Through the years, the Supreme Court of the United States has made important decisions in many cases affecting civil rights. In this lesson, students read through brief descriptions of twenty such court cases. Within each description, there are underlined words that class members must rearrange and write in the correct order on a line that is provided.

The twenty cases mentioned in this activity are as follows:

• Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
• Strauder v. West Virginia (1880)
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• Truax v. Ralch (1915)
• Buchanan v. Warley (1917)
• Powell v. Alabama (1932)
• Norris v. Alabama (1935)
• Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)
• McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
• Swealt v. Painter (1950)
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
• Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Company (1968)
• Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg County Board of Education (1971)
• Roe v. Wade (1973)
• Cleveland Board of Education v. LeFleur (1974)
• Milliken v. Bradley (1974)
• Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth (1976)
• Beal v. Doe (1977)
• Califano v. Goldfarb (1977)
• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)