-
13th Amendment
Abolished slavery. Freed the slaves and got rid of slavery in the United States. -
14th Amendment
Rights of citizenship, due process of law, and equal protection of the law. The 14th amendment has become one of the most used amendments in court to date regarding the equal protection clause. -
15th Amendment
Gave African American men the right to vote. Gave former slaves the ability to participate in their government. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Homer Plessy, a man who was ⅛ African American, sued John Ferguson, after he was told that he would need to move to a train car for colored people. The Supreme Court made a landmark decision with the idea of “separate, but equal.” The ruling ultimately made racial segregation legal. -
19th Amendment
Gave women the right to vote. Allowed for women to take part in their government and be seen as an equal to males. -
Executive Order 9981
Passed by President Truman, the order ended discrimination in the U.S. military. This allowed integration of armed forces for the first time during the Korean War. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This court case between Oliver Brown, a young African American student, and the Board of Education Of Topeka Kansas resulted in the Supreme Court ending segregation in public schools. Overall, the case forced public schools to integrate. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
After Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery after refusing to give up her seat in the front of the bus for a white passenger, the boycott began. African Americans and others who supported the movement refused to ride the buses causing a significant loss in money for the public transit system. The year long boycott resulted in Montgomery desegregated their buses. -
Little Rock Nine
Group of African American highschoolers who fought back against racial segregation in the public highschools in Little Rock, Arkansas during 1957 and 1958. It was the first time Little Rock had seen integrated schools and the Little Rock 9 had to fight back against physical and verbal abuse of their white peers. A member of the Little Rock 9 became the first African American to graduate Little Rock Central High School. -
Chicano Mural Movement
Throughout the 1960s, artists painted murals on the sides of buildings and other places to show Mexican American culture. The murals worked to bring attention to the inequality faced by Mexican Americans. -
Greensboro, NC Sit-ins
A group of young, African American, students decided to sit at the segregated lunch counters at a Woolworth in Greensboro as a sign of protest. This act of peaceful protest quickly spread throughout the country, with the protesters being meant with violence from angry whites. However, these protests led to the integration of lunch counters throughout the south, starting with the Greensboro Woolworth’s by July 1960. -
Freedom Riders
During 1961, several civil rights activists took interstate buses going to extremely segregated areas in the south where they were met with violence and protests from whites. Their goal was to enforce the ruling of integrated buses. The protests resulted in the desegregation of interstate buses. -
Cesar Chavez
Chavez was a civil rights leader for Hispanic workers, especially farmers, born in 1927. He created the United Farm Workers organization in 1962 along with Dolores Huerta. The organization’s goals were to improve the working conditions, treatment and salary of farmers. -
24th Amendment
This amendment made any sort of poll tax illegal. Even though African American males had the right to vote, many voting booths forced them to pay a tax to vote. It prevented discrimination when voting and allowed everyone to vote equally. -
March from Selma, Alabama
This protest, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, around a 50 mile walk. Around 25,000 people participated in the march. The protest resulted in the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which made racial discrimination in voting illegal. -
Black Panther
African American political group founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in California. Their goals were to protect African Americans from police brutality and help provide things such as transportation, education and legal aid. The Black Panthers was considered a communist group by the government and the government worked to get rid of the group. -
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Movement founded in Minnesota in 1968 that worked to help Native Americans who were forced to leave their reservations due to the government. Works today to help financial needs, legal rights, traditional culture and restoration of the land of native Americans. -
MLK Assassination
On April 4, 1968 in a motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray. Ray was a white man who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in jail, meaning he would never be able to get parole. Kingś death lead to national outcrys. -
Sandra Day O'Connor appointed to the Supreme Court
O’Connor was appointed as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1981. She was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. -
Sonia Sotomayor appointed to the Supreme Court
Sotomayor was appointed as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by President Obama in 2009. She was the first Hispanic and Latina Justice to serve on the Supreme Court.
