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Dred Scott v Sandford
Scott was a slave. His owners brought him into free territories and then back to Missouri, where slavery was legal again. He argued that he is a free citizen because he was brought to these territories. The Court ruled that black people weren't included under the word "citizens" in the constitution. -
13th Amendment
It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments made after the Civil War. It states that slavery and involuntary servitude ae illegal except as punishment for a crime. -
14th Amendment
It was the second of the Reconstruction Amendments to be adopted. It states that no State can deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. -
15th Amendment
It was the third of the three Reconstruction Amendments made. It prohibited the federal government and states from denying a citizen the right to vote based on their race, color, or previous condition of servitude. -
Plessy v Ferguson
Homer Plessy, n African American train passenger, refused to sit in a car for black people. He argued that his constitutional rights were being violated and the Supreme Court ruled that a law that implies a legal distinction between white people and black people was not unconstitutional. -
19th Amendment
This was made to prohibit the United States from denying a person the right to vote based on sex. The first woman's suffrage amendment was introduced to congress in 1878, but didn't pass the House of Representatives until 1919 -
Brown v Board of Education
This event was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This outlawed any discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It forbade discrimination on the basis of hiring, promoting, and firing. It also prohibits discrimination in public or federally funded programs. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This prohibits racial discrimination in voting. The Act was amended five times by Congress. It was designed to enforce voting rights given in the 14th and 15th Amendments. -
Reed v Reed
This was a decision be the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminated between sexes. The Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause prohibited different treatment based on sex. -
Title IX
A federal civil rights law passed as part of the Education Amendments. It was put in place to prevent the discrimination based on sex in any school or educational program that received federal money. -
Regents of the University of California v Bakke
This was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. The Court also ruled for specific racial quotas. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
A civil rights law that prohibited the discrimination of someone based on their disabilities. It gives similar protections as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Obergefell v Hodges
This was a civil rights case where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.