CIVIL RIGHTS
Chapter 6
OConnor 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
Norths 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 Courts 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 (7/8ths white, 1/8th 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 Womens Groups
NAWSA
Temperance League
National Consumers
League
Women are Allowed to Vote
Coalition of womens
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 nations 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 Kennedys 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 Womens Rights Movement
In
1961, President Kennedy created a Commission on the Status of Women. The Commissions 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.
Womens 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
Courts 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)
Dont ask, dont tell
Romer v. Evans (1996)
Boy Scouts of America
et al. v. Dale (2000)