Civil RightsChapter 5

• WHO GOVERNS?WHO GOVERNS?1. Since Congress enacts our laws, why has it

not made certain that all groups have the same rights?

2. After the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in the schools, what did the president and Congress do?

• TO WHAT ENDS?TO WHAT ENDS?1. If the law supports equality of opportunity, why

has affirmative action become so important?

2. Under what circumstances can men and women be treated differently?

The Struggle for Equality

• Conceptions of Equality– Civil Rights - Policies protect people

against discrimination.– Equal opportunity - Same chance to use

their abilities and skills in order to succeed.– Equal results – Everyone should have the

same rewards such as earn the same salary or have the same amount of property.

The Struggle for Equality

• The Constitution and Inequality– Equality is not in the original Constitution.– First mention of equality in the 14th

Amendment – Equal protection of the laws.

•Most classifications that are reasonable (that bear a rational relationship to some legitimate governmental purpose) are constitutional.•Racial and ethnic classifications are inherently suspect: they are presumed to be invalid and are upheld only if they serve a “compelling public interest” that cannot be accomplished in some other way.•Classifications based on gender fit somewhere between reasonable and inherently suspect: gender classifications must bear a substantial relationship to an important legislative purpose (and is sometimes called “medium scrutiny”).

African Americans’ Civil Rights

• The Era of Slavery– Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) ruled that

slaves had no rights (were not citizens).– 13th Amendment (1865) outlawed slavery.– 14th Amendment reversed Dred Scott, and

gave citizenship rights

African Americans’ Civil Rights

• The Era of Reconstruction and Segregation– Jim Crow Laws (1877–1954) made separate

facilities legal.– Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ruled separate

but equal facilities were constitutional.

Segregated water fountains in 1939.

African Americans’ Civil Rights

• Equal Education– Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruled

school segregation inherently unconstitutional.– de jure segregation (by law) versus de facto

segregation (in reality).– Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenberg County

Schools (1971) • Busing of students to achieve desegregation • Effects of forced busing?

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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman

This picture of a police dog lunging at a black man during a racial demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama, in May 1963 was one of the most influential photographs ever published. It was widely reprinted throughout the world and was frequently referred to in congressional debates on the civil rights bill of 1964.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I have a Dream” speech on the Washington, D.C., mall in 1963.. .

Bill Hudson/AP Photo

AP Getty

African Americans’ Civil Rights

• The Civil Rights Movement and Public Policy– Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the public policy

that made racial discrimination in hotels, motels, and restaurants illegal and that forbade many forms of job discrimination.

African Americans’ Civil Rights

• Voting Rights– Suffrage is the legal right to vote.– Fifteenth Amendment extended suffrage to

African Americans (men only).– Poll Tax – A small tax levied on the right to vote.– Grandfather Clause– White Primary– Literacy tests– Shaw v. Reno (1993)

• Racial gerrymandering

African Americans’ Civil Rights

• Voting Rights – Smith v. Allwright (1944) ended the white

primaries.– 24th Amendment (1964) eliminated poll taxes

for federal elections.– Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Details?• What were the effects?

Sources: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2003, table 417.

When the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, there were only 70 African Americans holding public office in the 11 states of the South.

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The Rights of Other Minority Groups

• Native Americans– Indian Bill of Rights - Title II of the Civil

Rights Act of 1968 applied most of the provisions of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights to tribal governments.

The Rights of Other Minority Groups

• Hispanic Americans– Hernandez v. Texas (1954) extended

protection against discrimination to Hispanics.

– White v. Regester (1973) ruled no multimember electoral districts in Texas.

– Plyler v. Doe (1982) allows public education for illegal immigrant children in Texas.

The Rights of Other Minority Groups

• Asian Americans– During World War II more than 100,000

Americans of Japanese descent were moved to internment camps.

– Korematsu v. U.S. (1944) upheld as constitutional the internment of more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent in encampments during World War II.

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Women and Public Policy

• The Battle for the Vote– The Seneca Falls Declaration of

Sentiments and Resolutions that was signed on July 19, 1848 was the beginning of the suffrage movement for women.

– The Nineteenth Amendment was adopted in 1920 and guaranteed women the right to vote.

Women and Public Policy

• 1920–1960– Laws were designed to protect women, and protect men

from competition with women.– Equal Rights Amendment first introduced in Congress in

1923

• The Second Feminist Wave– Reed v. Reed (1971) ruled that arbitrary gender

discrimination violated 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

– Craig v. Boren (1976) - Medium (intermediate) scrutiny standard established for gender discrimination.

– Equal Rights Amendment fails ratification by states in 1982.

Women and Public Policy

• Title IX of the Education Act of 1972

• Women in the Workplace– The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned gender

discrimination in employment.– The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978

made it illegal for employers to exclude pregnancy and childbirth from their sick leave and health benefits plans.

– Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

Women and Public Policy

• Wage Discrimination and Comparable Worth– Median weekly earnings for women

working full time are only 80 percent those for men working full time.

– The 1st significant legislation that President Barack Obama signed was a 2009 bill outlawing discrimination in compensation.

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Women and Public Policy• Sexual Harassment

– Prohibited by Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964.

– The law is violated when the workplace environment would reasonably be perceived, and is perceived, as hostile or abusive.”

Women and Public Policy

• Women in the Military– Women make up about 14 percent of the

active duty armed forces.– Congress opened all the service academies

to women in 1975.– Only men may be drafted or serve in ground

combat.

Women’s Rights Review

Other Groups Active Under the Civil Rights Umbrella

• Civil Rights and the Graying of America– Age classifications fall under rational

(reasonable) basis test.– How may you legally discriminate on the basis

of age?

Other Groups Active Under the Civil Rights Umbrella

• Civil Rights and People with Disabilities– Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

requires employers and public facilities to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities and prohibits discrimination against these individuals in employment.

– What determines if someone is disabled?

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Other Groups Active Under the Civil Rights Umbrella

• Gay and Lesbian Rights– Defense of

Marriage Act (1996) lets states disregard same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

– “Don’t ask, don’t tell”

U.S. Supreme Court Cases Related To U.S. Supreme Court Cases Related To Gay RightsGay Rights

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Affirmative Action

• Affirmative Action– Policy designed to give special attention to or

compensatory treatment for members of some previously disadvantaged group.

• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)– Ruled that racial set asides (quotas) were

unconstitutional, but can consider race in admissions.

• Gratz v. Bollinger; Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)– University of Michigan admission cases

• Affirmative Action in the workplace– Adarand v. Pena (1995) - Held that federal

programs that classify people by race should be presumed to be unconstitutional

• Where does affirmative action stand today?– Race, gender, ethnicity, etc., can be a factor but not

the only factor in determining placement or hiring

What do people think about affirmative action?Source: Pew Research Center, “Public Backs Affirmative Action, but Not Minority Preferences,”

June 2, 2009.

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A protest in Georgia over immigration laws.

Erik Lesser/ZUMA Press/Corbis