PS 1 Module 9 Civil Rights

Economic Causes of the South’s Secession (Bensel)

argument that the Civil War was not primarily about slavery as a moral or social institution, but about control over national economic policy — specifically, the tariff and the future of economic development in the United States.

Free Soil Party

a short-lived but influential third party in the 1840s and 1850s that opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories, not primarily on moral grounds, but because free white farmers should not have to compete with slave labor.

Wilmot Proviso

a proposed legislative amendment, introduced by Democratic Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania in 1846, that would have banned slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War.

Compromise of 1850

a package of five separate bills passed by Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused the sectional crisis over slavery and territorial expansion following the Mexican-American War (1846–1848).

Kansas-Nebraska Act

An 1854 law that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (which had prohibited slavery north of the 36°30' parallel), and instead allowed the settlers in those territories to decide the slavery question through popular sovereignty.

Missouri Compromise

An 1820 agreement that temporarily resolved the conflict over slavery's expansion by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana Purchase territory north of the 36°30' parallel (with the exception of Missouri itself).

“First Reconstruction”

It refers to the period immediately following the Civil War, from roughly 1865 to 1877, during which the federal government attempted to rebuild the South, integrate formerly enslaved people into American political and civic life, and redefine the constitutional relationship between the states and the national government.

“Second Reconstruction”

refers to the Civil Rights Movement and the wave of federal legislation in the 1950s and 1960s that dismantled legalized racial segregation and discrimination in the American South, fulfilling many of the promises left unenforced after the First Reconstruction.

Due Process Clause

a constitutional provision found in both the Fifth Amendment (applying to the federal government) and the Fourteenth Amendment (applying to state governments) that prohibits the government from depriving any person of "life, liberty, or property without due process of law."

equal protection clause

a provision of the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified 1868) that prohibits states from denying "to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It requires the government to treat similarly situated people in a similar manner.

1965 Voting Rights Act

landmark federal legislation that prohibited racial discrimination in voting, eliminating the literacy tests, poll taxes, and other barriers that had been used primarily in the South to disenfranchise Black voters since the end of Reconstruction.

VRA Reauthorization

refers to the series of congressional renewals of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, most notably the 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006 reauthorizations.

Contemporary Civil Rights Retrenchment

refers to the period from roughly the 2010s to the present, during which courts and conservative political actors have rolled back or weakened key civil rights protections established during the Second Reconstruction, particularly through judicial decisions and state-level legislation.

Plessy v. Ferguson

a Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine, ruling that state laws requiring racial segregation in public accommodations did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Scott v. Sanford

a Supreme Court decision that held that Black people, whether enslaved or free, could not be citizens of the United States, and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories. It is widely regarded as the worst decision in Supreme Court history.

Shelby v. Holder

a Supreme Court decision that struck down the coverage formula in Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, effectively disabling Section 5's preclearance requirement unless Congress enacted a new coverage formula.

Louisiana v. Callais

a case involving Louisiana's congressional redistricting plan, specifically concerning the creation of a second majority-Black district and allegations of racial gerrymandering.