The long and winding road…to

Civil Rights

In the 1850s a major political fight broke out in Boston over whether the police department should be obliged to hire an Irish officer

Women struggled for the right to vote from almost the beginning of

our country…took until 1919

In the 1940s the U.S. army with the approval of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, removed all Japanese Americans from their homes in California and placed them in relocation centers far from the coast

In all of these cases, some group, usually defined along racial or ethnic lines, was denied access to facilities, opportunities, or services that were available to other groups

All of these cases raise the issue of CIVIL RIGHTS

Today, we take for granted the rights of women and blacks to vote for granted

In fact since 1990, women have outvoted men at the polls

But it wasn’t always this way…

Definition:

Civil rights refers to the positive acts governments take to protect individuals against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by governments or individuals based on categories such as race, sex, national origin, age or sexual orientation

The Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, boldly proclaims

“We hold these truths self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.”

But the U. S. Constitution, written 11 years later, is silent on the concept of equality

Only through Constitutional amendments, Supreme Court definition and redefinition of the rights contained in that document and legislation passed by the Congress have Americans come close to attaining equal rights

Since the Constitution was written, the concept of civil rights has changed dramatically

The addition of the 14th Amendment, introduced the notion of equality into the Constitution by specifying that states could not deny “any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws”

Reformers called for change, the women’s movement gained momentum and slavery continued to tear the nation apart

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel that showed the evils of slavery, further inflamed the country

This novel sold more than 300,000 copies in 1852

“Civil Rights Amendments”

13th Amendment

banned all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude

14th Amendment

This amendment can be broken into three parts

“all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside”

This 1st section of the amendment was intended to make all Blacks citizens of the states where they resided and citizens of the United States

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”

This 2nd part of the amendment was intended to EXTEND the Bill of Rights to the STATES (not just the federal government)

Due Process Clause

this clause is known as the “due process clause”

Miranda v. Arizona -right to remain silent-no self incrimination

Gideon v. Wainwright -right to counsel (attorney)

Nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”

This 3rd part guarantees that all citizens are supposed to be treated EQUALLY

Equal Protection Clause

this clause is known as the “equal protection clause”

All citizens are to be treated equally and is the basis for our civil rights Supreme Court decisions and civil rights legislation

Guarantees equal protection of the laws and due process to all citizens

15th Amendment-Black Voting Rights

The 15th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1869 and ratified in 1870

It guaranteed the “right of citizens” to vote regardless of their race, color or previous servitude

You can try and change people by changing laws and even the Constitution but if people really don’t buy into them, they will always find a way around them…and many in the South did…

In devising ways to make certain that African Americans did not vote, Southerners had to avoid the INTENT of the 15th Amendment

This amendment did not guarantee suffrage; it simply stated that states could not deny anyone the right to vote on account of race or color

But it didn’t say they couldn’t be denied to vote for other reasons!!! (literacy tests and poll taxes)

Jim Crow Laws

Laws which were enacted by Southern states that discriminated against blacks by creating “whites only” schools, theaters, hotels and other public accommodations

To exclude African Americans in a seemingly racially neutral way, Southern states used two devices before the 1890s

(1) Poll taxes-small taxes on the right to vote

(2) “literacy” or “understanding” tests-allowed local registrars to administer difficult reading comprehension tests

Grandfather Clause These literacy or understanding

tests (along with poll taxes) impacted white voters (all of the sudden southern states realized they were impacting poor whites) so states added the “Grandfather Clause” to their voting qualifications

This allowed those whose grandfathers had voted before Reconstruction to vote (they didn’t need to pass a literacy test or pay an tax)

And because the grandfathers of the Blacks COULD NOT vote before the Civil War and the grandfathers of the Whites COULD VOTE this again was a way to keep Blacks from having equal protection of the laws

And then the Supreme Court reinforced segregation in the South when they ruled on a landmark Supreme Court case…

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Distress over the legal inferiority of African Americans was aggravated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

