The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2020 expands health care coverage to 17 million Americans who were previously uninsured. This legislation is the most important of the Presidency of Barack Obama, and fulfills a campaign promise he made when he ran for the office in … Read MoreThe Affordable Care Act (2010)
In 1879 the Kansas State Legislature passed a law permitting first class cities in Kansas (cities with a population of 15,000 or more) to create racially segregated schools. The Topeka Board of Education quickly followed by segregating elementary schools in the city. In 1890 Lowman … Read MoreWilliam Reynolds v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas (1903)
The Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, the hometown of Sam Houston, was established in 1849. It is also referred to as the “Walls Unit” for the 15-foot masonry wall that surrounds the prison yard. Currently, it has the capacity to house 1,705 male inmates. During … Read MoreTexas State Penitentiary at Huntsville (1849- )
Following the passage of the 13th Amendment on January 31, 1865, slavery was officially ended throughout the United States, including in the eleven former Confederate States. Almost immediately governments in these states began a process to reestablish white supremacy in the law. The result was … Read MoreMississippi Black Codes, 1865-1866
In the 1856 landmark case Mason v. Smith, Bridget “Biddy” Mason sued her master for her and her family’s freedom, a full year before the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. In the Dred Scott case, the court ruled that enslaved persons did not become … Read MoreThe Bridget “Biddy” Mason Case, 1856
In the five years following the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passed and the states ratified the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. These amendments permanently ended slavery and granted African Americans access to civil rights and suffrage as citizens of the United … Read MoreThe Enforcement Act of 1870 (1870-1871)
Irene Amos Morgan Kirkaldy was a civil rights activist who won her 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case in Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, which declared interstate transport racial segregation to be unconstitutional, nearly a decade before the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Irene Amos was born … Read MoreIrene Morgan Kirkaldy (1917-2007)
Alexander P. Ashbourne was an early inventor. He was born into slavery in Philadelphia around 1820. There are very few documented facts about his personal life. He grew up cutting wheat alongside his family members. In his youth, Ashbourne began to think of more efficient … Read MoreAlexander P. Ashbourne (1820-1915)
Betty Jean Owens, an African American woman and Florida A&M University student, was raped by four white men, William Collinsworth, Ollie Stoutamire, David Beagles, and Patrick Scarbourough, on May 2, 1959. Unlike most cases involving white men raping black women in the pre-1970 era, the … Read MoreBetty Jean Owens (1930s- ?)
Wiley William Manuel, the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the State of California, was the son of a railroad dining car waiter, and a domestic worker. He was born on August 28, 1927 in an impoverished area of Oakland, California and attended public … Read MoreWiley W. Manuel (1927-1981)
