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Dred Scott v. Sandford
In essence, the decision argued that, as someone's property, Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in a federal court. -
13th Amendment
Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude -
14th Amendment
Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former slaves—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” -
15th Amendment
Prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
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White Primaries
White primaries were primary elections held in the Southern United States in which only white voters were permitted to participate. -
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Plessy v. Ferguson
Upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality. -
19th Amendment
Prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. -
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Brown v Board of Education
Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. -
24th Amendment
Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
Poll Taxes
The purpose of the poll tax was to decrease African-American participation in voting. Poll taxes charged money to people in order for them to be able to vote in an election. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation and gender identity. -
Affirmative Action
A set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking to include particular groups based on their gender, race, creed or nationality in areas in which they were excluded in the past such as education and employment. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting -
Reed v. Reed
Ruling that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes. -
Equal Rights Amendment
A proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. -
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy. -
Bowers v. Hardwick
Upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
A civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability -
Lawrence v. Texas
The Court ruled that U.S. laws prohibiting private homosexual activity, sodomy, and oral sex between consenting adults are unconstitutional. -
Obergefell v. Hodges
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.