A case that some commentators point to as the Court’s darkest hour

“Separate but equal…” This case established

the “separate but equal doctrine”

As long as you provide “equal accommodations” it was o.k. to separate blacks from whites

This became the new way to discriminate against African Americans in the South

While discrimination was widely practiced in many parts of the North, the Southern states passed laws legally imposing segregation in education, housing, public accommodations, employment and most other spheres of life

Jim Crow laws were not the only practices designed to keep African Americans in a secondary position

These laws established a way of life with strong social codes as well

Journalist Juan Williams noted in “Eyes on the Prize”…

“There were Jim Crow schools, Jim Crow restaurants, Jim Crow water fountains and Jim Crow customs—blacks were expected to tip their hats whey they walked past whites, but whites did not have to remove their hats even when they entered a black family's home. Whites were to be called “sir” and “ma am” by blacks, who in turn were called by their first names by whites. People with white skin were to be given a wide berth on the sidewalk; blacks were expected to step aside meekly.”

NAACP-National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Founded in 1909 by a handful of people active in a variety of progressive causes including woman’s suffrage

Began working for the next 50 years for the rights of African Americans

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that state-segregated school systems were unconstitutional

Actually Brown v. Board of Education was four cases brought from different areas of the South and border states involving public elementary or high school systems that mandated separate schools for blacks and whites

NAACP lawyers headed by Thurgood Marshall, argued that Plessy’s separate but equal doctrine was unconstitutional

Under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment-Only way to equalize the schools was to integrate them

A major component of the NAACP’s strategy was to prove there was intellectual, psychological and financial damage when Blacks were separated from Whites because of their race

On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous opinion of the Court

“to separate [some school children] from others…solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way very unlikely ever to be undone. We conclude, unanimously, that in the filed of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place.”

There can be no doubt that Brown was the most important civil rights case decided in the 20th century

It immediately evoked an uproar that shook the nation

Some in the South called this decision “Black Monday”

The governor of S.C. declared “ending segregation would mark the beginning of the end of civilization in the South as we know it”

But of course the NAACP lawyers who argued the case were jubilant

This victory empowered African Americans as they sought an end to other forms of pervasive discrimination

Shortly after the decision, bus boycotts

and “sit ins” began

Rosa Parks

As new groups were formed, freedom rides, pressure for voting rights, and massive nonviolent demonstrations became common “lobbying tactics”

Civil Rights Act of 1964

These activities culminated in the passage of the (1) Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the (1) Voting Rights Act of 1965

This Act passed by Congress

Provided for the withholding of federal funds (money) from discriminatory state and local programs

Prohibited discrimination in employment on grounds of race, color religion, national origin or sex

Major Provisions of this Act

(1) Outlawed arbitrary discrimination in voter registration

but did not abolish literacy tests sometimes used to disqualify African Americans and poor white voters; that would come later with the….

With the 24th Amendment

Signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

(2) Authorized federal government to sue to desegregate public schools and

facilities

(3) way to hurt states was withhold $$$$$$$$ they needed-so the act provided for the withholding of

federal funds from any state program that was administered in a discriminatory manner

(4) It established the right to equality of opportunity in employment (for minorities

and women)

(5) Outlawed discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; exempted private clubs without defining the term "private."

(6) prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and

national origin

(7) Established the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC)

At first the power to enforce this act was pretty weak…but later it

was supplemented

The bill divided and engendered a long-term change in the demographics of both political parties. President Johnson realized that supporting this bill would mean losing the South's overwhelming support of the Democratic Party

For more than a century, white Southerners had overwhelmingly been Democrats, but in 1948 many bolted from the party and supported Strom Thurmond's third-party candidacy for president of the United States (Dixicrats-who were against desegregation)

The South indeed started to vote increasingly Republican after 1964. However, political scientists Richard Johnston and Byron Schafer have argued that this development was based more on economics than on race

Brown v. Board banned racial discrimination in public schools and was gradually extended to other public facilities

But what about privately owned places such as motels, hotels and restaurants?

