Reformation: The Protestant Reformation caused people to leave the Catholic Church reducing its power.
In 1517, Martin Luther began a revolution within the Catholic Church creating a new religion and spurring others to break away as well. The branches of the Protestant Church rose out of the movement reducing the membership of the Catholic Church. This reduced the money and therefore the power of the Church. <span />
The Voting Rights Act<span>, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73) on August 6, </span>1965<span>, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented </span>African Americans<span> from exercising their right to </span>vote<span> under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.</span>
In 1896, in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court declared the "separate but equal" doctrine. It upheld the rights of governments to set up separate schools and separate public facilities for blacks and whites so that blacks and whites could be "equal." However, they were far from equal.
