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13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment was created to abolish & end involunary servitude, expect as a punishment for a crime. In Congress, the senate passed the amendment in 1864. -
Jim Crow Laws 1865-1950's
Named after a popular minstrel song that stereotyped African Americans. It sanctioned racial oppression and segregation. -
14th Amendment
This is the reconstruction Amendment that addresses citizenship rights & equal protection of the laws, proposed in response to the issuses related to former slaves after the civil war. -
15th Amendment
Granted African American men the right to vote. Even though it was ratified in 1870, it was not fully realized for almost a century. -
literacy Tests
Government administering tests to prospectire voters purportedly to test their literacy in order to vote. The tests were intended to discriminate against African Americans. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson, was a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal. -
19th Amendment
Gave women the right to vote. After women won the right to vote, it became the centerpiece of the women's rights movement. -
Poll taxes
For many years states (five states as late as 1962) used the poll tax as a means of discouraging blacks from registering to vote by making the payment of the tax a prerequisite to the exercise of the right to vote. -
Equal Rights Amendment
Feminists of the late 1960's and early 1970's saw ratification of the amendment as the only clear cut way to eliminate all gender based discriminiation in the U.S. -
Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu challenged his conviction in the courts saying that Congress, the President, and the military authorities did not have the power to issue the relocation orders and that he was being discriminated against based on his race. The government argued that the evacuation was necessary to protect the country and the federal appeals court agreed. Korematsu appealed this decision and the case came before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court agreed with government and stated that the need to protect -
Sweatt V. Painter
A U.S. supreme court case that challenged the doctrine "seperate but equal" of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. The case was influential in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education four years later. -
Brown V. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
Bus Boycott
The Bus Boycott started after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the segregrated bus. After Ros Parks' court hearing, the Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to intergrate its bus system. -
24th Amendment
It forced states to allow voting. Poll taxes was used to keep low income families from voting, but the supreme court band it. -
Civil Rights Act
Ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. First proposed by President JFK. -
Voting Rights Act
Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson gave African Americans the right to vote, Considered the most far-reaching piece related to the Civil Rights legislation history. -
Kennedy's speech in Indianapolis upon the death of MLK
Robert Kennedy was their for a campaign rally to get the 1968 democratic nomination. When he got there he was told of the death of MLK Jr. They wanted to stop the campaign because it was in a bad part of Indianapolis, but he insisted on going. -
Reed V. Reed
Reed v. Reed, was an Equal Protection case in the United States in which the Supreme Court ruled that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. -
Regents of the University of California V. Bakke
This case was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Hardwick was criminalized for committing consensual sodomy in his own home. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, holding that Georgia's statute was unconstitutional. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
President George W. Bush signed the ADA in 1990. The ADA prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life -
Lawrence v. Texas
After getting a weapons disturbance Texas police entered Lawrence’s apartment and saw him and another man having sex and arrested them immediately. The state court ruled the statue was not constitutional under the due process clause of the 14th amendment. The bowers v Hardwick case, helped this case. -
Fisher v. Texas
A white female applied for an undergraduate admission to the University of Texas she was not in the top 10 percent of her class and her application got denied. Fisher filed suit against the university, claiming that the University of Texas' used race as a consideration for admission, and that violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Indiana's Gay Rights Court Battle
2011 the Indiana state legislature voted to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. However, with all the recent advancement in marriage equality - the recent decisions in Utah and Ohio in particular - the attitudes in Indiana are changing. Indiana is shaping up to be a battleground state in the fight for marriage equality, and even NOM's Brian Brown recognizes the importance of the shift, saying “What happens in Indiana is critical.”