As a result , many of these “public” places continued to refuse to accommodate African Americans

Professional baseball teams, which had become racially integrated in 1947, could do nothing when their Black players were not allowed to register at the same hotels as their white teammates

Civil liberties lawyers tried to find some constitutional way to make these discriminatory practices illegal

First, lawyers first had to prove federal courts had jurisdiction over these places and

Second, that they violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Heart of Atlanta Motel was located in downtown Atlanta but was accessed by two interstate highways

Motel had always solicited guests from outside of Georgia by advertising in various national publications

It also accepted reservations for conventions from organizations outside of Georgia

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964)

About 75% of their business came from outside of Georgia

Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Motel had refused to rent to Blacks

And of course, after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, the hotel said they had no plans to change their policy

The motel sued the United States Government (since they were the ones that were going to enforce these new laws)

Motel claimed the Civil Rights Act was UNCONSTITUTIONAL because it exceeded its power to REGULATE INTERSTATE COMMERCE under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution (remember Article I, Section 8 enumerated powers)

The Supreme Court had to decide if the Civil Rights Act deprived the motel owners of THEIR Constitutional rights

The Supreme Court was going to decide this

case onInterstate

Commerce?????!!!

The Supreme Court ruled against the Heart of Atlanta Motel

The Court held that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution permitted Congress to ban discrimination in places like a motel

In the Gibbons v. Ogden (back in 1824!) case the court had defined “interstate commerce” in such a way as to include businesses of motels

It denied that the business of the motel was purely local since a good portion of its business was from people from other states

And then right on the heels of Heart of Atlanta Motel came Katzenback v. McClung

(1964)

On the same day the Court ruled on Heart of Atlanta Motel, they also ruled on a closely related case that dealt with a Birmingham restaurant that served mostly LOCAL clientele

Served Blacks but only at a takeout counter

BUT HALF THE FOOD COOKED AND SERVED AT THE TAKE-OUT COUNTER CAME FROM OUT-OF-STATE

The court instead took the stand that it was unconstitutional to deny serving Blacks because discrimination in a public accommodation such as a restaurant severely hindered interstate travel by African Americans

In a concurring opinion (Supreme Court opinion that agrees but for other reasons)-Justices William O. Douglas and Arthur J. Goldberg argued that the commerce clause was not the only constitutional support for the Court’s view of interstate commerce

They believed the 14th amendment empowered Congress to impose the regulations provided by in the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Soon after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, federal examiners were conducting voter registrations and black voter registration began to sharply increase

The cumulative effect of the Supreme Court's decisions, Congress' enactment of voting rights legislation, and the ongoing efforts of concerned private citizens and the Department of Justice, has been to restore the right to vote guaranteed by the 14th and 15th Amendments. The Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single most effective piece of civil rights legislation for African Americans

It outlawed literacy tests

President George W. Bush recently signed the reauthorization of the Voting

Rights Act as lawmakers look on.

24th Amendment-Elimination of Poll Taxes

(1964)

ratified in 1964, outlawed the use of this tax (or any other tax) as a pre-condition in voting in Federal elections.

These new laws gave African Americans and women’s rights groups two potential weapons in their legal arsenals

Our notion of civil rights has changed profoundly since 1954

First African Americans and then women have built upon existing organizations to forge successful movements for increased rights

Brown v. Board of Education served as a catalyst for change, sparking the development of the modern civil rights movement

Since the passage of the civil rights amendments and civil rights legislation, there has been a fairly consistent pattern of the expansion of civil rights to more and more groups

Equal Rights Amendment (1972)

(actually first introduced in 1921)

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment between 1972 and 1982 lobbied, marched, rallied, petitioned, picketed, went on hunger strikes, and committed acts of civil disobedience

But the Equal Rights Amendment never was ratified

Many felt this amendment might hurt women more than help them

Instead, Congress has passed legislation that has outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex

Statutory Remedies for Sex Discrimination

Because the interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause applied only to governmental discrimination, women’s rights activists began to bombard the courts with sex-discrimination cases

Title IX Title IX of the Educational

Amendments of 1972 is the landmark legislation that bans sex discrimination in schools, whether it be in academics or athletics. Title IX states:

"No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid."

