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Pearson Longman PoliticalScience Interactive. Shea, Green, and Smith Living Democracy , Second Edition Chapter 6: Civil Rights. The Ideal of Equality. The Founders believed in political equality. But for whom?. Equality of Condition
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Pearson LongmanPoliticalScienceInteractive Shea, Green, and Smith Living Democracy, Second Edition Chapter 6: Civil Rights
The Ideal of Equality The Founders believed in political equality. But for whom?
Equality of Condition The government takes direct action to reduce economic disparities between citizens. Equality of Opportunity The government seeks to eliminate some discriminatory barriers to education, employment, and public accommodation. The Ideal of Equality
The Ideal of Equality The drive for civil rights focused on • Equal access to voting • Prohibition of certain forms of “categorical discrimination” Categorical Discrimination Exclusion by reason of race, gender, or disability from public education, employment, housing, and public accommodations.
Equal Protection of the Law Race-based slavery and the years of racial discrimination that followed laid the foundation for contemporary racial disparities in wealth, housing patterns, employment opportunities, and education.
Equal Protection of the Law • Freed slaves and their descendents had no accumulated or inherited assets. • Because of the visibility of their skin color, African Americans were easy to exclude from institutions dominated by whites.
The Controversy over Affirmative Action • How does affirmative action in universities differ from other preferential criteria in admissions? • University of California v. Bakke (1978) was one of the earliest challenges to affirmative action in universities.
The Fourteenth Amendment and Reconstruction Black Codes Denied blacks equality before the law and political rights, and imposed on them mandatory year-long labor contracts, coercive apprenticeship regulations, and criminal penalties for breach of contract
The Fourteenth Amendment and Reconstruction Three constitutional amendments were aimed at providing protection for African Americans • Thirteenth Amendment (1865) • Fourteenth Amendment (1868) • Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
The Rise and Persistence of Racial Oppression • President Hayes withdrew federal occupation troops from the South in 1876. • White-dominated governments in the South did everything possible to keep African Americans from voting.
The Rise and Persistence of Racial Oppression Jim Crow laws were enacted that mandated rigid racial segregation throughout southern society.
The Rise and Persistence of Racial Oppression Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Supreme Court ruled that there was no violation of the constitutional right to equal protection when states had “separate but equal” facilities and services for people of different races.
The Rise and Persistence of Racial Oppression De Jure Segregation Segregation and discrimination mandated by state and local laws De Facto Segregation Segregation and discrimination enforced through informal and semi-formal norms and practices
Litigation Strategies • The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sought to use the court-centered pathway to challenge segregation and discrimination. • NAACP created at a moment when African Americans faced their greatest hostility from American society.
Litigation Strategies • In 1953, the Supreme Court heard the case of Brown v. Board of Education, argued by NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall. • Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. JFK Speaks on Civil Rights
Pathways Profile: Fred Korematsu • During WWII, Japanese Americans ordered into detention camps. • Korematsu challenged the order and refused to report for detention.
Clarifying the Coverage of the Equal Protection Clause The Supreme Court’s 1873 Bradwell v. Illinois decision upheld a statute prohibiting women from becoming licensed attorneys in Illinois. The natural and proper timidity and delicacy which belongs to the female sex evidently unfits it for many of the occupations of civil life. The constitution of the family organization, which is founded in the divine ordinance, as well as in the nature of things, indicates the domestic sphere as that which properly belongs to the domain and functions of womanhood. –Justice Joseph P. Bradley
Cases alleging discrimination by race or national origin Cases alleging gender discrimination Clarifying the Coverage of the Equal Protection Clause Moderate Scrutiny The government need only show a substantial justification, rather than a compelling reason, to explain the differential treatment of men and women. Strict Scrutiny The government must show a compelling justification for any laws, policies, or practices that result in racial discrimination.
Pathways of Action: Restrictive Covenants • Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) struck down the enforcement of restrictive government. • Showed the power of the court process to advance civil rights, but also the limitations of the courts in fighting discrimination.
Student Profile: Byron Williams • President of Black Student Union at Kansas State University • In 2007, began protest against hate crimes, and how such crimes may be publicized or ignored by the media
African Americans and Civil Rights Several events in the 1950s served to mobilize and divide the nation around the issue of equal rights for African Americans. 1. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) • Murder of Emmett Till in 1955 by several white men The Emmett Till jury
African Americans and Civil Rights 3. Rosa Parks is arrested after she refuses to give up her bus seat in 1955. • NAACP enlists Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead a boycott.
African Americans and Civil Rights You may well ask, ‘Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?’ You are quite right in calling for negotiations. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
African Americans and Civil Rights • 1963 March on Washington • 250,000 participants • 1964 Civil Rights Act passed • 1965 Voting Rights Act enacted MLK – I Have A Dream
Women and Civil Rights • Fifteenth Amendment did not bar denial of the vote on the grounds of gender. • Women had to fight for universal suffrage.
Women and Civil Rights Strategies used by suffragists • Lobbying • Formed organizations like the National Woman Suffrage Association • Education through publications and speeches • Civil disobedience • State-wide ballots
Women and Civil Rights [1] The right of citizens in the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. [2] Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. The Nineteenth Amendment
Latinos and Civil Rights • Latinos have suffered discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, and education, and have faced harsh treatment from police and other government officials. • Cesar Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association to organize Latinos.
Pathways of Change From Around the World:Sri Lanka • Protest against treatment of Tamil students • Use of nonviolence versus force used by police
Contemporary Civil Rights Issues Many other groups have fought for civil rights over the last 30 years: people with disabilities, homosexuals, and Native Americans.
Contemporary Civil Rights Issues Emerging Groups • Gays and Lesbians • – Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000) • Native American advocacy • – Cobell v. Kempthorne (2008) determined that Native Americans had lost billions because of U.S. Department of Interior mismanagement