American Government and Politics: Deliberation, Democracy, and Citizenship

Chapter SevenCivil Rights

Chapter Seven: Learning Objectives

• Describe the history of the civil rights struggle in the United States

• Describe the key provisions of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Chapter Seven: Learning Objectives

• Explain the key issues in the contemporary debates over school desegregation, voting rights, and affirmative action

• Describe the history of the struggle by women in the United States to achieve legal and political equality with men

Chapter Seven: Learning Objectives

• Explain the different legal standards used by the Supreme Court in reviewing race discrimination and gender discrimination cases

• Summarize federal efforts to eliminate discrimination against older Americans and those with disabilities

Chapter Seven: Learning Objectives

• Describe the controversy over same-sex marriage in the United States and the role played by state courts, the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, and voter-approved initiatives

Introduction

While the Declaration of Independence set forth the idea that all men are created equal and possess unalienable rights, we are aware of the fact that many groups have had to fight for legal and political equality in the United States.

Equality for Black Americans: Ending Slavery

Early American policy toward slavery

• Importation of slaves banned in January 1808

• Missouri Compromise of 1820

• Mexican-American War

• Underground Railroad

Equality for Black Americans: Ending Slavery

Early American policy toward slavery

• Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

• Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

• Lincoln-Douglas debates

• Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation

Equality for Black Americans: Ending Slavery

Source: www.teachingamericanhistory.org/neh/interactives/sectionalism/lesson1/.

Equality for Black Americans: Reconstruction and Jim Crow

Reconstruction era (1865-1877)

• Freedmen’s Bureau created in 1865

• Black Codes passed by many southern states

• Civil Rights Acts passed in 1866, 1875

• Civil War Amendments (13th, 14th and 15th)

Equality for Black Americans: Reconstruction and Jim Crow

Jim Crow era (started in 1870s)

• Jim Crow laws in the South led to segregation

• Limits placed on black political power through literacy tests and poll taxes

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) set forth the separate but equal doctrine

The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century

Two important African American leaders

1. Booker T. Washington--Founder of the Tuskegee Institute

2. W.E.B. Du Bois--Founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century

The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) made a significant impact in the struggle for civil rights.

Do you believe the decision in Brown still affects us today? In what ways?

The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century

The modern civil rights movement

• Launched by the Montgomery bus boycott

• Civil Rights Acts passed in 1957, 1960

• Stressed civil disobedience

• Over 250,0000 at the March on Washington

The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century

The modern civil rights movement

• Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964)

• Civil Rights Act of 1965, 1968, and 1997

• Voting Rights Act of 1965, 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006

Key Civil Rights Controversies

What do you believe are key issues in the debates over civil rights today?

What is the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of results?

What is the government’s role, if any, in promoting equality?

Key Civil Rights Controversies: School Desegregation and Busing

School desegregation and busing

The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) stated that segregated schools were a violation of the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Key Civil Rights Controversies: School Desegregation and Busing

School desegregation and busing

What is the difference between de jure segregation and de facto segregation?

Should students be bussed to schools in a way to ensure that schools are integrated?

Key Civil Rights Controversies:School Desegregation and Busing

School desegregation and busing

• Milliken v. Bradley (1974)

• Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007)

Bettmann/CORBIS

Key Civil Rights Controversies:Voting Rights

Voting rights

• Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed to end suppression of the voting rights for blacks

• Concern over how law would affect political influence

• Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982

Key Civil Rights Controversies:Voting Rights

Key Civil Rights Controversies:Voting Rights

Voting rights

• Shaw v. Reno (1993) and majority-minority districts

• Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder (2009)

Key Civil Rights Controversies:Affirmative Action

Affirmative action

What groups benefit from affirmative action?

What are some potential controversies related to affirmative action policies?

Key Civil Rights Controversies: Affirmative Action

Affirmative action and the Supreme Court

• Regents of the Univ. of California v. Bakke (1978)

• Adarand v. Pena (1995)

• Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

• Ricci v. DeStefano (2009)

Key Civil Rights Controversies: Affirmative Action

Through its decisions, the Supreme Court has ruled that government programs using race as a qualification are subject to strict scrutiny.

Supporters of affirmative action continue to use the diversity rationale to justify their position.

International Perspectives

Apartheid in South Africa

From 1948 to the early 1990s the minority white population oppressed the black population through apartheid.

See page 228 for a list of policies during the apartheid era in South Africa.

Equality for Women

How has the government expanded the civil and political rights of women?

What are current controversies in the struggle for women’s rights?

Equality for Women

The beginning of the women’s rights movement

• Married Women’s Property Acts (1839-1895)

• Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

• Minor v. Happersett (1875)

Equality for Women

The modern women’s movement

• Key issues

--Suffrage

--Workplace conditions (such as work hours)

--Minimum wage

[LC-B201-3643-12]/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Equality for Women

The modern women’s movement

• Nineteenth Amendment (1920) granted suffrage

• In 1908 women’s workday limited to 10 hours

• In 1937 minimum wage set for women

Equality for Women

The modern women’s movement

• Equal Pay Act of 1963

• National Organization for Women formed (1966)

• Equal Rights Amendment was not ratified

• Title IX of 1972 has had a significant impact on college and university athletics

Equality for Women

The Court and women’s rights

• Rational-basis test

• Immediate or heightened scrutiny

• Craig v. Boren (1976)

• Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007)

Equality for Women

Women, the military, and the law

The Supreme Court has made important decisions about women’s service.

Rostker v. Goldberg (1981)

United States v. Virginia (1996)

Pam Price/CNP/Getty Images

Other Minorities

How do civil rights laws protect other groups, such as the elderly, people with disabilities, and gays and lesbians?

Mitch Kezar/Stone/Getty Images

Other Minorities: Older Americans

Older Americans

• Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967)

• EEOC receives approximately 15,000-20,000 complaints each year about age discrimination

Do you believe there is a problem with age discrimination in the United States?

Other Minorities: Disabled Individuals

Disabled individuals• Americans with

Disabilities Act (1990)

• ADA prohibits discrimination in employment, public programs and service, and in public accommodations

Bob Daemmrich/The Image Works

Other Minorities: Gays and Lesbians

Gays and lesbians

• Sexual orientation is not a protected category

• States have been more responsive to protecting rights of gays and lesbians

• Major controversy is over same-sex marriage

Other Minorities: Gays and Lesbians

Does the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution apply to same-sex marriages?

• Defense of Marriage Act (1996)

• Civil union laws (Vermont had first in 2000)

• Actions in various states have been mixed in extending marriage rights to same-sex couples

Civil Rights and Deliberative Democracy

Throughout history there have been many clashes over securing civil rights for different groups of Americans.

Deliberation still continues on important civil rights issues such as school desegregation, voting rights, and affirmative action.

Deliberation, Citizenship, and You

Title IX and university athletics

To comply with law colleges and universities have had to equalize the number of men and women playing varsity sports.

What have been some of the effects of this policy on collegiate athletics?

Summary

• Minorities have long struggled for rights

• All branches of government have made decisions that have extended rights to groups once discriminated against

• Civil rights laws have been a result of deliberation about justice and the common good