Civil Rights

1
Civil Rights

• Introduction and Historical Context

2
What Are Civil Rights?

• Generally, notion of equal treatment
• By government Civil Rights Amendments to the
  U.S. Constitution
• By corporations and private individuals civil
  rights statutes (such as the Civil Rights Act of
  1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act)

3
Slavery and Abolition

• Slave labor formed foundation of Southern
  agricultural economy
• Mudsill defense of slavery
• Abolition movement
• Quakers
• Womens rights advocates

4
Aftermath of Emancipation

• 13th Amendment Outlawed Slavery
• Black Codes
• Civil Rights Act of 1866 and 14th Amendment
• Guaranteed citizenship and equal protection to
  freed slaves
• Southern states not readmitted to union until
  they ratify the 14th Amendment (finally ratified
  in 1868)

5
Aftermath of Emancipation

• 1867 Radical Reconstruction Political equality
  in South guaranteed by presence of federal troops
• 15th Amendment 1870 Right to vote

6
Bitterness Grows

• President Andrew Johnson
• His reconstruction plan original required
• Readmission with ratification of 13th amendment
• Oath of future loyalty allows white southerners
  to vote
• Freedmans Bureau
• Race riots in Memphis and New Orleans
• Johnson blames the Radical Republicans

7
The Jim Crow South

• As states ratify 14th Amendment, they regain
  autonomy take opportunity to create Redeemer
  Governments (all-white)
• Federal troops withdrawn in 1877
• Social, political, and economic oppression
• Literacy tests, poll taxes, white primaries, and
  grandfather clauses
• Anti-miscegenation laws and restrictive covenants
• White only schools

8
Wheres the Supreme Court?

• Striking down the Civil Rights Act of 1875
• Because Act attempted to regulate private
  behavior, not just public discrimination
• Plessy v. Ferguson and separate but equal
  facilities
• Court actually held that it would be wrong to
  have mixed train cars because then whites would
  be forced to co-mingle with blacks

9
What Changed?

• NAACP founded in 1909
• Influx of blacks to northern metropolitan areas
  and their use by political machines
• Tide of public opinion shifted with revelation of
  Nazi atrocities
• Integration of military and Trumans leadership

10
Brown v. Board of Education

• 1954, U.S. Supreme Court struck down separate
  but equal doctrine as applied to elementary
  schools
• Unanimous opinion, but left matter of fixing the
  problem to the lower courts
• Signaled that Court would really use strict
  scrutiny to weigh discriminatory laws
• Compelling government interest
• Narrowly tailored means

11
An Aside on Equal Protection
Standard Means Ends Used When
Strict Scrutiny Compelling Narrowly Tailored Law Implicates Race
Heightened Scrutiny Important Substantially Related Law Implicates Gender
Rational Basis Test Legitimate Rationally Related Everything Else
12
Congressional Action

• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Employment discrimination
• public accommodations
• Gave DoJ power to litigate re segregated schools
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Outlawed racial gerrymandering and created
  mechanisms for monitoring
• Fair Housing Act

13
Why Our Schools Are Still Segregated

• Problem of de facto segregation
• Busing only to remedy past de jure segregation
• White flight
• Limits on ability of government to regulate
  private discrimination