Ordinance of 1787: The Northwest Territorial Government (Northwest Ordinance)

Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 - Made any federal marshal or other official who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave liable to a fine of $1,000

Missouri Compromise (1850) - Series of Congressional legislative measures addressing slavery and the boundaries of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848)

Enrollment Act (Conscription) - Resulted in Draft Riots in several American cities. Noted for the devastating loss of life and property among African-Americans in New York City

Civil Rights Act of 1866 - Declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition

Reconstruction Act - A series of four acts provided for the division of all former Confederate states into five military districts; Each district would be headed by a military commander, who was charged with ensuring that the states would create new constitutions and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment

Naturalization Act of 1870 - Allowed persons of African descent to become citizens of the United States

Enforcement Act of 1870 - enacted 31 May 1870

Enforcement Act of 1871 - enacted February 1871

Enforcement Act of 1871 Also known as the Ku Klux Klan Force Act. It was the third enforcement act passed by Congress. The act gave the United States President the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to combat the Ku Klux Klan and other white terrorist organizations during the Reconstruction Era.

Morrill Land Grant Colleges Act (1890) - Required each state to show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for persons of color. Among the seventy colleges and universities which eventually evolved from the Morrill Acts are several of todays Historically Black colleges and universities

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (overturned low court decision by same name) (1950)

Jones v. Mayer (1968) - A United States Supreme Court case which held that

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