 Elective Franchise and Qualifications for Office (1887) |
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This act passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1887 places few restrictions on voting. Compare it to the act of 1902, which added literary and property ownership requirements meant to disenfranchise African Americans, resulting in entrenched Jim Crow segregation.
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| Elective Franchise and Qualifications for Office (1902) |
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This act passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1902 contains literary and property ownership requirements for potential voters in an attempt to disenfranchise African Americans. Compare it to the 1887 act which placed few restrictions on voting. Application of statutes such as this one resulted in entrenched Jim Crow segregation.
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| Elihu Schooner v. State of Missouri |
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When Elihu Schooner was arrested as a fugitive from slavery, he petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus. Born free in Ohio, upon hearing the facts of the case, Schooner was released by the court.
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| Elizabeth Bird v. Frances Pattmore |
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The habeas corpus petition of Elizabeth Bird shows legal challenges related to child custody in the nineteenth century. In this case, Bird argued that she was made the legal guardian of Missouri Bird, a ten year old child, by the child's mother, and claimed that Missouri was being confined to the house of Frances Pattmore. Pattmore responded that Missouri's presence in her house was of her own free will. The court awarded custody of Missouri to Pattmore.
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| Elk v. Wilkins |
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In Elk v. Wilkins, the Supreme Court denied United States citizenship to Native Americans.
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| Emancipation Proclamation |
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The Emancipation Proclamation was a wartime measure that freed the enslaved people in territories occupied by confederate forces. Given by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, the document represents the first step in ending American slavery by declaring those enslaved within confederate territories free and protected by the United States military.
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| Emmanuel Downing to John Winthrop |
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Downing's letter to Winthrop shows changing colonial attitudes to race and practices of enslavement.
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| Enforcement Act of 1870 |
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The Enforcement Act of 1870 was enacted to enforce the 15th Amendment during Reconstruction. It explicitly prohibited the use of terror, force, or disguise to violate a voter's constitutional right. This law was intended to protect the voting rights of Black Americans and penalize state officials and violent groups like the Ku Klux Klan who interfered.
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| Enforcement Act of 1871 |
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The Enforcement Act of 1871 revised the Enforcement Act of 1870 to further protect Black Americans' right to vote and hold office. It added more severe punishments to those who violated the constitutional rights of Black Americans. This act specifically called for federal oversight of national elections and empowered federal judges and marshals to supervise local polling places.
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| Equal Credit Opportunity Act |
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This act prohibited discrimination in credit transactions and lending practices based on sex and marital status. It was amended in 1976 to include other characteristics such as race, ethnicity, age, religion, and use of any public assistance program. Before the law was enacted, lenders and the federal government frequently and explicitly discriminated against female loan applicants.
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| Estimate of Property Loss Sustained by the Chinese in their respective camps at Rock Springs |
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In the wake of the 1885 Rock Springs Massacre, a U.S.- Chinese commission made up of politicians, ambassadors, and diplomats arrived in Wyoming Territory to collect testimony and tally the loss of property among Chinese laborers. The property lists accounted for individual property ownership, as well as property held in common by the Chinese miners.
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| Ex Parte Crow Dog |
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Ex Parte Crow Dog was a Supreme Court case that asserted the federal government's role in criminal jurisdiction on tribal lands. The Court held that the federal government did not have jurisdiction over crimes committed by Native peoples against one another on tribal land. The Court's decision in this case affirmed tribal sovereignty, leading to the passage of the Indian Major Crimes Act two years later, which brought certain crimes committed on tribal lands under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
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| Ex Parte Mitsuye Endo |
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In this case, the Supreme Court held that the federal government could not continue to hold citizens of Japanese ancestry who were "concededly loyal" to the United States, though the ruling did not find the actions of the War Relocation Authority unconstitutional as a whole. Mitsuye Endo was released.
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| Executive Order 10450 - Security Requirements for Government Employment |
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A part of the Lavender Scare, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Executive Order 10450 banned members of the LGBTQ+ community from being employed by the federal government.
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| Executive Order 10925 - Establishing the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity |
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This executive order by President John F. Kennedy directed government contractors to use affirmative action to ensure people of any "race, creed, color, or national origin" were given equal treatment and opportunity for employment. This executive order also established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.
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| Executive Order 11246 - Equal Employment Opportunity |
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This executive order by President Lyndon B. Johnson created equal opportunity for federal employment and contracts, ending discrimination on race, creed, color, or national origin.
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| Executive Order 11246 - Equal Employment Opportunity |
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This executive order enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson was repealed by a January 2025 executive order from Donald Trump. The original order was written to ensure equal opportunity in government employment and limit discrimination based on race. It required employers to furnish documentation of nondiscriminatory practices upon request.
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| Executive Order 11478 - Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government |
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This executive order from President Richard Nixon ensured the continuation of affirmative action and increased directives to limit discrimination in the workplace. Nixon added that this order intends to prevent discrimination based on sex as well as race.
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| Executive Order 12138 - Creating a National Women's Business Enterprise Policy and Prescribing Arrangements for Developing, Coordinating and Implementing a National Program for Women's Business Enterprise |
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This executive order from President Jimmy Carter established regulations to ensure women-owned businesses received support from the federal government and that women face less discrimination in the workplace.
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| Executive Order 12432 - Minority Business Enterprise Development |
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This executive order from President Ronald Reagan sought to protect minority business owners and provide regulations to prevent discrimination. This was one of a series of executive orders to ensure affirmative action issued by every president across the second half of the twentieth century.
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| Executive Order 14053 - Improving Public Safety and Criminal Justice for Native Americans and Addressing the Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous People |
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This executive order by President Joe Biden sought to improve the federal government's response to the public safety and criminal justice crisis of murdered and missing Native Americans.
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| Executive Order 14151 - Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing |
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This executive order by President Donald Trump directs the Office of Management and Budget to terminate all mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities relating to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. It also requires federal agencies to report a list of all employees in DEI positions within 60 days. As a result, these employees were terminated.
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| Executive Order 14160 - Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship |
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This executive order by President Donald Trump aims to end birthright citizenship if a mother is in the United States illegally or the mother is in the U.S. temporarily and the father is not a citizen.
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| Executive Order 14168 - Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government |
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This executive order by President Donald Trump narrowly defines sex and gender in a way inconsistent with biology, prohibits gender self-identification on federal documents, ends funding for gender-affirming care, and restricts transgender people from being imprisoned in facilities consistent with their gender identity.
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| Executive Order 14173 - Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity |
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This executive order by President Donald Trump takes aim at diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives in private institutions, especially institutions of higher education receiving federal funding. It also revokes several longstanding executive orders related to equal employment opportunity and affirmative action.
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