Constituti

Notes

Constitutional Amendments • 13th Amendment: Abolished slavery in the United States. • 14th Amendment: Granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S. and promised equal protection under the law. • 15th Amendment: Protected voting rights for Black men by saying race could not be used to deny the right to vote. Voting Rights Act of 1965 • A federal law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. • Outlawed practices like literacy tests that were used to keep Black Americans from voting. • Strengthened enforcement of the 15th Amendment. Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces • Began with Executive Order 9981 in 1948. • Issued by President Harry S. Truman. • Ordered equal treatment and opportunity in the armed services regardless of race. Freedom Riders • Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the South in 1961. • They challenged segregation in bus stations and interstate travel. • Their actions helped force federal enforcement of desegregation laws. Supreme Court Cases Case What it did Plessy v. Ferguson Upheld segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” Sweatt v. Painter Required the University of Texas to admit Heman Sweatt to its ...