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Even when the constitution now allows African American men to vote, some federal laws contracted such equality. For example, the grandfather clause only allowed people with no only white ancestry to vote. Some African-Americans had to pay to vote; many of them could not afford the poll tax. Additionally made of them were not educated so literacy tests were a good way to prevent them from voting. The Civil rights Acts of 1865 tried to expand equality by enforcing that states did not avoid these amendments. However the Supreme Court overturned some of the acts. One main example was the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. The case ruled that separate but equal was constitutional. The court stated that segregation alone did not violate the constitution and thus was acceptable. This led an increase discrimination. However 60 years later, the court overturned that case, stating that separate is inherently unequal and illegal. The case was replaced with the "Brown vs. Board of Education." The civil rights acts of 1964 were federal laws that prohibited segregation from all states. This further expanded the importance of civil rights.
Civil rights in the United States does not only pertain to African Americans. Women and other minorities including homosexuals are frequently discriminated in society. Some of them are not treated equally to the white men under the constitutional law. Before the 19th amendment, women were discriminated under law by not obtaining the right to vote. More people had the right to vote in the 23th amendment because the district of Columbus could vote in the presidential elections. After many years, poll tax was finally outlawed in the 24th amendment. Equality in the amendments was contracted in the 26th amendment when only people over the age of 18 are given the right to vote. .
Georgia's constitution had anti-sodomy, stating that homosexuality should not be allowed in the state.