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Ch. 5 Civil Rights
CIVIL RIGHTS
You can't discriminate against me . . . right?
Civil rights are protections from discrimination both by the government and by individuals, and are rooted in the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
THE CONTEXT OF CIVIL RIGHTS
Civil rights protect all persons from discrimination both by the government and by other individuals. Initially, Black Americans were the focus of civil rights protections, but the protections have expanded to cover other racial and ethnic groups, women, the elderly, the disabled, and gays and lesbians. Civil rights differ from civil liberties, as civil liberties refer to the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, such as the freedom of speech or religion.
Black Americans
From the early nineteenth century and the movement for the abolition of slavery until the mid-twentieth century and the civil rights movement, the central focus of civil rights was on the experiences of Black Americans. Other groups received attention more gradually. These groups include, but are not limited to, women, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, the elderly, disabled people, and the LGBTQIA+ community. None of these groups exist alone; intersectionality or the way that race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap, affects us all.
Slavery and Its Impact The most divisive civil rights issue with the greatest long-term impact has been slavery and its legacy. Slave labor was critical to the economy in America, particularly in the South, where slaves worked on plantations as well as in many parts of the service economy. Conflicts over the legality and expansion of slavery persisted from the founding through the Missouri Compromise, leading up to the Civil War.
Slow Progress After Reconstruction Following the Civil War, Congress passed a series of constitutional amendments to give former slaves equal protection under the law.
Nonetheless, Black Americans were almost completely disenfranchised through poll taxes, residency requirements, the grandfather clause and other forms of disqualification.
The national government did not enforce the equal protections for Black Americans, and the southern states enacted Jim Crow laws that mandated racial segregation. The Supreme Court validated these practices in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), establishing the "separate but equal" doctrine.
Progress toward equality began in the 1940s and continued in the 1950s with the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954), which rejected the "separate but equal" provision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
Native Americans
Each racial and ethnic group in the United States has a different history of interactions with the majority White population, and, in general, the trend is ugly.
Native Americans were systematically pushed from their land and placed on their reservations. They were not given the right to vote until 1924. Although tribes were regarded as sovereign nations while signing treaties, the United States routinely ignored the content of these treaties.
Latinos and Latinas
While many Mexican Americans have had roots in America for hundreds of years, Latinos traditionally lack political clout due to two factors:
Latinos vote far less often than other minority groups.
Latinos are also a politically diverse group.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Beyond the internment of the Japanese during World War II, Asian Americans have been discriminated against since the California gold rush and the creation of the transcontinental railroad. In particular, the Chinese have been subject to naturalization bans and immigration quotas.
Women and civil rights
Women were not given the right to vote until the Nineteenth Amendment, in 1920.
Preventing women from having equal rights was rationalized through protectionism, the idea that women should be denied certain rights for their own safety or well-being.
The LGBTQIA+ community
For most of U.S. history, gays and lesbians lived secret lives and were subjected to abuse if they openly acknowledged their sexual orientation. Though it is in its early stages, the gay rights movement has made progress toward achieving equal protection, and public support has increased dramatically. In May 2012, President Obama endorsed same-sex marriage for the first time (and was the first president to take that position), completing his gradual evolution on the issue. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states.
THE RACIAL DIVIDE TODAY
The political, social, and economic condition of racial minorities is not as good as it is for White Americans.
Differences in voting access
The political divide is mostly evident in lower levels of voter turnout among racial minorities relative to White Americans. While different ranges of voter turnout can be accounted for by education and income, there are many examples of practices and institutions designed to depress minority turnout. Voter ID laws also can have a disproportionate impact on minorities.
Health outcomes and environmental racism
The racial divide also is evident in social and economic terms. Nearly three times as many Black families are below the poverty line as White families. The average White household has nearly six times the assets of a typical nonwhite family.
Poverty is not distributed equally throughout the United States but rather is concentrated in areas where the minority population is the highest. On every measure of health, the gaps between White Americans and Black Americans are large, and, in many cases, they are growing.
Criminal justice and hate crimes
The greatest disparity between racial minorities and White Americans may be in the criminal justice system. Black Americans are not only more likely than White Americans to be convicted for the same crimes, they also serve longer sentences than White Americans for committing the same crime.
Black Americans and minorities also are subjected to hate crimes much more frequently than White Americans.
KEY PLAYERS IN THE CONFLICT OVER CIVIL RIGHTS
Our civil rights policies are produced by several key players. First, the public becomes involved through social movements to put pressure on the political system to change. But Congress, the president, and the courts all also exert their own influence on policies that define civil rights.
Social movements
Activists have been instrumental in pressuring the political system to change its civil rights policies, particularly for women and Black Americans.
