CIVIL RIGHTS

Chapter 6

O’Connor and Sabato

American Government:

Continuity and Change

CIVIL LIBERTIES

In this chapter we will cover…

– Slavery, Abolition, and Winning the Right to Vote, 1800-90

– The Push for Equality, 1890-1954

– The Civil Rights Movement

– Other Groups Mobilize for Rights

What are Civil Rights?

Civil Rights refers to the positive acts governments take to protect against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government or individuals.

•Slavery, Abolition, and
Winning the Right to Vote (1800-1890)

• Slavery and Congress

– In 1808 Congress banned slave trade.

– The South was heavily dependent on cheap slave labor.

– The North was becoming industrial.

– In 1820 Missouri applied for admission as a slave state.

– Admission of Missouri as a slave state would have given the slave states a majority in the Senate and was strongly opposed in the North.

Missouri Compromise (1820)

• Allowed the admission of Missouri as a slave state along with the admission of Maine as a free state.

• Balance of power was preserved but the conflict raged on.

The Abolitionist Movement

• Founded by William Lloyd Garrison, the American Anti-Slavery Society (1833) reinvigorated the abolitionist movement.

• Northern interest in emancipation, pushed by abolitionists, eroded relations between the North and South.

• William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator was the voice of abolitionism, calling for immediate emancipation of the slaves.

The Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

• Slavery was not the only practice that people began to question in the early years of America. Custom dictated that women not speak out in public and laws were constructed to make women second-class citizens.

• The Seneca Convention gathered people from New York State who believed that all men and women should be given the same rights of citizenship.

Heightened Tensions (1850s)

The Civil War and Its Aftermath:
Some Direct Causes for Conflict

• Conflict over slavery (the Justice Taney Court left little choice)

• Conflict over nullification

• North’s increasing strength in Congress

• Southern agriculture v. Northern industry

• Southern conservative culture v. Northern progressive ideas

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

• Abraham Lincoln, on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War, declared all "slaves within any State, or designated part of a State ... then ... in rebellion, ... shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

The Civil War Amendments

• Thirteenth Amendment: banned all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude

• Fourteenth Amendment: guarantees equal protection of the laws and due process to all citizens

• Fifteenth Amendment: specifically gives black men the right to vote

Black Codes

• Southern states passed laws (Black Codes) that prohibited black Americans from:

– Voting

– Sitting on juries

– Or even appearing in public places

Jim Crow Laws

• During the years of Jim Crow, state laws mandated racial separation of many places, including:

– schools

– restaurants

– hotels

– public transportation

– theatres

– restrooms

• Many Jim Crow Laws banned interracial marriages.

• These laws remained in effect throughout the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Intent of the
Fifteenth Amendment

• To avoid the intent of the Fifteenth Amendment, Southerners moved to exclude African American voters with:

– Poll taxes

– Literacy tests

– Whites-only primaries

– Grandfather clauses

Sample Questions from a Literacy Test

State of Louisiana

One wrong answer denotes failure of the test. (10 min)

• Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.

• Draw a line under the last word in this line.

• Cross out the longest word in this line.

• Draw a line around the shortest word in this line.

• Circle the first, first letter of the alphabet in this line.

• In the space below draw three circles, one inside the other.

• Above the letter X make a small cross.

• Draw a line through the letter below that comes earliest in the alphabet. ZVSEDGMKYTPHC

• Draw a line through the letter below that comes last in the alphabet. ZVSEDGMKYTPHC

• In the space below write the word noise backwards and place a dot over what would be its second letter should it have been written forward.

• Give your age in days.

2. The Push for Equality,
1890-1954

• The Progressive Era (1889-1920) saw many reforms in:

– Child labor laws

– Monopolies

- Prejudice

• However, in what many call the Supreme Court’s darkest hour, the Court legitimized the principle of “separate but equal” in its ruling Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Homer Adolph Plessy (7/8^ths white, 1/8^th black) boarded a train in New Orleans and sat in the “whites only” car.

• Plessy was arrested when he refused to sit in the “colored car.”

• Plessy sued arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment made racial segregation illegal.

Separate But Equal Doctrine

• The Supreme Court ruled in Plessy that the Louisiana law was constitutional and that separate but equal facilities for blacks did not violate the Equal Protection Clause.

• The high-court Plessy ruling led to a profusion of Jim Crow laws.

• By 1914 every Southern state had passed laws that created two separate societies--one black, the other white.

The Lone Dissenter in Plessy

• Justice John Harlan showed foresight when he wrote:

• “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case.”

