This is a list of landmark legislation, court decisions, executive orders, and proclamations in the United States significantly affecting African Americans. Congressional Legislation Bills not passed Land Ordinance of 1784: Prohibited slavery in any new states after the year 1800. Omitted in final version of the bill Wilmot Proviso (1847) - sought to prohibit slavery in the territory acquired in the Mexican-American War. Lodge Fair Elections bill (1890) - proposal to empower the federal government to ensure fair elections. Failed after the Republican Party dropped support for it in exchange for the South's support of the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill (1921) - sought to codify lynching as a federal crime. Defeated after a Senate filibuster by Southern Democrats. Costigan-Wagner antilynching bill (1934) Gavagan-Fish antilynching bill (1940) Civil Rights Act of 1990 - sought to ease requirements for plaintiffs in civil rights litigation. Passed by Congress but vetoed by President George H.W. Bush. Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act (2021-22), a proposed act to investigate potential reparations for slavery in the United States, introduced as H.R. 40 George Floyd Justice In Policing Act (2020-21) - sought to combat police misconduct, excessive force, and racial bias in American policing after murders of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks. Bills signed into law Slave Codes (1685-1865) - Series of laws limiting legal rights of slaves. Included establishment of slave patrols, limitations on freedom of movement, anti-literacy regulation, restrictions on commerce, and punishments for other infractions. South Carolina slave codes (1685) - modeled on slave codes in Barbados and Jamaica. Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 New York slave codes (1702) Ordinance of 1787: The Northwest Territorial Government ("Northwest Ordinance") - Prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory north of the Ohio River. Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 - Guaranteed rights of slaveholders to retrieve escaped slaves. An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves 1807 - legally prohibited the international slave trade. Missouri Compromise (1820) - prohibited slavery north of parallel 36°30′ north, with the exception of Missouri, but allowed its continuation in the South. Resulted in the sectional factionalism between slave states and free states which lead to the American Civil War and the continuation of slavery in the South. Compromise of 1850 (1850) – Series of Congressional legislative measures addressing slavery and the boundaries of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). Fugitive