12 articles
Affirmative action in the United States
Affirmative action in the United States: employment and admissions policies for federal contractors and universities. Key facts: Executive Order 11246 (1965, revoked 2025), Bakke, Grutter, and the 2023 SFFA ruling ending race-conscious college admissions.
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous Warren ruling that racial segregation in public schools violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson's separate-but-equal doctrine.
Dred Scott
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) was the U.S. Supreme Court's 7-2 ruling, written by Chief Justice Taney, that Black people were not U.S. citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in federal territories, voiding the Missouri Compromise; overturned by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) was the Supreme Court decision, 7-2 under Chief Justice Taney, holding that enslaved Black people were not U.S. citizens and that Congress could not ban slavery in federal territories; overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments.
Grutter v. Bollinger
Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), Supreme Court case upholding the University of Michigan Law School's race-conscious admissions as narrowly tailored to diversity, companion to Gratz, effectively overruled by SFFA v. Harvard in 2023.
Homer Plessy
Homer Adolph Plessy (1863–1925), New Orleans Creole shoemaker and Comité des Citoyens activist, whose 1892 arrest on an East Louisiana Railroad whites-only car produced Plessy v. Ferguson (1896); pardoned posthumously in 2022.
Loving v. Virginia
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), the unanimous Supreme Court decision by Chief Justice Warren striking down Virginia's Racial Integrity Act and all state bans on interracial marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson (163 U.S. 537, 1896) is the US Supreme Court case that upheld Louisiana's Separate Car Act and created the "separate but equal" doctrine; decided 7-1, Brown majority, Harlan dissent, overruled by Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978): Supreme Court case striking down UC Davis medical school's 16-seat minority set-aside while allowing race as a plus factor; Powell's solo opinion governed until SFFA (2023).
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys: nine Black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women on an Alabama freight train in 1931; eight death sentences, Powell v. Alabama, Norris v. Alabama, recantations, paroles, and 2013 posthumous pardons.
Separate but equal
Separate but equal was the U.S. legal doctrine from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) holding that racially segregated facilities satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment if equal; overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Shelby County v. Holder
Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013): 5-4 Supreme Court decision striking down the Voting Rights Act's Section 4(b) coverage formula, ending Section 5 preclearance and leaving Section 2 litigation as the main enforcement path.