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Dread Scott v. Sanford
A case where the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans who descended from slaves did not count as American citizens and therefore could not sue for their own freedom. This made it that African Americans would not be allowed to be considered citizens until after the Civil War. -
13th Amendment
Amendment that banned slavery or indentured servitude unless as punishment for a crime in the United States of America. This was passed after the Civil War and was one of three amendments that looked to create citizenship and equality for African Americans. -
14th Amendment
Amendment stating that no state can make rules or laws which infringe on the rights, privileges or immunities of a United States citizen. Nor shall a state remove the rights to life, liberty and property without due process of law. -
15th Amendment
Amendment that gave African American men the right to vote. It did not give African American women to vote, since no women could vote until 1920. This also did not prevent states from doing everything they could to prevent African Americans to vote. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court case where the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal, since segregation didn't necessarily imply inequality. This case would stand for 50+ years until Brown v. Board of Education. -
White Primaries
Created in Southern states as a way to get around the 15th amendment. They worked by only allowing whites to vote in the primaries, and still allowing African Americans to vote in the actual elections. That way all the candidates would still be who the white people wanted. -
19th Amendment
Amendment that gave women the right to vote. Similar to the 15th amendment, this wasn't an instant fix as it was a battle for many years to achieve actual equality. -
Equal Rights Amendment
Proposed amendment that would end any distinction between men and women in the legal sense, i.e. divorce, property, employment and other similar things -
Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court case that overturned the precedent set by Plessy v. Fergusson, stating that separate was inherently unequal, ending legal segregation. However it would be years and years until segregation was actually ended. -
Poll Taxes
The passing of the 24th amendment made the existence of poll taxes unconstitutional and illegal. They were used most prominently in southern states as a way to keep African Americans from being able to vote. -
24th Amendment
Amendment that ended legally ended the poll tax. This was an effort by the government to make voting more accessible for African Americans, since the poll tax was designed by southern states to prevent African Americans from voting. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Act passed by Congress that prohibited discrimination race, religion, sex, or country of national origin. This only made all of these things illegal, it was still a battle for many years for these things to actually be equal, and many would argue they still aren't equal. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Act passed by Congress and signed by Lyndon Johnson that made any practice designed to limit voting illegal. This was mainly aimed at southern states where things like literary tests were designed to keep African Americans from voting. -
Affirmative Action
A set of government policies that tries to promote diversity in places like employment where diversity is not exactly found. These policies help increase diversity in many places, but this is still a massive issue even today. -
Reed v. Reed
Supreme court case which ruled that an Idaho law saying that "males must be preferred to females" is unconstitutional and that any dissimilar treatment of men and women was unconstitutional. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Supreme Court case that ruled that you could not prohibit someone from joining something based on race and also that affirmative action was legal, and gave a better way of how to go about using affirmative action. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Supreme Court case that ruled that homosexuals did not have privacy to engage in sexual intercourse in their homes if it was in violation of a state law and that states could ban this action if they wanted to. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
A civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disabilities. This includes every aspect of America, public and private, and means that everywhere must be disability accessible. -
Motor Voter Act
Act that allows American citizens to register to vote with only a drivers license. This immediately allowed over 11 million new voters to vote, and was introduced to help get more people to vote. -
Lawrence v. Texas
Supreme Court case that over ruled the ruling from Bowers v Hardwick, saying that same-sex couples could do the same things that different-sex couples could do and that it was protected by the 14th Amendment. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Supreme Court case that ruled that same-sex marriage was legal under the 14th amendment and that all states must recognize same-sex marriage as legal. They found that since marriage is a right everyone has, same-sex marriage should be legal.