Chapter 21 Civil Rights

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Chapter 21Civil Rights

• Kelly Engebretson
• Casey Berg
• Scott Conley

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Diversity and Discrimination in American Society

• All animals are created equal, but some animals
  are more equal than others. George Orwell
  Animal Farm
• White Americans have been historically reluctant
  to yield to nonwhite Americans a full and equal
  place in the social, economic, and political life
  of this nation.
• The white-male-dominated power structure has also
  been slow to recognize the claims of women to a
  full and equal place in American society.

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Discrimination Against African Americans
Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Junior
African American Slaves

• African Americans are the second largest minority
  group in the U.S.
• They have been the victims of consistent and
  deliberate unjust treatment.
• Most of the gains the U.S. has made toward
  granting all citizens equal rights have come out
  of efforts on behalf of African Americans.

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Native Americans

• In the 17th century some one million Native
  Americans lived in the United States.
• By 1900 that number had decreased to less than
  250,000.
• Today more than 2.7 million Native Americans live
  in this country. More than a third of them live
  on or near reservations.

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Hispanic Americans

• Hispanics now make up the largest minority group
  in America.
• More than half of all Hispanics in the U.S. were
  born in Mexico or trace their ancestry there.
• The largest amount of the Mexican American
  population lives in California, Arizona, New
  Mexico, and Texas.

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Asian Americans

• Chinese laborers were the first Asians to come to
  the U.S. 1850s-1860s
• The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 limited the
  amount of Chinese, Japanese, and other Asians
  that could enter the U.S.

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Discrimination Against Women

• Today Women hold little more than 10 of the
  seats in Congress
• Today only 8 of 50 women are governors
• Fewer than 20 of the nations doctors, lawyers,
  and college professors are women.

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Equality Before the Law

• No state shall deny to any person within its
  jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
  U.S. Constitution
• The Supreme Court applies the rational basis test
  which asks the question Does the classification
  in question bear a reasonable relationship to the
  achievement of some proper governmental purpose?
  
• A higher standard test known as the strict
  scrutiny test is applied in cases that deal with
  fundamental rights or suspect classifications.

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Rosa Parks

• In 1955 Rosa Parks disobeyed the law and refused
  to give up her seat on the bus for a white man in
  Montgomery, Alabama.
• During this time the Jim Crow Laws were in
  effect. These were laws that separated people on
  the basis of race.

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Segregation in America

• 1896- the Supreme Court provided a constitutional
  basis for Jim Crow laws by creating the
  separate-but-equal doctrine.
• Then in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education the
  Supreme Court unanimously held that segregation
  by race in public education is unconstitutional.

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964

• It was passed after the longest debate in the
  Senates history (83 days), and only after the
  Senate had invoked cloture to kill a filibuster.
• With its several later amendments, the laws
  major sections now
• Provide that no person may be denied access to or
  refused service in various public
  accommodations.
• Prohibit discrimination against any person on
  grounds of race, color, religion, national
  origin, sex, or physical disability in any
  program that receives federal funding.
• Forbids employers and labor unions to
  discriminate against any person on grounds of
  race, color, religion, sex, physical disability,
  or age in job-related matters.

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The Little Rock Nine

• On September 4, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus
  defied the court, calling in the Arkansas
  National Guard to prevent nine African American
  students--"The Little Rock Nine"--from entering
  the building.
• Ten days later in a meeting with President
  Eisenhower, Faubus agreed to use the National
  Guard to protect the African American teenagers,
  but on returning to Little Rock, he dismissed the
  troops, leaving the African American students
  exposed to an angry white mob

• Under federal protection, the "Little Rock Nine"
  finished out the school year. The following year,
  Faubus closed all the high schools, forcing the
  African American students to take correspondence
  courses or go to out-of-state schools

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The Civil Rights Act of 1968

• Also called the Open House Act- it forbids anyone
  to refuse to sell or rent a dwelling to any
  person on grounds of race, color, religion,
  national origin, sex, or disability.

