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Civil Rights and Public Policy

This chapter provides an introduction to civil rights and public policy, exploring the definition, historical context, and key events related to civil rights in the United States. It covers topics such as racial and gender discrimination, the impact of the Constitution on civil rights, voting rights, rights of minority groups, women's rights, newly active groups under the civil rights umbrella, and the concept of affirmative action.

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Civil Rights and Public Policy

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  1. Civil Rights and Public Policy Chapter 5

  2. Introduction • Civil Rights: • Definition: Policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals. • Racial Discrimination • Gender Discrimination • Discrimination based on age, disability, sexual orientation and other factors

  3. Introduction

  4. Two Centuries of Struggle • Conceptions of Equality • Equal opportunity • Equal results • Early American Views of Equality • The Constitution and Inequality • 14th Amendment: “…equal protection of the laws.”

  5. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy • The Era of Slavery • Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) • The Civil War • The Thirteenth Amendment • The Era of Reconstruction and Resegregation • Jim Crow laws • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

  6. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy

  7. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy

  8. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy • The Era of Civil Rights • Brown v. Board of Education (1954) • Court ordered integration and busing of students • Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Made racial discrimination illegal in many areas • Created EEOC • Strengthened voting right legislation

  9. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy • Percentage of Black Students Attending School With any Whites in Southern States (Figure 5.1)

  10. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy

  11. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy • Getting and Using the Right To Vote • Suffrage: The legal right to vote. • Fifteenth Amendment: Extended suffrage to African Americans • Poll Taxes: Small taxes levied on the right to vote. • White Primary: Only whites were allowed to vote in the party primaries.

  12. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy • Getting and Using the Right To Vote • Smith v. Allwright (1944): ended white primaries. • Twenty-fourth Amendment: Eliminated poll taxes for federal elections. • Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966) - no poll taxes at all. • Voting Rights Act of 1965: Helped end formal and informal barriers to voting.

  13. Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy • Other Minority Groups • Native Americans • Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez (1978) • Hispanic Americans • Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund • Asian Americans • Korematsu v. United States (1944)

  14. Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy • The Battle for the Vote • Nineteenth Amendment: Extended suffrage to women in 1920. • The “Doldrums”: 1920-1960 • Laws were designed to protect women, and protect men from competition with women. • The Second Feminist Wave • Reed v. Reed (1971)

  15. Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy

  16. Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy • The Second Feminist Wave, continued… • Craig v. Boren (1976) • Draft is not discriminatory • Women in the Workplace • Wage Discrimination and Comparable Worth • Women in the Military • Sexual Harassment

  17. Newly Active Groups Under the Civil Rights Umbrella • Civil Rights and the Graying of America • Are the Young a Disadvantaged Group, Too? • Civil Rights and People With Disabilities • Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 • Gay and Lesbian Rights

  18. Newly Active Groups Under the Civil Rights Umbrella

  19. Affirmative Action • Definition: • A policy designed to give special attention to or compensatory treatment of members of some previously disadvantaged group. • A move towards equal results? • Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) • Adarand Constructors v. Pena (1995)

  20. Affirmative Action

  21. Understanding Civil Rights and Public Policy • Civil Rights and Democracy • Equality favors majority rule. • Suffrage gave many groups political power. • Civil Rights and the Scope of Government • Civil rights laws increase the size of government. • Civil rights protect individuals.

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