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13th Amendment (ratified)
Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime -
14th Amendment
Addressed citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves -
Jim Crow Laws (1870s-1967s)
State and local laws that enforced strict segregation laws in Southern United States with “separate but equal” status for African Americans -
15th Amendment
Prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "Race, color, or previous condition of servitude". -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy attempted to sit in an all-white railroad car. After refusing to sit in the black railway carriage car, Plessy was arrested for violating an 1890 Louisiana statute that provided for segregated “separate but equal” railroad accommodations. Those using facilities not designated for their race were criminally liable under the statute. The Court ruled it was constitutional to enact legislation requiring persons of different races to use “separate but equal” segregated facilities. -
19th Amendment
The Nineteenth (19th) 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. It was ratified on August 18, 1920 after a long struggle known as the women’s suffrage movement. -
Equal Rights Amendment
After women's right to vote was guaranteed by the 19th Amendment in 1920, citizens proposed the Equal Rights Amendment as the next step in confirming "equal justice under law" for all citizens. The ERA was introduced into every Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. -
Korematsu v. United States
During World War II, Presidential Executive Order gave the military authority to exclude citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to national defense. Fred Korematsu, a Japanese man, remained in California and was arrested for violating Civilian Exclusion Order to leave his home and report to a relocation camp for Japanese Americans. Supreme Court sided with the government that the order was constitutional and held that the need to protect against espionage outweighed man's right -
Sweatt v. Painter
In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, a black man, applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School. State law restricted access to the university to whites, and Sweatt's application was automatically rejected because of his race. When Sweatt asked the state courts to order his admission, the university attempted to provide separate but equal facilities for black law students. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Eight-year-old girl Linda Brown had been denied permission to attend nearby segregated elementary school and instead assigned her to further schools of non-white students, therefore, her parents filed a lawsuit to force the school to admit her. Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The decision overturned the decision “Separate but Equal” standard of discrimination in 1896 court case Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. Blacks refused to ride the public buses and instead walked or hailed taxicabs. City officials declared it illegal so people began donating their own vehicles or began volunteering as drivers for those who needed to travel farther than they could walk. -
Affirmative Action
Introduced by President John F. Kennedy on passing Executive Order 10925, stating that "Take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." .This policy is an active effort that have improved the employment and educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women. -
24th Amendment
Gave people the right to vote regardless of their ability to pay poll taxes or any other tax -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
A federal law that authorized federal action against segregation in public accommodations, public facilities, and employment. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Passed in 1965, The Voting Rights Act (VRA) banned racial discrimination in voting practices by the federal government as well as by state and local governments. -
Literacy Tests
A literacy test in American was political history from the 1890s to the 1960s. It refers to practices of administering difficult and impractical tests to prospective voters purportedly to test their literacy in order to vote. -
Poll Taxes
A poll tax is a small tax assessed on an individual, usually during a voting process. Poll Taxes are very popular throughout the world. Though, poll taxes were outlawed in the US on August 27, 1962. -
Robert Kenedy Speech in Indianapolis upon death of MLK
Following the news of the death of MLK, Kennedy went ahead with and attended a rally at 17th and Broadway in the heart of Indianapolis's African-American ghetto. Kennedy addressed the crowd and fearing a riot, he gave one of the greatest speeches offering impassioned remarks for peace and sympathizing with the crowd to that of the death of his brother. -
Reed v. Reed
Ms. Reed, the mother to a deceased child, alleged a statute that prefers males over females in the administration of an estate to which they both have equal claims, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Court ruled that an Idaho law preferring men over women was unconstitutional and in violation of Equal Protection Clause of Fourteenth Amendment. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Allan Bakke, a white man, not admitted to a school because the spots were reserved for "qualified minorities". Supreme Court ruled that this violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Hardwick sued Bowers, the attorney general of Georgia, stating that Georgia law criminalizing homosexual sodomy between consenting adults was unconstitutional. Court upheld the Georgia law and kept homosexual sodomy illegal, ruled that the constitution did not protect the practice of sodomy between homosexuals, and that the states could ban sodomy. -
American with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The ADA is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress. Senator Tom Harkin authored the bill and was its chief sponsor in the Senate. It is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability, affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It also requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, imposes accessibility requirements on public accomodations -
Lawrence v. Texas
Overturned Bowers v. Hardwick case by challenging the law based on the right to privacy contained in the 14th amendment due process clause. In the 6-3 ruling, the Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by proxy, invalidated sodomy laws in the thirteen other states where they remained in existence, thereby making same-sex sexual activity legal in every state and territory of the nation. -
Fisher v.Texas
Abigail Fisher and Rachel Michalewicz were denied admission to the University of Texas, filed a lawsuit alleging that the University had discriminated against them on the basis of their race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The Court explained that lower court (the university's) use of race must meet a test known as “strict scrutiny.” Because it had not done so, the Court sent the case back for it to determine whether the university could make this showing. -
Love v. Pence
Joe Dunham filed federal lawsuit on behalf of four married same-sex couples seeking the freedom to marry or legal respect for their marriages in Indiana. On June 25, 2014, a federal judge dismisssed the case on the grounds that the Indiana Governor, named as defendant in the case, is not the proper defendant. -
Baskin v. Bogan
Lambda Legal files the federal lawsuit with three same-sex plaintiff couples: Ms. Baskin and Ms. Fuller, Ms. Everly and Ms. Judkins, and Ms. Carver and Ms. Eanes - all of whom seeking the freedom to marry in Indiana. On October 6, 2014, the United States Supreme Court denied review of the 7th Circuit's ruling in favor of the freedom to marry, in which means same-sex couples will be free to marry in Indiana. -
Bowling v. Pence
Private lawyers filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of two same-sex couples seeking legal respect for their marriage licenses in Indiana. On August 19, 2014, U.S. District Judge Richard Young ruled in favor for the case saying that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