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Affirmative Action

• A policy that requires most employers take
  positive steps to remedy the effects of past
  discriminations.
• The adoption of affirmative action programs in
  1965
• The rules that require certain numbers of jobs or
  promotions for members of certain groups are
  called quotas

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Reverse Discrimination

• Decided in 1978, Regents of the University of
  California v. Bakke, involved Allan Bakke, a
  white male, who had been denied admission to
  medical school. The school had set aside 16 new
  seats each year for nonwhite students.
• He sued, charging the university with reverse
  discrimination and, so, a violation of the 14th
  Amendments Equal Protection Clause.
• By a 5-4 vote the Court held that Bakke had been
  denied equal protection and should be admitted
  into the medical school.

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Citizenship

• All persons born or naturalized in the United
  States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
  are citizens of the United States and of the
  State wherein they reside. United States
  Constitution
• Jus soli- the law of soil, which determines
  citizenship based on where a person was born
• Jus sanguinis- the law of blood, which determines
  citizenship based on ones parents citizenship.

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Naturalization

• The legal process by which a person becomes a
  citizen of another country at some time after
  birth.
• Congress has the exclusive power to provide for
  naturalization.
• More than 800,000 aliens now become naturalized
  American citizens each year.
• At various times, most often when the United
  States has acquired new territory, entire groups
  have been naturalized en masse.

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Losing Citizenship

• Although it rarely happens, every American
  citizen, whether native-born or naturalized, has
  the right to renounce voluntarily abandon his
  or her citizenship. This process is called
  expatriation.
• Naturalized citizens can lose their citizenship
  involuntarily through denaturalization. This can
  only happen by a court order and only after it
  has been shown that the person became a citizen
  by fraud or deception.

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Immigration Policies

• The Immigration Act of 1990- governs the
  admission of aliens to the United States.
• The law provided for a substantial increase in
  the number of immigrants who may enter the United
  States each year.
• The annual ceiling is now set at 675,000
• Deportation is a legal process in which aliens
  are legally required to leave the United States.

Population as of 2000
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Undocumented Aliens

• No one knows how many undocumented aliens reside
  in the United States today.
• The Census Bureau now puts their number at about
  nine million which is more than double of their
  estimate for a decade ago.
• The number increases by at least half a million a
  year.
• Over half of all undocumented aliens come from
  Mexico.

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Issues with Illegal Immigrants Today

• It was reported on CNN April 4 that some Senators
  are in favor of a guest worker program. Advocates
  of a guest worker program want to give illegal
  aliens a green card after they've worked in the
  country for six years.
• The net result, a bit of a stalemate. Neither the
  Republicans nor the Democrats have the 60 votes
  that would be necessary to cut off debate and
  move to a floor vote.

• One problem with attempting to control the amount
  of illegal aliens that are in the United States
  is that there is no definite answer for the
  question of how many are actually here?
• One side of the argument is that we need illegal
  aliens to do jobs that U.S. citizens are not
  willing to do.
• The opposing side claims that we barely have
  enough work for all the people that are citizens
  which is proven through the unemployment rates.

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Civil Rights Issues of Today

• The major debate in society today is gay
  marriage.
• It parallels to when our country faced the
  decision of whether or not to allow interracial
  marriages.
• Wisconsin voters recently got to voice their
  opinion on the ballots.
• Many believe that gay marriage is wrong and goes
  against what is natural in our society.
• Others think that there is nothing wrong with
  same sex marriage and we are just going in
  reverse in our history.

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Issues of Today

• Another issue that we have faced in the past and
  are now facing today is the issue of abortion.
• People that believe in the rights of women are
  pro-choice.
• Others who believe in the rights of the baby are
  pro-life.

• The right of a woman to have an abortion
  performed on her has recently been revoked in the
  state of South Dakota.
• The law makes it a felony to perform any abortion
  except in a case of a pregnant woman's life being
  in jeopardy.
• The law will go into affect in July.

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Issues of Today in my (kellys) opinion

• It seems that the issues today are caused by a
  conflict of opinion of the government and the
  church.
• Americans are so worried about making sure that
  our laws are not at all influenced by the church
  it seems that sometimes they lose sight of the
  issue and focus more on refuting the church.