Non-violent Protest
During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized sit-ins, which marked a shift in civil rights tactics away from the court-based approach and toward nonviolent civil disobedience.
Public Opinion and Legislative Action
The legacy of the civil rights movement has been not only to help change unjust laws but also to provide a new tool for political action across a broad range of policy areas. By putting pressure on political leaders through direct, nonviolent protest, millions of Americans have had their voices heard.
Most recently, large-scale demonstrations against Wall Street and international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, have swept the nation, as well as the #BlackLivesMatter protests against racial discrimination.
The tools of social movements have evolved in recent years to combine the power of social media and mass protest.
The courts
In the early years of the civil rights movement, in the 1930s and 1940s, the Supreme Court provided of the successes, especially in voting rights and desegregation.
Challenging "Separate but Equal" in Education
The NAACP, led by its chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall (later a Supreme Court justice), fought segregation by pointing out the various ways in which states kept Black Americans out of all-White law schools.
In a series of Supreme Court cases, it established the foundations for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Brown v. Board of Education applied the Fourteenth Amendment to establish that "separate but equal" was inherently unequal.
The Push To Desegregate Schools
Brown v. Board of Education II (1955) addressed the implementation of desegregation and required the states to "desegregate with all deliberate speed."
In 1971, the Court shifted its focus from de jure segregation—segregation mandated by law—to de facto segregation—segregation that existed because of housing patterns—and approved school busing as a tool to integrate schools.
Expanding Civil Rights for Black Americans
Other central cases struck down interracial marriage bans, upheld the Civil Rights Act, and expanded the Voting Rights Act.
The Color-Blind Court and Judicial Activism
Recently, the Supreme Court has been gradually imposing a "color-blind jurisprudence" over numerous issues; that is, the Court has reasoned that race should not be considered in determining the outcome of certain kinds of cases.
Women's Rights
Discrimination between men and women was initially identified using the rational basis test, but in 1976 the Court established an intermediate scrutiny test, which is the standard used for gender-based discrimination cases and for many cases based on sexual orientation. The strict scrutiny test is the highest level of scrutiny, meaning that laws must show a compelling state interest to discriminate based on race.
Two other areas in which the Supreme Court helped advance women's rights were affirmative action and protection against sexual harassment.
Gay Rights
The Court was initially not supportive of gay rights, or sidestepped the issue. Recently, the Court did strike down a state law that prevented gays from suing for discrimination.
Applying the substantive due process doctrine, the Court overturned a ban on homosexual sexual relations. The gradual movement toward endorsing same-sex marriage culminated in 2015 in the landmark ruling Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states.
Congress
The bedrock of equal protection that exists today stems from landmark legislation passed by Congress in the 1960s.
Key Early Legislation
Among other things, the Civil Rights Act barred discrimination in employment based on race, sex, religion, or national origin. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) eliminated direct obstacles to minority voting in the South. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 barred discrimination in the rental or sale of a house.
Protections for Women
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which barred discrimination based on gender, began to be enforced in 1970. In 1972, Title IX of the Higher Education Act prohibited sex discrimination in institutions that receive federal funds. In 1994, the Violence against Women Act allowed women who were the victims of physical abuse and violence to sue in federal court.
Protections for Disabled People and for Gay Rights
The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act provided strong federal protections for disabled Americans. Congress's track record in protecting gay rights is not as strong. The Defense of Marriage Act, enacted in 1996, states that if gay marriages are allowed in one state, they are exempt from the "full faith and credit clause" of the Constitution.
Congress expanded hate-crime laws to include attacks based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The president
The office of the president has often been a strong proponent for the expansion of civil rights, particularly through unilateral action. President Truman integrated the armed forces in 1948 by executive order. President Eisenhower used the National Guard to enforce a court order to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
Executive orders by Kennedy and Johnson in 1961and 1965, respectively, established affirmative action. Clinton attempted to end the ban on gays in the military, but because of strong resistance, compromised with "don't ask, don't tell," which was repealed by Congress in 2010.
Civil rights policy has been a low priority for most recent presidential candidates, with most focusing on racial diversity in presidential appointments and using the bully pulpit to promote racial concerns and interests.
CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES TODAY
Affirmative action or reverse discrimination
Affirmative action takes various forms: The most passive form is extra effort to recruit women and minorities. A more active form is to include race or gender as a "plus factor" in admissions or hiring decisions.
The strongest form is the use of strict quotas to admit or hire a specific number of applicants from underrepresented groups.
Affirmative action has been a controversial policy. Many White Americans view this as "preferential treatment" and "reverse discrimination."
