Embedded Files
TITLE IX
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery on December 6, 1865. This was six months after the first Juneteenth (6/19/1865), and almost three years after the Emancipation Proclamation (1/1/1863). All enslaved people were freed by the Proclamation and 13th Amendment, but were not yet citizens of the United States. Citizenship would come with the adoption of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (7/9/1868), which states that all people born in the United States are citizens, no matter their race or sex.
The 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection under law for all citizens. Many landmark Supreme Court cases center around this Amendment. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education, the Court ruled that segregated schools were not equal, and thus violated the 14th Amendment. The 1964 Civil Rights Act largely falls under the 14th Amendment. The the 1967 interracial marriage case, Loving v. Virginia, the 2015 same-sex marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges, and the 2020 ruling that happened last week that protects LGBTQ people from workplace discrimination, all fall under the 14th Amendment. Equal protection under the law for ALL citizens.
Title IX, signed into law by President Richard Nixon (1972), is an amendment to the Civil Rights Act (1964), which is an amendment to the 14th Amendment (1868), which is an amendment to the original Constitution (1789). Though passed in 1972, Title IX was revised in 1984 and 1988, to make the protections stronger. In 1988, President Ronald Regan tried to veto the enhanced protections, but was overruled by a Congressional majority.
Title IX states that: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
Financial assistance includes federal student loans and federal grants, which every public school and nearly every college in America receives. This is a key detail that helps keep schools in compliance with Title IX, and maintains protections for all students and employees.
Before Title IX, girls and women did not have equal access to educational programs, including sports. It was perfectly legal for schools to have all-boys activity clubs and only have boys sports teams. Discrimination and harassment was inappropriate, but not illegal. These exclusionary, discriminatory, and harassing practices held back many people, particularly girls and women. Title IX put an end to all of that nonsense. Equal protection under the law for ALL citizens.
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