AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Civil Rights.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights

Civil Rights


Founding Tension

Declaration of Independence

“All men are created equal”

We have inalienable rights to . . . Life, Liberty & Propertybut . . . He also owned slaves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Jefferson_by_Rembrandt_Peale,_1800.jpg


Equality in the Constitution

13th Amendment (1865)

abolished slavery 14th Amendment (1868)

granted “equal protection of the laws” to all

15th Amendment (1870)

gave African Americans the right to vote


Some Key Cases

Scott v. Sandford

1857The Court held thatBlack people were propertyand could not be citizensor have the rights of a citizen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DredScott.jpg

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS - Judiciary

Taney Opinion

They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roger_Taney_-_Healy.jpg


Taney Opinion

He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roger_Taney_-_Healy.jpg


14th Amendment ~ 1868

All persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;


14th Amendment ~ 1868

nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.


Some Key Cases

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896The Court held that“equal but separate accommodations”was constitutional Background = “Jim Crow” laws


Harlan Dissent

The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time if it remains true to its great heritage and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/James-M-Harlan.jpg


Harlan Dissent

But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. 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.



Harlan Dissent

The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved...



Harlan Dissent

If evils will result from the commingling of the two races upon public highways established for the benefit of all, they will be infinitely less than those that will surely come from state legislation regulating the enjoyment of civil rights upon the basis of race.



Harlan Dissent

We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people above all other peoples.

But it is difficult to reconcile that boast with a state of the law which, practically, puts the brand of servitude and degradation upon a large class of our fellow-citizens, our equals before the law.



Harlan Dissent

The thin disguise of 'equal' accommodations for passengers in railroad coaches will not mislead any one, nor atone for the wrong this day done.



Some Key Cases

Brown v. Board of Education

1954The Court held thatSchool segregation was unconstitutional . . . because it violated theEqual Protection clause of the 14th AmendmentKey in expanding civil rights


After Brown

Rosa Parks

1955Refused to move to the back of the bus.Led to a one year longboycott of Montgomery buses . . . led by MLK“the First Lady of Civil Rights”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosaparks.jpg


After Brown

The Little Rock Nine

1957Nine students enrolled atLittle Rock Central High President Eisenhower had to send in troops to protect them


George Wallace

Governor of Alabama Inaugural Speech 1963

Today I have stood, where once Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. It is very appropriate then that from this Cradle of the Confederacy, this Heart of the Great Anglo-Saxon Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us done, time and time again through history.. .


George Wallace

Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . and I say . . . segregation now. . . segregation tomorrow . . . and segregation forever.


Kennedy

In response to Wallace Sent in the National Guard

We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the Constitution.


Kennedy

If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public; if he cannot send his children to the best public school available; if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him;


Kennedy

If, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?


Kennedy

One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice; they are not yet freed from social and economic oppression.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Civil Rights.

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