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Dred Scott V. Sandford
The Dred Scott Decision was a landmark Supreme Court decision that established that the rights outlined in the U.S Constitution were not meant for free or enslaved black people because they were not included in the term "citizens". The case was brought to the Supreme Court by an enslaved man, Dred Scott, who argued to the court that because his owner had taken him to a free state, he should have been free based upon the laws of the free state he was taken to. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment, signed by Abraham Lincoln, officially made slavery illegal except as a punishment for committing a crime. The 13th Amendment is the first of three Reconstruction Amendments. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment established that anyone born in the United States is a United States citizen. It made it illegal for states to make any law that took away rights, life, property, or freedoms from any citizens. This established that the term "citizen" includes previously enslaved people. It was the second of three Reconstruction Amendments. -
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Poll Taxes
Poll taxes were primarily used by southern states to prevent freed slaves from being able to vote. Poll taxes were made illegal by the 24th Amendment. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment made it illegal for states to deny the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It was the third and final of the three Reconstruction Amendments. -
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White Primaries
White Primaries were primary elections in the Southern United States where only white voters were allowed to participate. White primaries were just one of the many ways black voters were suppressed. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
Plessy V. Ferguson was a landmark Supreme Court case that established that state laws enforcing segregation in public facilities were legal as long as the public facilities were of equal quality. This is what inspired the phrase, "separate but equal". As a result white only and colored only water fountains, bathrooms, seating areas, etc., became common in most states. -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment established that women had the right to vote by making it illegal to deny a person's right to vote because of their sex. -
Brown V. Board of Education
Brown V. Board of Education was a landmark Supreme Court case that spurred the push for desegregation across America. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional regardless of whether or not the schools were of equal quality. While this didn't cause schools to desegregate overnight, it was a step towards desegregation. -
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action is intended to increase diversity in corporations, organizations, and in the government. The goal of affirmative action is to get representation for otherwise underrepresented groups. It's incredibly controversial because it ultimately means someone could not get hired simply because of their race. -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment made use of a poll tax illegal. The poll taxes were largely used to prevent African Americans from voting and this amendment insured taxes were no longer a factor in prohibiting someone from voting. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 effectively ended the implementation of Jim Crow Laws. It made it illegal to discriminate based on sex, religion, color, race, or national origin. It also made it illegal for employers to hire, promote, or fire people based on their race or sex. It helped to enforce anti-discrimination voting laws and the desegregation of schools. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited the use of discriminatory voting tests that were preventing African Americans from being able to vote. It also required states to get any voting procedures they wanted to use approved by the U.S. Attorney General. This act essentially reinforced the 15th Amendment. -
Reed V. Reed
Reed V. Reed was a landmark Supreme Court decision where the Supreme Court decided, unanimously, that it was unconstitutional for the state of Idaho to choose owners of an estate on the basis of sex. It was the first time the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment prohibited discrimination based on sex. -
Equal Rights Amendment
The ERA was first drafted in 1923 with the goal of ending the legal distinction of men and women in regards to owning property, divorce, and employment. It was an amendment largely favored by the middle class in the mid 20th century. The amendment, however, was never ratified because several states pulled their ratification after conservative women spoke out against the amendment. The ERA has become popular once again in recent years because of what is known as 4th wave feminisim -
Regents of the University of California V. Bakke
Regents of the University of California V. Bakke was a landmark Supreme Court decision that upheld the use of affirmative action in the college admissions process. This established that it was okay to consider race in the college admissions process along with other factors. -
Bowers V. Hardwick
Bowers V. Hardwick was a landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled that Georgia anti-sodomy laws were not unconstitutional. The majority opinion argued that the Constitution did not include a right to homosexual sex while the dissent argued that it was a matter of privacy and it was therefore unconstitutional. This decision was later overruled by Lawrence V. Texas. -
Americans With Disabilities Act
This act made it illegal to discriminate based on disability in employment, public accommodations, transportation, and the government. -
Lawrence V. Texas
This landmark Supreme Court decision ruled that state laws that made private homosexual sex of any kind between two consenting adults illegal were unconstitutional. This decision overturned the Supreme Court decision made in Bowers V. Hardwick. -
Obergefell V. Hodges
This Supreme Court case decision ruled that, under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the Due Process Clause, same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. State bans on same-sex marriages were ruled unconstitutional and states were required to license same-sex marriages.