Chapter 5 - Civil Rights

Civil Rights

Guarantees of equal treatment and protection under the law, including equal opportunities to fully participate in political and social life, which may have to be secured by positive government action such as legislation to prevent discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and other characteristics.

Dred Scott

Black man who successfully sued for his freedom in Missouri after living in the free state of Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory where slavery was outlawed by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, but his trial court victory was overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court and his appeal was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling that had profound national significance.

Sandford v. Scott (1857)

U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional for having banned slavery in certain territories and held that African Americans, free or slave, were not citizens under the U.S. Constitution, further inflaming tensions between the North and South over the issue of slavery.

Thirteenth Amendment (1865)

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." The first of the post-Civil War/Reconstruction amendments abolishing slavery.

Fourteenth Amendment (1868)

The most important constitutional amendment outside the Bill of Rights, adopted following the Civil War, giving full rights of citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, and stating that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Fifteenth Amendment (1870)

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The third and final post-Civil War/Reconstruction amendment intended to guarantee suffrage for black men.

Equal Protection Clause

Fourteenth Amendment clause that prohibits states from denying equal protection under the law, used to combat discrimination.

Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

This constitutional amendment granted women the right to vote.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964)

This constitutional amendment outlawed poll taxes.

Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971)

This constitutional amendment lowered the required voting age from 21 to 18.

Poll Tax

An annual fee that some states imposed on citizens to remain registered to vote, typically one or two dollars (around $20 or $50 in today's dollars, adjusted for inflation). In many states, the fee was cumulative, meaning a person who had not paid it for several years would have to pay the fee not only for the current year but all of the previous years as well.

Literacy Tests

One of the most well-known methods through which African Americans and other racial/ethnic minorities were disenfranchised. To register to vote, the person was required to read a passage of text (e.g., from the state constitution) and answer questions about it, but because the official administering the tests had complete discretion, they could give difficult passages to those whom they did not want to pass.

Grandfather Clause

A clause in voter registration laws exempting people who could not meet registration requirements (such as literacy tests) if they or their ancestors had voted before passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. A way to let poor, illiterate whites vote while continuing to deny suffrage to poor, illiterate blacks through the use of literacy tests.

White Primaries

African Americans were excluded from participating in primary elections, but in the one-party South, the only elections that mattered were the primaries to choose which candidates would represent the Democratic Party in the general election. This effectively disenfranchised blacks by denying them any real voice in election outcomes.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Legalized segregation in publicly owned facilities on the basis of "separate but equal."