Athletics has created the most controversy regarding Title IX, but its gains in education and academics are notable. Before Title IX, many schools refused to admit women or enforced strict limits. Some statistics highlighting the advancements follow:

In 1994, women received 38% of medical degrees, compared with 9% in 1972.

In 1994, women earned 43% of law degrees, compared with 7% in 1972.

In 1994, 44% of all doctoral degrees to U.S. citizens went to women, up from 25% in 1977.

Intercollegiate Athletics

Title IX governs the overall equity of treatment and opportunity in athletics while giving schools the flexibility to choose sports based on student body interest, geographic influence, budget restraints, and gender ratio. In other words, it is not a matter of women being able to participate in wrestling or that exactly the same amount of money is spent per women's and men's basketball player. Instead, the focus is on the necessity for women to have equal opportunities as men on a whole, not on an individual basis.

Financial Aid

financial assistance must be awarded based on the number of male and female athletes. The test is financial proportionality. The total amounts of athletics aid must be substantially proportionate to the ratio of male and female athletes.

all other benefits, opportunities, and treatments afforded sports participants are to be equivalent, but not necessarily identical. Title IX specifically looks at the following program components:

Equipment & Supplies: quality, suitability, quantity, availability, maintenance, & replacement.

Scheduling of Games & Practice Time: number of competitive events per sport, number and length of practice opportunities, time of day competitive events and practice opportunities are scheduled, opportunities to engage in available pre-season and post-season competition, the season a sport is scheduled, & the length of season.

Travel & Per Diem Allowances: modes of transportation, housing furnished during travel, length of stay before and after competitive events, per diem allowances, & dining arrangements.

Opportunity to Receive Academic Tutoring: availability of tutoring, tutor qualifications and experience, rates of pay, & employment conditions.

Opportunity to Receive Coaching, Assignment, & Compensation: availability, assignment, & compensation of full-time coaches, assistants, graduate assistants, or restricted earnings coaches.

Locker Rooms, Practice, & Competitive Facilities: quality, availability, exclusivity of use, maintenance and preparation of facilities.

Medical & Training Facilities and Services: quality and availability of medical personnel; athletic trainers; weight and conditioning facilities; training facilities; & health, accident, and injury insurance coverage.

Publicity: availability and quality of sports information personnel, access to publicity resources, & quantity and quality of publications and other promotional devices.

Support Services: administrative support, clerical and secretarial support, office space, equipment and supplies, & availability of other support staff.

Recruitment of Student-Athletes: opportunities for coaches or other personnel to recruit, whether financial and other resources are equivalently adequate, & treatment of prospective student-athletes.

And then….

Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)

Title I - Employment Title II - Public Services (and public

transportation) Title III - Public Accommodations

(and Commercial Facilities) Title IV - Telecommunications

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 The Americans

with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is the short title of United States Public Law 101-336, singed into law on July 26, 1990 by President George H. W. Bush.

The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal. on a case by case basis

Disability is defined "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity." The determination of whether a particular condition is a disability is made

Casey Martin v. Professional Golf

Association The 28 year-old

Martin suffers from a disorder in his right leg called Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome. The condition prevents him from walking long distances. Doctors say he may eventually lose his leg.

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that Casey Martin can use a golf cart when he plays in PGA (Professional Golf Association) tour events.

The 7-2 votes by the country’s highest court on May 29 changed the world of professional golf. It could affect other sports, as well.

The decision means that the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prevents the PGA tour from denying Martin equal access to its tournaments based on his disability.

Ruling…

And who is next on this long winding road to civil rights for all Americans?