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Civil Rights

Civil Rights. Chapter Four. Important Civil Rights Questions. How could a nation that embraced the Declaration of Independence’s creed that “all men are created equal” condone slavery?

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Civil Rights

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  1. Civil Rights Chapter Four

  2. Important Civil Rights Questions • How could a nation that embraced the Declaration of Independence’s creed that “all men are created equal” condone slavery? • Why would a majority in society ever seek to extend and protect the rights of its minorities in the face of huge costs— even those imposed by a tragic civil war? • Does America’s constitutional system impede or promote the cause of civil rights? • Are “civil rights” generic, or do we define them differently across groups according to issues for which they seek protection? • Scenario: Racial profiling after September 11, 2001

  3. What Are Civil Rights? • Civil rights • Those protections by government power; things government must secure on behalf of its citizens. • Civil liberties • The Constitution’s protections from government power. • “Civic” rights during colonial times • “Civil” rights term emerged in 1760s • No taxation without representation • Modern day civil rights more expansive

  4. Civil Rights of African Americans • Good test of Madison’s ideas on democracy in America. • African Americans faced two major obstacles in securing rights. • Constitution • reserves authority to the states • separation of powers • Politics based on self-interest • government controlled by “men” not “angels”

  5. Politics of Black Civil Rights: Height of Slavery: 1808–1865 • 1807 Congress passes a law ending the importation of slaves • Missouri Compromise 1820 • Wilmot Proviso • Missouri Compromise of 1850 • Fugitive Slave Law • Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) • Abraham Lincoln and the 1860 presidential election • Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men • Civil War (1861)

  6. Reconstruction: 1865-1877 • Reconstruction • Result of congressional Republicans’ potential defeat in the next national election • Civil War Amendments • Thirteenth (formal emancipation) • Fourteenth (granted citizenship) • Fifteenth (guaranteed the right to vote) • Access to ballot box limited even in Union states

  7. Rights Lost: The Failure of Reconstruction • Republicans dominated Southern legislatures for a few years • Ended when white Democrats won back control of Tennessee and Virginia • By 1877 all former Confederate states had reverted to white Democratic control • African Americans began to lose power • Vigilante violence (KKK and other groups) • Commitment from northern Republicans waned; passed laws, but provided no enforcement • Reconstruction officially ended with the election of 1876 • 1877 all federal troops pulled out of the South

  8. The Jim Crow Era and Segregation: 1877-1933 • Jim Crow laws • Focus to disenfranchise and segregate African Americans • institutionalized segregation • Electoral laws to limit blacks from voting • white primary • poll tax • literacy tests • grandfather clauses provided to protect poor and illiterate whites • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) • separate but equal doctrine

  9. Democratic Party Sponsorship of Civil Rights: 1933-1940s • FDR and the Great Depression • The New Deal • evenhanded treatment of the black community • government assistance • rooted out racial discrimination in the distribution of relief aid • appointed more than one hundred black administrators • Justice Department rejuvenated its civil liberties division

  10. Democratic Party Sponsorship of Civil Rights: 1933-1940s • Congressional action by Democrats • Wooing of black voters by the Democratic Party • Shift from the “party of Lincoln” to “the party of Roosevelt” • Truman in 1948 openly courted black votes • integrated armed services and introduced other initiatives • 1948 Democratic National Convention • Dixiecrats bolted due to strong civil rights platform • Strom Thurmond—States Rights Party • Truman won reelection

  11. Emergence of a Civil Rights Coalition: 1940s–1950s • NAACP’s litigation strategy • Smith v. Allwright • threw out white primary laws • Sweatt v. Painter (1950) • Court unanimously agreed that Univ. of Texas could not stave off desegregation at its law school by instantly creating a black-only facility. • patently unequal • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) • trumped the Plessy decision

  12. Civil Rights Acts • The 1957 Civil Rights Act • Lyndon Johnson’s vehicle into national politics • Law allowed African Americans to sue in federal court if their right to vote had been denied due to race • Politically significant: Johnson’s southern colleagues did not fight it • Johnson did not win the nomination; but he became Kennedy’s vice presidential choice • catalyst to emergence of a dominant governing coalition

  13. The Civil Rights Movement:1960s • Strategy shifted from litigation to mass protest. • Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott • sit ins • collective action brought need for leadership • emergence of Rev. Martin Luther King • strategy of non-violent resistance

