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Dred Scott V. Sandford
People of black African descent were not granted American citizenship under the Constitution. As a result, they were not entitled to the same rights and benefits as other citizens of the United States. In its historic Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the U.S. -
13th Amendment
President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress, submitting the proposed Amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states (three-fourths) ratified it by December 6, 1865. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for the crime of which the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
14th Amendment
The amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," which included formerly enslaved people who had just been freed after the Civil War. -
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The doctrine of "separate but equal" was established by the Supreme Court when it decided that racial segregation laws were constitutional as long as the facilities for each race were of equal quality. -
19th Amendment
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids the federal government and its states from denying people the right to vote on the basis of sex, effectively granting women the right to vote. -
Affirmative Action act
To guarantee applicants and employees alike equal employment opportunities. It is predicated on the idea that, in the absence of discrimination, a contractor's workforce will eventually generally reflect the characteristics of the qualified workforce readily available in the relevant job market. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The United States Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, even though segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, and national origin in the United States. -
Jim Crow Era
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, "Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African-American. Such laws remained in force until the 1960s. -
Voting Rights Act of 1964
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a significant piece of federal legislation that forbids racial discrimination in voting in the United States. -
Reed V. Red
The Supreme Court, for the first time, ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment was unconstitutional. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment is a suggested constitutional amendment that would ensure that all Americans, regardless of gender, have equal access to the law. Proponents assert it would end legal distinctions between men and women in divorce, property, employment, and other matters. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
The use of racial "quotas" by a university in its admissions procedure was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. However, in some situations, a school's use of "affirmative action" to accept more minority applicants was legal. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
No constitutional right to privacy for homosexual sex. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. -
Motor Voter Act
Congress passed the motor voter law in 1963 to make it easier for Americans to register to vote. The law requires states to allow voter registration by mail when one applies for a driver's license and at state offices that serve the disabled or poor. -
Lawrence v. Texas
In a decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that most criminal sanctions for consensual, non-procreative adult sexual activity are unconstitutional. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
According to a decision by the United States Supreme Court, the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee same-sex couples the fundamental right to marry.