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13th Amendment
Abolished slavery in the United States and provides 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
That "all persons born in the United States...excluding Indians not taxed...." were citizens and were to be given "full and equal benefit of all laws." -
15th Amendment
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." -
Plessey v. Ferguson
In 1890 the Louisiana Legislature passed the Separate Car Act, which required railroads "to provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races" in order to protect the safety and comfort of all passengers. In 1891 Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth black, tested the law by violating it. By a 7-1 vote with one Justice not participating, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Louisiana law and thus Homer Plessy's conviction for having violated it. -
Mendez v. Westminster
Mendez expected that his children would be attending Westminster Main School, the same school that he had attended with other Mexican and Anglo children until he was forced to drop out to help support his family. They had to attend the Hoover School, which was located in a different school district, and furthermore, all of the students there were Mexican or Mexican-American. They were allowed to attend the school after everything. -
Delgado v, Bastrop ISD
In their complaint for the Mexican American parents, the attorneys argued that the school districts had “prohibited, barred, and excluded” Mexican American children from attending public school with “other white school children” in violation of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. Judge Rice issued an injunction against the state and the school districts forbidding further segregation of students of “Mexican or Latin descent.” -
Sweatt v. Painter
Sweatt appealed to the Texas Third Court of Civil Appeals in Austin where Thurgood Marshall represented him. Marshall argued that the "separate but equal" argument was a fiction. The law school that the state had set up for Negroes on East 13th Street, Marshall asserted, was far from being equal to the University of Texas School of Law. The Third Court of Appeals, nonetheless, affirmed the District Court's judgment. The Texas Supreme Court then denied Sweatt's application. -
Hernandez v. Texas
Hernandez’s lawyers argued that exclusion of persons of Mexican or Latin American descent deprived him, as a member of this class, of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. After a hearing, the trial court judge denied the lawyers’ motions. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Linda Brown, an African American third grader, and her family lived in Topeka, and there was an elementary school just five blocks from their home. However, that school was reserved for white children only, and Linda had to ride a bus to a school 21 blocks from her home that was reserved for African American children only. She was allowed to attend the closer school after all. -
Civil Rights Act 1957
It aimed to increase the number of registered black voters and stated its support for such a move. However, any person found guilty of obstructing someone’s right to register barely faced the prospect of punishment as a trial by jury in the South meant the accused had to face an all-white jury as only whites could be jury members. -
24th Amendment
Abolished the poll tax for all federal elections. A poll tax was a tax of anywhere from one to a few dollars that had to be paid annually by each voter in order to be able to cast a vote. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
It gave the federal government the right to end segregation in the South, it prohibited segregation in public places. A public place was anywhere that received any form of federal tax funding(most places). -
Voting Rights Act 1965
Banned racial discrimination in voting practices by the federal government as well as by state and local governments. -
Edgewood ISD v. Kirby
The plaintiffs argued that this led to better education for students in wealthier school districts and worse education for students in poorer districts and was thus a violation of the equal protection of the law of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Decision. The Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state’s public school finance system was a violation of Article VII, Section 1 of the Texas Constitution.
