AP Government Chapter Five Key Terms Flashcards
Civil Rights
policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals
Fourteenth Amendment
The constitutional amendment adopted after the civil war that states. “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizen of the United States; not shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws
Equal Protection of the Laws
Part of the Fourteenth Amendment emphasizing that the laws must provide equivalent “protection” to all people
Scott v. Sandford
the 1857 supreme court decision ruling that a slave who had escaped to a free state enjoyed no rights as a citizen and that congress has no authority to ban slavery in the territories
Thirteenth Amendment
the constitutional amendment ratified after the civil war that forbade slavery and involuntary servitutde
Plessy v. Ferguson
an 1896 supreme court decision that provided a constitutional justification for segregation by ruling that a Louisiana law requiring “ equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” was constitutional
Brown v. Board of Education
the 1954 supreme court decision holding that school segregation was inherently unconstitutional because it violated the fourteenth amendments guarantee of equal protection. This case marked the end of legal segregation in the united states
Civil Rights Act of 1964
the law that made racial discrimination against any group in hotels, motels, and restaurants illegal and forbade many forms of job discrimination
Suffrage
the legal right to vote, extended to African Americans by the fifteenth amendment, to women by the nineteenth and to people over the age of 18 by the twenty-sixth
Fifteenth Amendment
the constitutional amendment adopted in 1870 to extend suffrage to African Americans
Poll Taxes
small taxes levied on the right to vote that often fell due at a time of year when poor African American sharecroppers had the least cash on hand. This method was used by most southern states to exclude African Americans from voting. Poll taxes were declared void by the twenty fourth amendment in 1964
White Primary
one of the means used to discourage African American voting that permitted political parties in the heavily democratic south to exclude African Americans from primary elections, this depriving them of a voice in the real contests. The supreme court declared white primaries unconstitutional in 1944
Twenty-Fourth Amendment
the constitutional amendment passed in 1964 that declared poll taxes void in federal elections
Voting Rights Act of 1965
A law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African American suffrage. Under the law, hundreds of thousands of African Americans were registered, and the number of African American Elected officials increased dramatically
Hernandez v. Texas
a 1954 supreme court decision that extended protections against discrimination to Hispanics