Federal Amendments/Policies/Decisions for African Americans

- Issued by Abraham Lincoln

- 1st January 1863

- It declared all slaves free from their masters and gave basic human rights.

- The first of civil rights acts was delivered in 1866 asserting African Americans as citizens of United States.

- Introduced in 1875

- Equal rights were applied to public areas 

- Imposed to suppress the rise of formal segregation in southern states

- The Jim Crow laws develop during this period

- These laws enforced segregation of races on trains and in waiting facilities

- They then extended to public places of all kinds like schools, shops and parks etc...

- 1896

- Landmark decision made by the Supreme Court 

- It stated that racial segregation constitutional

- This case led to widespread of the Jim Crow laws in the South

- It continued to be an obstacle to desegregation

- 1954

- Thurgood Marshall backed Linda Brown.

- The court ruled racial segregation in schools, unconstitutional.

- This was a turning point in the civil rights movement and the first rejection of the P v. F case which allowed segregation to continue until now.

- 1956

- Responded to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

- It was favourable to black Americans as it ruled segregation on buses, unconstitutional with similar reasoning to the Linda Brown case.

- Finally a hole had been made in the strict policy which was a triumph for African Americans.

- The first was issued by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

- It was possibly a response to MLK's speech in Washington ('63).

- It prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion or national origin and banned exclusion from restaurants, stores and other public places.

- Voting was made easier for Southern blacks as they no longer had to take unfair literacy tests to register ('65).

- Johnson signs an act which prohibited discrimination in sale, rental and financing of housing.

- This was an important step since blacks suffered economically and socially.

- In 1969 Nixon continues affirmative action which made allowances for the lack opportunity for African Americans. It extended the attempts of the Fair Employment Practices Commission which prevented discrimination in jobs.

- Only downside it perhaps overlooked the lack of educational qualifications.

- This policy forced desegregation in schools of the south by transporting children to areas outside their locality to achieve better race mix.

- Radical method to force integration.

- Effective!