Civil Rights

1. Civil Rights AP Government & Politics Mr. Minnich

2. What are civil rights? • Group is denied access to facilities, opportunities, or services. • Issue is whether differential treatment is reasonable • Some is reasonable: progressive taxation • Some is not: separate facilities for school

3. Civil Rights Violations • 3,600 blacks were lynched • Some states barred blacks from buying homes, or getting certain jobs • Popular opinion strongly against school and transportation integration

4. Question • How do you make progress in Civil Rights with these horrible statistics?

5. Answer • Find more white allies • Shift to policy-making arenas where whites had less of an advantage • Example: Move African Americans’ legal and political struggle from Congress to the federal courts

6. 14th Amendment • Broad interpretation: • The Constitution is color blind, so no differential treatment is acceptable • Narrow interpretation: • Equal legal rights, but African Americans and whites could otherwise be treated differently • Supreme Court adopted narrow view in Plessy v. Ferguson

7. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • “separate but equal” • NAACP had a strategy to fight this case in the courts again and take it to the Supreme Court

8. Can separate schools be equal? • Step 1: Determine the obvious inequalities • Addressed in 1938-48 court cases • Step 2: Decide that separation causes inequality in less obvious cases • Step 3: Declaring that separation is inherently unequal • Brown v. Board of Education (1954) • Done unanimously

9. Desegregation vs. Integration • De jure (South) and de facto (North) segregation • There were laws in the South that produced segregation • In the North racial segregation occurred as a result of patterns of residential settlement not by law.

10. Desegregation vs. Integration • In 1968 “freedom of choice” plan under which every student would be allowed to attend the school of their choice • Most black students stayed in black schools and white students stayed in white schools • Solution: mandatory busing was established to integrate these schools • Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan all opposed this idea • The idea died by the 1980’s

11. Civil Rights Strategy • Get issues on the political agenda by mobilizing opinion through dramatic events • Sit-ins, freedom rides, bus boycotts, and voter registration efforts • Martin Luther King’s speeches • Non-violent protest to the “long hot summer” of racial violence

12. Turning the Corner • Kennedy politically reluctant to pass Civil Rights legislation • Democratic landslide in 1964 election and northern Democrats prevail in Congress • Bills passed • 1964 Civil Rights Act • 1965 Voting Rights laws • 1968 Housing discrimination law • Since 1960’s Congress is more willing to pass Civil Rights legislation • Change in white elite opinion and more blacks voting

13. Racial Profiling • The condition in which law enforcement authorities are more likely to stop and question people because of their race or ethnicity (Example: driving while black) • Opponents: is inherently discriminatory • Alternative perspective: may be that members of some groups are more likely to break the law, lead to higher levels of public safety

14. Women and Equal Rights • Seneca Falls Convention 1848 • Beginning of women’s rights movement and they demand the right to vote • Wyoming first state to allow women the right to vote (more common out West) • 19th Amendment passed in 1920 gave them the right to vote • During World War II women took on male jobs in defense industry

15. Women and Equal Rights • Rostker v. Goldberg (1981): Congress may require men but not women to register for the draft • In 1993, secretary of defense allowed women in air and sea combat positions, but not in ground combat positions

16. Sexual Harassment • Quid pro quo role: sexual favors required for employment • Hostile environment: creating a setting in which harassment impairs a person’s ability to work • Supreme Court position continues to evolve and no standards are clear as of now

17. Privacy and Sex • Regulating sexual matters generally up to the individual states • New York allows abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and Texas not at all unless the mother’s life was threatened • 1965 Supreme Court held that states could not prevent sale of contraceptives (violates zone of privacy)

18. Privacy and Sex • Privacy not mentioned in Constitution • Privacy inferred in Bill of Rights • 1973: Roe v. Wade • Struck down Texas ban on abortions and all similar state laws • Women’s right to choose is protected by 14th Amendment • 1st trimester: no regulations • 2nd trimester: no ban but regulations to protect woman’s health • 3rd trimester: abortion ban possible

19. Privacy and Sex • Critics of Roe • Amendments to overturn Roe v. Wade did not pass Congress • Life begins at contraception • Fetus is a person entitled to protections of the 14th Amendment • Amendments to overturn Roe v. Wade did not pass Congress • Partial birth abortions ban struck down in 2000, but upheld in 2007

20. Affirmative Action • Preferential hiring practices-should be used in hiring • Equality of results • Racism and sexism can be overcome only by taking them into account in designing remedies • Equal rights not enough; people need benefits

21. Critics of Affirmative Action • Reverse discrimination on race and sex • Laws should be color blind and gender neutral • Government should only eliminate barriers

22. Courts on Affirmative Action • No clear direction by the courts • Bakke (1978): numerical minority quotas are not allowed, but race could be considered • Supreme Court upheld 10% of all federal construction contracts for minority-owned firms (1980)

23. Homosexuals and the Constitution • Courts historically willing to allow states to determine homosexual rights • Bowers v. Hardwick (1986): Georgia allowed banning homosexual sexual activity • Lawrence v. Texas (2003): Texas law banned sexual contact between persons of same sex • Supreme Court overturned the law • Private groups (Boys Scouts of America) still allowed to exclude homosexuals from membership

24. Homosexuals and the Constitution • Gay marriage is left up to the states • New Jersey the latest to allows gay marriage in October 2013 • Will this happen in Pennsylvania?