  14. The Civil Rights Movement:1960s • Birmingham Demonstration • Kennedy assassination • Johnson pushed for enactment of the civil rights legislation stalled in the Senate • addressed joint session of Congress on national television • Resulted in landmark legislation: Civil Rights Act of 1964

  15. The 1964 Civil Rights Act • Law authorized the national government to end segregation in: • public education • public accommodations • Partisan shift in Congress • Republican Party traditionally more supportive of Civil Rights • 1964 Republican party chose Barry Goldwater, of Arizona as presidential candidate. • Goldwater opposed the 1964 civil rights bill • outcome was a landslide win for the Johnson and the Democrats

  16. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Main provision authorized the Justice Department to suspend restrictive electoral tests in southern states that had a history of low black turnout. • could send federal officers to register voters directly • states had to obtain clearance from the Justice Department before changing their electoral laws • the law achieved its goals quickly • high point of civil rights movement • Watts Riots • Vietnam War • Assassination of MLK

  17. The Era of Remedial Action: The 1970s to the Present • Legislation moved responsibility in the area of identifying and eradicating civil rights abuses to the federal bureaucracy. • Department of Health, Education, and Welfare • focus on outcome of local practices • did not have to investigate and prove a specific act • reasonable suspicion of discrimination

  18. The Era of Remedial Action: The 1970s to the Present • De facto segregation: segregation not mandated by law (de jure segregation), but was a byproduct of discriminatory housing laws. • Busing • Affirmative action • quotas—Bakke case (1978) • Michigan’s ban on affirmative action (2006) • Proposition 209 • Florida ban on racial preferences in university admissions

  19. The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement • 1970s: expansion to include women, the elderly, the disabled, homosexuals, and many other ethnic minorities. • Constitutional hurdles to establishing a particular right for a particular group • right must be recognized as such by those who make and enforce the law • enforcement

  20. Equal Rights for Women: The Right to Vote • Suffragists • active in many areas including abolition, prison reform, public education, temperance • once they won the right to vote there was little delay in its implementation. • tracked a different course than suffrage for African Americans • women’s vote no advantage to any one party; neither wanted to bear the cost • four decades to achieve the Nineteenth Amendment

  21. Modern History of Civil Rights • Sex discrimination • added to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as killer amendment by Southern opponents; backfired and passed • EEOC • NOW • Equal Rights Amendment • originally introduced in 1923; sent to the states in 1972 by a vote of 354–24 House and 84 to 8 in the Senate. • by 1978 thirty-five states had ratified the amendment. • hit a brick wall with the abortion issue, but while the amendment did not get ratified, significant inroads made in women’s rights

  22. Modern History of Civil Rights • Employment discrimination • Title VII (1964) • Title IX of the Higher Education Act (1972) • Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978) • Family and Medical Leave Act (1993) • Civil Rights Act of 1991 • Title IX of the Higher Education Act

  23. Rights for Hispanics • Special civil rights issues associated with language and citizenship. • lack language skills to exercise their civic responsibilities • Voting Rights Act extension in 1970 • requires that ballots also be available in Spanish in those constituencies where at least 5 percent of the population is Hispanic

  24. Rights for Hispanics • Alexander v. Sandoval (2001)—English-only state documents as discriminatory? • Question of citizenship—legal rights for non-citizens? • Increased political power—growing numbers and concentration residentially

  25. Gay Rights • Prominent national issue • Gay rights claims, however, do not fit well into the statutory provisions or judicial precedents that were created during the civil rights era • Failed to attract the levels of popular support that helped other groups

  26. Gay Rights • Gains have been modest • Lawrence v. Texas (2003) re: antisodomy laws • state laws extending job and “hate crime” protections to gays and lesbians. • Romer v. Evans (1996) • anti-gay marriage movement • Bush 2004 proposed a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between a “man and a woman” • California ban on same-sex marriage lifted in 2008, but ballot measure revoked lifting of the ban

  27. The Disabled • Americans with Disability Act (1990) • definition of disabled ambiguous • Pilot eyesight—not 20/20—was this a disability? Could they sue the airline for not hiring them? Court said no • Casey Martin, a golfer with an atrophied leg, won the Court’s support in his fight to use a golf cart on the PGA tour even though the use of carts was prohibited

  28. Challenging Tyranny • Struggle for civil rights has seriously tested the politics of self-interest • Madison viewed competing ambitions as performing a limited, but vital, service • Civil rights history suggests that ambitious politicians were able to transform moral justice into public policy

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