Civil Rights:

1
Chapter 5

• Civil Rights
• Equal Protection

2
Civil Rights

• All rights rooted in the Fourteenth Amendments
  guarantee of equal protection under the law
• what the government must do to ensure equal
  protection
• what the government must do to ensure freedom
  from discrimination

3
The Constitution and Slavery

• In apportioning congressional representation
  based on population, the constitution refers to
  free persons and other persons (or slaves)
• For purposes of representation, a slave was equal
  to 3/5 of a free person
• Supreme Court confirms constitutionality of
  slavery in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1847)

4
The Civil War Amendments

• 13th Amendment (1865) neither slavery nor
  involuntary servitude shall exist in the United
  States
• 14th Amendment (1868) all persons born or
  naturalized in the United State are citizens
• states cannot abridge the privileges or
  immunities of citizens
• all persons (whether or not they are citizens)
  are entitled to due process
• all persons are entitled to equal protection
• 15th Amendment (1870) the right to vote shall
  not be denied because of race, color or previous
  condition of servitude

5
Key Points of the Civil Rights Acts of 1865 to
1875

• The First Civil Rights Act
• extended citizenship to anyone born in the United
  States
• gave African Americans full equality before the
  law
• authorized the president to enforce the act
  through use of force

6
Key Points of the Civil Rights Acts of 1865 to
1875

• The Enforcement Act of 1870
• set out specific penalties for interfering with
  the right to vote
• The Anti-Ku Klux Klan Act (1872)
• made it a federal crime to deprive an individual
  of his or her rights

7
Key Points of the Civil Rights Acts of 1865 to
1875

• The Second Civil Rights Act (1875)
• everyone is entitled to equal enjoyment of public
  accommodation and places of public amusement
• imposed penalties for violators

8
The Civil Rights Act were nullified through

• The Civil Rights Cases (1883)
• the Supreme Court rules that the 14th amendment
  only prevents official discriminatory acts by
  states, not by private individuals
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• stated that segregation did not violate the 14th
  amendment
• established the separate-but-equal doctrine
• paved the way constitutionally for a system of
  racial segregation developed, especially in the
  South

9
Barriers to voting by African Americans

• the white primary a state primary election in
  which only whites may vote
• allowed because Southern politicians claimed
  political parties were private entities
• was outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1944 (Smith
  v. Allwright)
• grandfather clause restricting voting to
  individuals who could prove that their
  grandfathers had voter prior to 1867
• was used to exempt whites from poll taxes
• was used to exempt whites from literacy tests

10
Barriers to voting by African Americans (cont.)

• poll taxes required the payment of a fee to
  vote
• intended to disenfranchise poor African Americans
• was outlawed in national elections by the 24th
  amendment
• was outlawed in all elections by the Supreme
  Court in 1966
• literacy tests -- required potential voters to
  read, recite or interpret complicated texts
• intended to disenfranchise African Americans

11
Ending Legal Segregation

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
  Supreme Court rules public school segregation
  violates the 14th amendment
• overturns Plessy v. Ferguson
• Brown v. Board of Education (1955) orders
  desegregation with all deliberate speed
• Court ordered busing transporting African
  American children to white schools and white
  children to African American schools

12
Modern Civil Rights Legislation

• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• forbade discrimination on the basis of race,
  color, religion, gender and national origin in
• voter registration
• public accommodations
• public schools
• expanded the power of the Civil Rights Commission
• withheld funds from programs administered in a
  discriminatory way
• established the right to equality of opportunity
  in employment (created the EEOC)

13
Modern Civil Rights Legislation (cont.)

• Civil Rights Act of 1968
• forbade discrimination in housing
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• outlawed discriminatory voter registration tests
• authorized federal registration and
  administration of voting where discrimination
  took place
• resulted in massive voter registration drives of
  African Americans in the South

14
Womens Struggle for Equal Rights

• Womens Suffrage Movement
• was connected to the abolition movement
• suffragists organized the first womens right
  convention at Seneca Falls, NY in 1848
• established womens suffrage associations
• finally won passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
  in 1920

15
Womens Struggle for Equal Rights (cont.)

• The Modern Womens Movement
• spurred in by the publication of Betty Friedans
  The Feminine Mystique ( 1963)
• connected to the Civil Rights Movement of the
  1960s
• argued for ratification of the Equal Rights
  Amendment
• failed to win the necessary states for
  ratification
• has targeted gender discrimination by challenging
  policies and laws in federal courts
• has advocated and encouraged an increasingly
  prominent role for women in government and
  politics

16
The right of citizensof the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United Statesor by any State on account of sex.
17
Gender Based Discrimination in the Work Place

• gender discrimination any practice, policy or
  procedure that denies equality of treatment to an
  individual or group because of gender
• prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
  of 1964
• applies even to protective policies, policies
  designed to protect women of child-bearing age

18
Gender Based Discrimination in the Work Place
(cont.)

• sexual harassment unwanted physical or verbal
  conduct or abuse of a sexual nature that
• interferes with a recipients job performance OR
• creates a hostile environment OR
• carries and implicit or explicit threat of
  adverse employment consequences
• wage discrimination women earn 76 cents for
  every 1.00 earned by men
• the glass ceiling the phenomenon of women
  holding few of the top positions in professions
  or businesses