suppresing the African American political voice. The literacy tests were in effect until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished them. -
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow era lasted roughly from the late 1877 following the end of the Reconstruction period to about 1965 with the beginning of the civil rights movement. Essentially the Jim Crow Era was institutionalized racism, promoting the disenfranchisement and segregation of African Americans through the use of white primaries, poll taxes, literacy tests, and general intimidation among other tactics along with other policies that favor white citizens such as the Grandfather Clause. -
DeJure/DeFacto Segregation
De Facto segregation has not been implemented by law and is merely established by neighborhoods, schools, etc or something that simply happens because of racial and cultural barriers. Example: Because of the rise of predominately black neighborhoods, there are schools that are predominately black or segregated. De Jure segregation exists because it has been mandated by local law and legislation. Example: Jim Crow laws set up in the South made is required by law to segregate. -
19th Amendment
The nineteenth amendment to the Constitution granted women the right to vote, a right known as women's suffrage. Although it went into effect in 1920, Mississippi was the final state to ratify it in 1984. It came on the tidal waves of the women's rights movement, which began in earnest following the Seneca Falls Convention. -
Korematsu v. United States
The Presidential Executive Order 9066 gave the military authority to exclude citizens of Japanese ancestry from select areas. Korematsu remained in San Leandro, California and violated Civilian Exclusion Order No.34 of the U.S. Army. Did the President and Congress go beyond their war powers? The court decided that the need to protect against espionage outweighed Korematsu’s rights and they sided with the government. -
Sweatt v. Painter
Sweatt, a black man, applied to the University of Texas Law School and was rejected because state law restricted access to the university to whites. When Sweatt asked to be admitted, the university attempted to provide separate but equal facilities for black law students. Did this violate the Equal Protection Clause? The court decided that the separate facility would have been grossly unequal and required that Sweatt be admitted to the university. -
Brown v. Board of Education
African American minors had been denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public education to be segregated by race. Plessy v Ferguson established “separate but equal” precedent. Does the segregation of public education based solely on race violate the Equal Protection Clause? The court ruled that “separate but equal” facilities are inherently unequal and violate the protections of the Equal Protection Clause. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white person and she was arrested. Four days later, on December 5, 1955, around 40,000 African Americans boycotted the entire city bus system, walking to their destinations until June 5, 1965 when transportation segregation was ruled unconstitutional by a Montgomery federal court. It was one of the largest protests of the civil rights movement and put Martin Luther King Jr. in the spotlight. -
JFK Address to the Nation on Civil Rights
Following the bombing of Martin Luther King Jr's house on May 12, 1963, this speech was delivered on television and radio on June 11, 1963. During this speech, President Kennedy addressed the nation and explained the education, economic, and general moral issues with racial discrimination. He also proposed legislation that would later become the Civil Rights Act of 1964 -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment said that it was the right of citizens to vote in any primary election for President or Vice President and that it could not be taken away based on a citizen's ability to pay a poll tax. Essentially, the amendment made poll taxes illegal. This allowed more African Americans who had previously been prevented by being unable to pay the poll tax the ability to vote in primary elections. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned segregation in public places and banned discrimination based on race in employment. It is considered one of the major pieces of legislation during the civil rights movement. It was first proposed by President Kennedy, but it wasn't signed into law until Lyndon B. Johnson became President. Over the next few years, Congress expanded on the act, adding pieces such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and generally increasing the rights of African Americans. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. It aimed to end Jim Crow era restrictions on African American voting rights granted to them by the Fifteenth Amendments. Discriminatory practices such as literacy tests were ended and the Attorney General was given the go ahead to investigate poll taxes. In the aftermath of this act, African American political seating in Congress significantly increased and voter turnout in the South rose. -
Robert Kennedy Speech in Indianapolis upon Death of MLK
Shortly after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy gave a speech in Indianapolis. He informed the crowd of King's assassination and gave a few brief, impassioned remarks on the subject of peace and avoiding violence and divisiveness. Perhaps in response to his speech, Indianapolis remained calm in the night after King's death, in stark contrast to the riots taking place in other cities around the country. -
Affirmative Action
Intended to provide equal employment opportunities for members of minority groups and women. Supporters say graduates receive better jobs, the amount of minority applications to universities has doubled or tripled, and affirmative action policies are necessary in order to compensate for centuries of racial oppression. Critics say that it’s outdated, it may be unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause, affirmative action lowers standards, and only amplifies racial prejudice. -
Reed v. Reed
Idaho’s Probate Code specified that “males must be preferred to females” in appointing administrators of estates. Does this Probate Code violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? The court decided that the law’s dissimilar treatment of men and women was unconstitutional. This case plays a role in women’s rights. -
Equal Rights Amendment
States that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply equally to all persons regardless of their sex. Relates to the 19th Amendment which allowed women to vote in 1920. Only 36 states have ratified the ERA as of now. -
Title IX
Part of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance. This means that if a school wants Federal funding, they must treat male and female students equally. Title IX applies to approximately 16,500 local school districts, 7,000 postsecondary schools, charter schools, libraries, and museums. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Bakke was rejected at the University of California but he had better GPA and test scores of the people who were accepted because of spots reserved for minorities. Did the University of California violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause? The court decided that yes, any racial quota system violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ordered that the school admit Bakke. Affirmative Action today is more strict and protects minorities. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Louisiana required that there be separate railway cars for blacks and whites. Plessy took a seat in the whites-only section and was arrested. Is Louisiana’s law a violation of the Equal Protection Clause? The court decided that the state law is within constitutional boundaries because the trains were separate but equal. This decision was later overturned by the Brown v. Board of Education decision. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Hardwick was caught by police engaging in consensual homosexual sodomy with another adult and was arrested and charged with violating a Georgia statute. Does the Constitution protect homosexual sodomy, thereby invalidating the laws of many states. The court decided that no, homosexual sodomy was not protected by the constitution and homosexuality continued to be illegal in many states. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
Prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life including jobs, schools, transportation, and all places open to the public. This means that every place for public use has to be wheelchair accessible and jobs cannot discriminate against someone who has a disability of any kind. -
Lawrence v. Texas
John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were caught engaging in private, consensual sexual acts by police and were both arrested. Texas has a “Homosexual Conduct” law, which criminalizes sexual intimacy by same-sex couples. Does this violate the Fourteenth Amendment? The court decided that Texas’s law violated the Due Process Clause and sided with Lawrence. This case overturned the decision from Bowers v Hardwick when the court decided that there was no constitutional protection for acts of sodomy. -
Fisher v. Texas
The University of Texas considers race as a factor in admission if the applicant is not in the top ten percent of his or her class. Fisher was not in the top ten percent and was denied admission and claimed that the University’s use of race as a consideration was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court sided with the University. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Same-sex couples sued states on the constitutionality of those states’ bans on same-sex marriage. Plaintiffs claimed that the bans violated the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause. Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? The court ruled that, yes, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees the right to marry as one of the fundamental liberties it protects.
