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Dred Scott v. Sanford 1857
Dred Scott had been brought to a "free state" so he sued for his freedom. He sued for his freedom, but since he was brought back to Missouri, the Supreme Court ruled that he was still a slave under law. He had to appeal to the Supreme Court. -
13th Amendment
The thirteenth amendment formally abolishes slavery. Anyone who has a slave must now set them free because owning is illegal. -
14th Amendment
The fourteenth amendment was ratified to allow all "naturalized" citizens and all citizens born on American soil to be able to vote. This also allowed slaves that were previously freed to vote. -
15th Amendement
African Americans were able to vote when this amendment was ratified. This was mainly for the African Americans who were just freed from slavery, but as we saw in the future, this dud not stop them from doing whatever they could to make sure they could not vote. Sadly, it worked for a long time. -
Plessy v Ferguson 1896
In this Supreme Court case, it was kind of a step up for equality, but not really because there was so much that could go wrong. Plessy was about 1/8th African American and had ridden the train, but decided to ride the "white" train to show how America is still discriminating against them. It was ruled that everything can be "separate but equal." -
19th Amendment
This was a large step in history for women because the nineteenth amendment guarantees us the right to vote. This means that any citizen could vote and it did not matter what their sex was. This ended almost a century of protesting for women's right to voting, but it was still a long way to go for women to have equal rights. -
White Primaries
The Supreme Court had against the "white primary" system in Texas. You would nominate a single candidate for your party, and this could allow for racial discrimination back then almost too easily. The case was determined unconstitutional because it allowed a political party to racially discriminate which is illegal based off the civil rights act of 1964. -
Brown v Board of Education 1954
This Supreme Court case practically blew Plessy v Ferguson out of the water because it hit a milestone for equality for African Americans. The Supreme Court ruled that all schools should be together and that there should not be any separate schools. A doctor showed how having separate schools was giving these young black girls psychological damage at such a young age. -
Affirmation Action
This is given mostly to minorities who have been discriminated against before. This is the policy of favoring them in a way so that they do not get discriminated against again. -
Poll Taxes
First off, a poll tax is a tax on every American adult excluding your income and your resources. If you wanted to voted to vote in some states, you had to pay a fee. This negatively affected poor citizens as well as any other citizens, but they mainly created when African Americans got their right to vote. -
24th Amendment
Before this amendment was ratified, there was a poll tax. This amendment got rid of any poll tax at any kind of elections. This could include the presidential election or just any local election. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The civil rights act of 1964 was a monumental change for America because of equal rights. Granted there were still some drawbacks, it was still great because it outlawed most discrimination. It outlawed discrimination based on your race, sex, color, religion, or national origin. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The main provision authorized the Justice Department to suspend restrictive electoral tests in southern states that had a history of low black turnouts. They could send federal officials to register voters directly. The states had to obtain clearance from the Justice Department before changing the electoral laws. -
Bowers v Hardwick
The US Supreme Court made a decision in Georgia to ban sodomy. However, this was then overturned 17 years later. This was overturned as it is not up to the courts to decide that and it is your right to privacy. -
Reed v Reed 1971
This Supreme Court case was an equal protections case that ruled that administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates based of the sexes. This would unconstitutional because of the Equal Protections Amendment. -
Equal Rights Amendment
This amendment was first proposed by the Women's Political Party in 1923! Woman wanted protection for discrimination based off of your sex, but some already said that there was a civil rights act for that. However, in 1972, women received their legal "equality" of the sexes and discrimination based from your sex prohibited. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke 1978
This was another landmark decision for the Supreme Court because it made discrimination against your race prohibited when trying to get into a college. It has always been a factor when trying to get into school and the Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional because a college should not make that the deciding factor. -
Americans with Disabilties Act 1990
This law became in effect in 1990 when it was signed by President George W. Bush. It is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against those with disabilities. This can include being discriminated at school, work, transportation, all public or private places, and etc. -
Lawerence v. Texas 2003
The US Supreme Court ruled that two consenting adults of the same sex doing certain intimate sexual conduct can be criminalized was unconstitutional. This was a step up for equality because you should also not be able to discriminate based off of your sexual orientation, but some people still do. -
Obergefell v. Hodges 2015
Any state bans on same sex marriage are unconstitutional when the Supreme Court ruled it back in 2015. Granted, there are still states that do not allow it, but most support and do not discriminate off sexual orientation. This was a great milestone because there are now so many ways that people cannot discriminate and it is ridiculous that people still try to find way to.
