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Civil Rights Timeline
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Dred Scott v. Sanford
Dred Scott, an enslaved man in Missouri, lived in Illinois, where slavery was banned, for several years. Upon returning to Missouri, he claimed he was a free man because of his time living in free territory, His suit made it to the Supreme Court, which held that African Americans, enslaved or free, could not be considered US citizens and did not have the right to sue in federal court. The court
also found the Missouri Compromise and any other law limiting slavery to be unconstitutional. -
13th Amendment
The 13th amendment formally abolished slavery and indentured servitude in the US, except as punishment for a crime. This was passed at the end of the Civil War to formally end slavery in all US states and territories. This followed the Emancipation Proclamation that attempted to ban slavery in rebelling states. -
14th Amendment
The 14th amendment established citizenship for anyone born in the US, overruling the Dred Scott decision. The due process clause of the 14th amendment has also been used to incorporate the Bill of Rights to the states. The equal protection clause has been used to enact laws against discrimination and prejudiced acts. -
Jim Crow Era
The Jim Crow Era was a period from about the end of the Civil War to the late 1960s. Jim Crow laws were strict segregation and discriminatory policies towards African Amercians after the abolition of slavery and end of the Civil War. Neighborhoods, schools, parks, theatres, restrooms, elevators, water fountains, restaurants and other things were segregated or closed to Black people. Interracial marriage was forbidden in southern states. Red-lining and voter discrimination were prevalent. -
15th amendment
The 15th amendment established that the right of US citizens to vote cannot be denied based on race or previous condition of servitude. This established the right of Black men to vote in the US. Attempts to disenfranchise Black men like poll taxes and literacy tests followed. This amendment was met with some backlash as it did not extend protections to sex as well as race. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Homer Plessy sat in a "whites only" train car in Lousisiana in 1892. He was arrested and sued, saying that the Separate Car Act violated the 13th and 14th amendments. The court held that the act was constitutional. This made racial segregation legal. The court claimed that separate treatment did not imply inferiority of African Americans, creating the "separate but equal" doctrine. -
19th Amendment
The 19th amendment granted women in the US the right to vote. This amendment followed the movement for women's rights which launched at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848. Women, especially women of color, still faced many obstacles to voting. The National American Woman Suffrage Association fought for suffrage state by state until it was officially added to the Constitution in 1920. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Most schools were still segregated based on race because of the separate but equal doctrine from Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown argued his daughter was being discriminated against based on race. Brown v. Board of Education was a conglomerate of suits based on racial discrimination. The court held that segregation was unconstitutional because separate but equal was not truly equal. The 14th amendment was being violated. This case undid Plessy v. Ferguson and banned racial segregation. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned segregation in public places and prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, or ethnicity. JFK proposed this act in 1963 during the Civil Rights Movement and it was passed by LBJ in 1964. Martin Luther King Jr called this act a "second emancipation". The act was followed by other measures to prohibit discrimination. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is a series of policies within governments and organizations with the purpose of including underrepresented groups like race, nationality, gender, and sexuality. Affirmative action was initiated in the LBJ Administration in the 1960s. The policies were instated under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and executive orders. After the Bakke case, the court imposed several limits on race-based affirmative actions. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 established further protections for African Americans' 15th amendment voting rights. It banned literacy tests, provided federal oversight of voter registration, and investigated the use of poll taxes. After this act, voting rates for African Americans significantly increased. -
Reed v. Reed
The Idaho Probate Code established that men were given preference over women in appointing administrators of estates. Sally Reed sued after her ex-husband, Cecil Reed, was appointed administrator of their son's estate. The court held that the unfair treatment of men and women was unconstitutional. It violated the 14th amendment's equal protection clause. This case established that legal preference could not automatically be given to men over women. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was reintroduced to Congress in the late 1960s. It was ratified by about 30 states in the 1970s, but a wave of conservative backlash caused ratification to fail. The amendment would have protected equal rights from discrimination based on sex. Other legislation has been passed to protect women's rights in the late 1900s and early 2000s. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Bakke, a white man, was rejected from the University of California Medical School twice. The school reserved 16 places in every class of 100 for "qualified minorities" in order to remedy the exclusion minority students faced in the medical field. Bakke claimed that he was discriminated against based on his race. The court held in favor of Bakke, but agreed that race was a valid admission criteria. This meant that universities could consider race in admissions but could not hold race quotas. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Hardwick was charged with sodomy in Georgia after being observed having consensual sex with a man in his own home. The court held that there was no constitutional protection for sodomy and that states could outlaw those practices. This meant that people did not have the protected right to have consensual sex with members of the same-sex. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA provides protection for Americans with disabilities from discrimination based on their disability. It includes equal employment opportunities, public accommodations, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications. It was enacted by George H. W. Bush in 1990 after the National Council Disability recommended it in 1986. -
Motor Voter Act
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 established voter registration requirements. It instated voter registration opportunities at state motor vehicle agencies, public assistance and disability offices, and allowed for driver's license applications to automatically serve as voter registration. This increased voter registration and made it slightly easier for minority citizens to become registered to vote. -
Lawrence v. Texas
A Texas law forbade members of the same sex from having sex. A cop found Lawrence and another man having sex in their home and arrested them. The court found the "Homosexual Conduct" law unconstitutional because it violated the 14th amendment. This case overruled Bowers v. Hardwick and established that people had the right to have sex with members of the same sex because of their right to liberty in the Due Process clause. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
Same-sex couples sued their states to appeal bans on same-sex marriages. The court held that the Due Process clause of the 14th amendment protects the right to marry as a fundamental liberty. The court recognized that marriage freedom is important to autonomy, families, and social structure. This decision allowed same-sex couples to be legally married nationwide.