| A | B |
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| amendment 14 | Granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States; banned states from denying any person life, liberty, or property without due process of law; and banned states from denying any person equal protection under the laws. |
| ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) | This law forbids discrimination in employment, transportation, and public accommodations against people with a disability |
| affirmative action | Government program to make-up for past discrimination. |
| Brown v Board of Education | Overruled Plessy v. Ferguson and abandoned the separate-but-equal doctrine in the context of public schools. |
| civil rights | Protections and privileges given to all United States citizens by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. |
| Civil Rights Act of 1964, 1968 | act of Congress that prevents discrimination in public places. |
| segregation | - The separation of or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group from the rest of society. |
| due process | The right of every citizen to be protected against unfair actions by the government. |
| equity | Most commonly thought of as "justice", however equity developed as a separate body of law in England in reaction to the inability of the common law courts to provide a remedy for every injury. |
| equal protection | The idea that no individual or group may receive special privileges from nor be unjustly discriminated against by the law. |
| Higher Education Act/Title IX | Forbids discrimination on the basis of gender in any educational program. This law helped ensure equal opportunities for women in school and affected hiring practices in the workplace. |
| integration | The process of bringing a group into equal membership in society. |
| incorporation | Including the protections of the Bill of Rights on the state and local levels through the 14th amendment. |
| naturalization | Legal process by which a person born a citizen of one country becomes a citizen of another. |
| Plessy v Feguson | Upheld the separate but equal doctrine established by Southern states to perpetuate segregation after the Civil War. |
| separate but equal doctrine | A constitutional basis for laws that separate one group from another on the basis of race. Established by Plessy v. Ferguson. |
| Voting Rights Act 1965 | The federal law passed in 1965 to effectuate the right of each citizen to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constriction. Provides protections to guarantee minority votes. |
| Regents of University of California v Bakke | – Was the first Supreme Court decision to suggest that an affirmative action program could be justified on the basis of diversity. The Supreme Court explained that racial quotas were not permissible under the equal protection clause, but that the diversity rationale was a legitimate interest that would allow a state medical school to consider an applicant’s race in evaluating his or her application for admission. (Several more recent Supreme Court cases suggest that the diversity rationale is no longer enough to defend an affirmative action |