Organizations Form
to Push for Equality

• Formation of NAACP (1909)

• Key Women’s Groups

– NAWSA

– Temperance League

– National Consumers’ League

Women are Allowed to Vote

• Coalition of women’s groups secured the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) guaranteeing all women the right to vote.

Litigating for Equality

• The NAACP set up a legal defense fund (LDF) in 1939 to pursue equality in the nation’s courts.

• The Court ruled in Sweatt v. Painter that it would be impossible for the State of Texas to provide an equal legal education in a separate setting.

Litigating for Equality

• In 1950, the Court ruled in favor of Mr. Sweatt and forced the University of Texas Law School to admit him.

• In Sweatt v. Painter the Supreme Court struck down the system of "separate but equal" in graduate school education and paved the way for the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

• Linda Carol Brown was not allowed to attend a school several blocks from her house because it was for white students. Instead, she had to walk several miles to the nearest all-black school.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

• The NAACP argued that the intellectual, psychological, and financial damage that befell black Americans precluded any finding of equality under the separate but equal policy.

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Sixty-four years after the Plessy decision the Court struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) decision.

3. The Civil Rights Movement

• The Brown v. Board decision sparked the development of the modern civil rights movement.

“With All Deliberate Speed:”
School Desegregation After Brown

• The Court struggled over a remedy.

• A year later, in Brown II (1955), the Court ruled that segregated systems must be dismantled “with all deliberate speed.”

• Central High and Governor Orval Faubus illustrate the long and costly battle to end segregation.

The Triumph of Non-Violent Protest

• In 1955, Rosa Parks challenged segregation in public transportation.

• A new young preacher in Montgomery, Martin Luther King, Jr., was selected to lead the challenge against the segregated bus system.

• After a year the boycott succeeded.

Non-Violent Protests

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated a nonviolent approach to forcing social change. King modeled his philosophy on that of Gandhi, who successfully employed the nonviolent approach in an Indian revolt against the British shortly after World War II.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Dr. King founded the SCLC in 1957. This group used non-violent means such as:

• Freedom rides, sit-ins, and boycotts were used to open segregated lunch counters, waiting rooms, public swimming pools, and other public places.

• Often local police attacked the peaceful protestors or chose not to defend them from attacking segregationists.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964:

• Outlawed arbitrary discrimination in voter registration.

• Barred discrimination in public accommodation.

• Authorized the U.S. Justice Department to initiate lawsuits to desegregate schools and public facilities.

• Allowed the federal government to withhold funds from discriminatory state and local programs.

• Prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.

• Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to monitor and enforce bans on employment discrimination.

The March on Washington

• In August 1963, more than 250,000 people marched peacefully in Washington, D.C. to show support for President Kennedy’s congressional motion banning discrimination in public places and accommodations.

The Impact of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Southerners argued that the Act violated the Constitution and was an unwarranted use of federal power.

• The Court ruled that state-imposed (de jure) segregation must be eliminated at once.

• A full decade after Brown, less than 1% of African American children in the South attended integrated schools.

• Over time, these rulings and laws opened up numerous occupations to minorities and women.

The Women’s Rights Movement

• In 1961, President Kennedy created a Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission’s report, titled “American Women,” detailed pervasive discrimination against women.

• The Feminine Mystique (1963) added to the dawning recognition that something was wrong.

• Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 included a prohibition against gender discrimination, the EEOC failed to enforce the law.

Women’s Rights Movement

• In 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed to address the many problems faced by women.

Equal Rights Amendment

• Equal Rights Amendment battle

– Roe v. Wade backlash

– draft eligibility

– ratification deadline

– Court’s expansive view of Fourteenth Amendment

4. Other Groups Mobilize for Rights

• Denial of civil rights has led many other disadvantaged groups to mobilize to achieve greater civil rights.

• Their efforts to achieve those rights have many parallels to the efforts made by African Americans and women.

Hispanic Americans

• Hispanic Americans borrowed tactics from the African American civil rights movement including sit-ins, boycotts, marches, and activities that drew publicity.

• The Hispanic community also relied heavily on litigation strategies.

• MALDEF and others have been successful in expanding rights and opportunities for Hispanics.

Native Americans

• Native American are the first “true” Americans, and their status under U.S. law is unique.

• “Indian tribes” under the Constitution are considered distinct governments.

Gays and Lesbians

• Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund

• Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)

• “Don’t ask, don’t tell”

• Romer v. Evans (1996)

• Boy Scouts of America et al. v. Dale (2000)