Civil Rights

affirmative action

Programs of private and public institutions favoring minorities and women in hiring and contracting, and in admissions to colleges and universities, in an attempt to compensate for past discrimination or to create more diversity.

Civil Rights

Guarantees of equal treatment by government

officials regarding political rights, the judicial system, and

public programs.

De Facto Discrimination

Unequal treatment by private

individuals, groups, and organizations.

De Jure Discrimination

Unequal treatment based on

government

laws and regulations.

Due Process Clause

The section of the Fourteenth

Amendment

that prohibits states from depriving anyone

of life, liberty, or property “without due process of law,” a

guarantee

against arbitrary or unfair government action.

Equal Protection Clause

The section of the Fourteenth

Amendment that provides for equal treatment by government

of people residing within the United States and each of its

states.

Grandfather Clause

A device that allowed whites who had

failed the literacy test to vote anyway by extending the franchise

to anyone whose ancestors had voted before 1867.

Intermediate Scrutiny

A legal test falling between ordinary

and strict scrutiny relevant to issues of gender; under this

test, the Supreme Court will allow gender classifications

in laws if they are substantially related to an important government

objective.

Jim Crow

Popular term for the system of legally sanctioned

racial segregation that existed in the American South from the

end of the 19th century until the middle of the 20th century.

Literacy Test

A device used by the southern states to prevent

African Americans from voting before the passage of

the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned its use; usually

involved interpretation of a section of a state’s constitution.

Poll Tax

A tax to be paid as a condition of voting; used in

the South to keep African Americans away from the polls.

Privileges or Immunities Clause

The portion of the

Fourteenth

Amendment that says states may not make laws

that abridge the rights granted to people as citizens of the

United States.

Strict Scrutiny

The assumption that actions by elected

bodies

or officials violate the Constitution.

Suspect Classification

The invidious, arbitrary, or irrational

designation of a group for special treatment by

government,

whether positive or negative; historically, used

in laws to discriminate against visible minorities without the

power to protect themselves.

White Primaries

Primary elections open only to whites in

the one-party South, where the only elections that mattered

were the Democratic Party’s primaries; this effectively disenfranchised

blacks.