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Dred Scott v. Sandford
The Missouri Dred Scott Case In a shocking 1857 decision, the US Supreme Court upheld slavery on US soil, rejected black citizenship as legal in the US, and declared the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. -
13th Amendment
There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the United States or anywhere else under their control, unless it is used as a punishment for a crime for which the party has been legally found guilty. This article may be enforced by Congress by passing the necessary legislation. -
14th Amendment
No State may pass or enforce laws that limit the rights or privileges of US citizens; no State may take away someone's life, liberty, or property without providing them with a fair trial; and no State may deny anybody living within its borders the equal protection of the law. -
15th Amendment
Due to their race, color, or prior slavery, the United States and any State are not permitted to restrict or deny US citizens their ability to vote. -
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Jim Crow Era
State and local regulations known as the "Jim Crow laws" made racial segregation legal. The laws, which were named after a Black minstrel figure, were intended to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, receive an education, or have other possibilities. They were in place for about 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until 1968. Jim Crow laws frequently resulted in arrests, fines, jail terms, violence, and even death for anyone who tried to violate them. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
In the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson decision from 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld racial segregation as lawful under the "separate but equal" doctrine. Homer Plessy, an African American railway passenger, refused to sit in a car reserved for Black people in the incident that gave rise to the case in 1892. -
19th Amendment
A citizen's right to vote cannot be restricted or denied by the United States or any State due to their sexual orientation. Congress shall have the power to carry into effect this Article by the enactment of the relevant laws. -
White Primaries
Only white voters were allowed to cast ballots in white primaries, which were conducted in the South of the United States. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
The Supreme Court ruled in this historic decision that racial segregation of children in public schools is unconstitutional. It put an end to the "separate but equal" principle put out in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 and signaled the cessation of racial segregation in American schools. -
Poll Taxes
Voting required a charge from the electorate. This made it so that anyone who couldn't pay the poll tax at the time was banned from voting. -
24th Amendment
A citizen's ability to exercise their right to vote in a primary or other election for president or vice president, electors for president or vice president, or for a senator or representative in congress cannot be denied or restricted by the United States or any State on the grounds that they did not pay a poll tax. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
prohibits discrimination on the grounds of one's ethnicity, race, or national origin. The provisions of this civil rights legislation forbade racial and sex discrimination in hiring, promoting, and firing decisions. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
An important federal law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting in the United States is the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was made a law by Lyndon B. Johnson, the president. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is a group of laws created to stop candidates from being treated unfairly, to deal with the impacts of such treatment in the past, and to prevent such treatment in the future. Applicants may be seeking entry-level work in their field or admission to a university. -
Reed v. Reed
According to an Idaho law that was later ruled illegal by the US Supreme Court in 1971, a male had to be selected over a woman where both candidates for estate administrator were equally qualified. -
Bakke v Regents of the University
In the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case, the Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that a university's admissions requirements were unconstitutional under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment if they used race as a specific and exclusive basis for an admission decision. -
Equal Rights Amendment
To ensure total equality for women, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was first introduced in Congress in 1923, three years after the 19th amendment was ratified. The discrepancies in the law that exist between men and women with regard to divorce, property, employment, and other concerns are intended to be eliminated. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
This decision says that a state is not forbidden from making private sex between same-sex partners illegal -
Americans with Disabilities Act
In a variety of contexts, including employment, public accommodations, transportation, communications, and access to state and local government services and programs, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against anybody who has a handicap. -
Motor Votor Act
In order to make it easier for People to register to vote, Congress passed the "motor voter act" in 1963. States are required by law to allow voter registration by mail, at state offices that help the poor or the disabled, and when a person applies for a driver's license. -
Lawrence v. Texas
repealed the sodomy ban in the whole US, making same-sex partnerships lawful in each State and on US territory. -
Obergfell v. Hodges
The United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark ruling that the 14th Amendment requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages and all marriages that were legally performed outside of their boundaries.