Civil Rights and Public Policy Chapter 5

1. Chapter 5 Civil Rights and Public PolicyChapter 5

2. Two Centuries of Struggle

3. Dredd Scott v. Sanford • 1857 – Chief Justice Taney declared that Congress had no authority to ban slavery in the territories. • Decision handed down a few years prior to the civil war

4. 13th Amendment • 1864 - Forbade slavery and involuntary servitude

5. 14th Amendment • 1868 – Originally created in order to make former slaves citizens. • Courts have recently ruled that, under the 14th amendment, racial and ethnic classifications by states in regard to any matter are inherently suspect.

6. Equal Protection Clause • Contained in 14th amendment and has been interpreted broadly enough to forbid racial segregation in the public schools, reapportion state legislatures, and prohibit job discrimination. • Does not deny states treating classes of citizens differently if the classification is reasonable

7. 15th Amendment • 1870 – “The right of citizens to vote shall not be abridged by the US or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” • Prevents racial discrimination in voting.

8. Suffrage • The legal right to vote

9. Grandfather Clause • Passed by Oklahoma and other southern states to deny African Americans the right to vote.

10. Poll Taxes • Banned in 1944 • 1962 – Outlawed for federal elections by the 24th Amendment

11. Strauder v. West Virginia • 1880 – Invalidated a law barring African Americans from jury service • Refused to use the 14th Amendment to remedy subtle forms of discrimination.

12. Plessy v. Ferguson • 1896 – The principle of “separate but equal” was used to justify segregation

17. Jim Crow Laws • Laws that were enacted by Southern Whites in the late nineteenth century to segregate African Americans from Whites.

26. De Facto Educational Segregation • Segregation that was not backed by law • Ex. Segregation occurs by the reality of neighborhood schools located in areas that happen to be racially segregated.

27. De Jure Educational Segregation • Segregation that occurs by law

28. Brown v. Board of Education • 1954 – Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson • Ruled that school segregation was inherently unconstitutional • After the decision, school integration proceeded very slowly.

29. Brown v. Board of Education • Resulted in increased enrollment in private schools by whites and a threat to close public schools.

30. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Schools • 1970 - Permitted judges to achieve racially balanced schools through busing.

38. Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Congress prohibited federal aid to schools that remained segregated. • Forbade discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion or gender. • Made racial discrimination illegal in places of public accommodation.

39. Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of African Americans registered to vote, especially in the south. • At the time it was passed, only 70 African Americans held public office. There was approximately 2,500 in the 1980’s and currently there are more than 9,400.

40. Voting Rights Act of 1965 cont’d • Amended in 1982 to redraw district boundaries to avoid discriminatory results and prevent the diluting the votes of African Americans.

41. Voting • State laws that restrict the right to vote to people over the age of 18 are an example of a reasonable classification under the Supreme Court’s standards of classification. • In addition, the basis for discrimination is permissible.

42. Shaw v. Reno • 1993 – SC decried the creation of oddly-shaped districts based solely on race. • Gave legal standing to challenges to oddly shaped majority-minority districts

43. Majority – Minority Districts • Congressional Districts that are intentionally drawn to give minority groups a numerical majority.

44. Miller v. Johnson • 1995 – SC rejected the Justice Departments efforts to achieve the maximum minority districts. • In addition, they held that the use of race as the predominant factor in drawing district laws should be presumed unconstitutional.

45. 1948 • Truman desegregated armed forces

46. Native Americans • The oldest and poorest minority group in the US. • In 1946, the Indian Claims Act established a means to settle financial disputes arising from lands taken from the Native Americans. • They are guaranteed access to the polls, housing, and to jobs

47. Hispanics • Largest minority group in the US • Hernandez v. Texas • Court extended protection from discrimination to Hispanic Americans, guaranteeing their right to a free trial • It was the first case in which Hispanic lawyers argued before the SC.

48. Asian Americans • Fastest growing minority population in the United States • Korematsu v. United States – 1944 – Upheld the constitutionality of the removal of Japanese Americans from the west coast and their placement in internment camps during WWII.

49. Classifications based on gender • Have been ruled to be somewhere between inherently suspect and reasonable.

50. Women • Granted the right to vote by the 19th amendment in 1920 • Organized social movement and popular struggle for women’s suffrage began in 1848. • Gaining the right to vote did not eliminate many of the challenges facing women. • Did not automatically give women equal rights, pay, and status. • Many supporters of the right to vote accepted the traditional model of the family • Many state laws continued to enshrine the traditional view of the family in public policy.