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Declaration of Independence
The Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania State House, approved the Declaration of Independence, severing the colonies' ties to the British Crown. -
Seneca Falls Convention
It was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman." Attracting widespread attention, it was soon followed by other women's rights conventions, including one in Rochester, New York two weeks later. -
13th Amendment
The Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
14th Amendment
The Constitution granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” -
15th Amendment
The Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
Colorado becomes first state to grant women the right to vote
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NAACP is Founded
This organization is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination". -
19th Amendment
This amendment prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex -
One, Inc Vs Olesen
It is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision for LGBT rights in the United States. It was the first U.S. Supreme Court ruling to deal with homosexuality and the first to address free speech rights with respect to homosexuality. -
Executive Order 10450
It revoked President Truman's 1947 Executive Order 9835 and dismantled its Loyalty Review Board program. Instead it charged the heads of federal agencies and the Office of Personnel Management, supported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with investigating federal employees to determine whether they posed security risks. -
Illinois becomes first state to repeal its sodomy laws
They passed a comprehensive criminal code revision that repealed the law against sodomy.The code also abrogated common-law crimes and established an age of consent of 18.However, the code also made it a crime to commit a "lewd fondling or caress of the body of another person of the same sex" in a public place. -
24th Amendment
This 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. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
A peice of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections. -
Stonewall Inn Riots
were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning, at the Stonewall Inn, located in the Greenwich Village.They are widely considered to constitute the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. -
Title IX
No person in the United States, on the basis of sex, will be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or school activity receiving federal financial assistance. This allowed women to participate in after school sports or activites -
APA Removes Homosexuality as a Mental Disorder
They classified homosexuality as a mental illness beginning in 1952. Before then, psychiatrists and psychologists looked at homosexuality as a perversion and as a deviant behavior, but the idea that it was a mental illness was considerably more controversial. -
Don't Ask Don't Tell
This was the official United States policy on service by gays and lesbians in the military. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. -
Defense of Marriage Act
This is a United States federal law that allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. -
Massachusetts legalizes gay marriage
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry. -
Don't Ask Don't Tell is Repealed
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Plessy V Ferguson
This case was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal." The "separate but equal" provision of private services mandated by state government is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause.