The Supreme Court helped define the boundaries of this policy debate. While initially supportive of affirmative action programs, the Court has been less supportive as it moved toward a color-blind approach.
In the landmark case University of California Regents v. Bakke (1978), the Court ruled that rigid racial quotas were unconstitutional, but it allowed race to be a "plus factor" used in admissions decisions.
Multicultural Issues and Immigration Policy
As White Americans cease to constitute the majority of the population, two key issues for the country will be immigration and the establishment of English as the official language.
Decisions to establish English as the official language in many states have had wide-reaching consequences.
Immigration has been central in many recent political debates, largely focusing on social welfare benefits, but deeper racial issues are below the surface. With the growing Latino population in the country, both parties have simultaneously tried to court the Latino vote while appeasing constituents that want to be "tough on illegal immigration."
Things To Know: Civil Rights
What is meant by the term “intersectionality” when we are talking about demographic groups and civil rights?
Be able to briefly explain the academic concepts of implicit bias, privilege, erasure, and unpresencing.
Why doesn’t “being colorblind” on the issue of race work?
Where does the ability of the national government to enforce civil rights come from?
Disenfranchisement of voters: poll tax, grandfather clause, gerrymandering, white primaries, literacy tests
Why did many with political power try to embed racist ideas into poor whites to separate them from Black and Hispanic communities in the South and Southwest?
What are the rationales for America’s recurring pattern of protectionism throughout our history?
African American story of civil rights:
1619 – Arrival of the White Lion slave ship in Virginia (before the Pilgrims arrived) brought diverse ethnicities of Africans and the first groups of Muslims to the American Colonies
Enslavement and justification of it with junk sciences like eugenics and biological racism
Reconstruction, Jim Crow and Black Codes of the South (seeking a second enslavement of Black communities)
Cases: Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, Loving v. Virginia
Affirmative Action (effects and misperceptions), Fair Housing Act, redlining, “separate but equal”
Murder of George Floyd and call for changes to policing, Black Lives Matter
Listen to “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holliday and think about its message and why it holds an important place in American protest music
How did Dr. King and the organizers of the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s use the media and non-violent protest to gather support from sympathetic whites and politicians for the movement?
Massive Resistance and the Southern Manifesto
Importance of the NAACP, Freedom Rides, Montgomery Bus Boycotts, and Sit-Ins
American Indians
What is the difference between assimilation and integration?
When did American Indians get the right to vote?
What is the idea of cultural genocide?
What is the American Indian Movement (AIM)?
Latinos/Latinas
What was the significance of the work of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta with the United Farm Workers’ Movement? What tactics did they use and why were they affective?
What is the Chicano Mural Movement and why is it important?
Why was the use of extreme early voter registration a tool for disenfranchisement used particularly to target the Hispanic Americans of the American Southwest?
How are the stories of Hispanics and African Americans in the U.S. similar and different in their experiences of exclusion and discrimination? What similar strategies did they employ to effect change?
Why is it so difficult to categorize the political leanings of Hispanic Americans?
Even though Hispanic Americans are the largest minority group in the U.S., they hold less political influence that African Americans. Why?
Case: Mendez v. Westminster
DACA
Asian Americans
Cases: Lau v. Nichols, Korematsu v. U.S.
Executive order 9066
Why was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 passed by Congress and why was it ultimately repealed in 1942?
Why is it so difficult to categorize the political leanings of Asian Americans?
What state has the largest concentration of the Asian American population?
What brought Chinese Immigrants, Japanese Immigrants, Vietnamese Immigrants
Women
Three waves of women’s rights: 1) suffrage, 2) social and political equality (1960s-1980s), 3) economic and social equality, intersectionality of women (1990s to today)
Importance of the findings in The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
19th Amendment
Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of Sentiments
What were the commonalities and shared work between the abolition movement and the women’s suffrage movement?
Why did suffragettes oppose the ratification of the 15th Amendment?
Importance of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
What was the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and why wasn’t it ratified?
LGBTQ+
Importance of Stonewall Inn
Why did the AIDS epidemic get so bad in the US?
What was the reasoning of the Court in legalizing same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges?
Cases: Obergefell v. Hodges, Lawrence v. Texas, Bostock v. Clayton County, GA, Bowers v. Hardwick, Windsor v. United States,
Why did the Court strike down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act?
Establish the timeline of the expansion of LGBTQ rights in the United States using the information in the book and the review. General knowledge, not in-depth.
What was the policy of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell?” How did it change and why?
What are the arguments and evidence for and against the idea that voter ID laws are discriminatory in their effect and purpose?
What is the difference between what is meant by many when calling for “defund the police” and how it is understood by groups in opposition?
What are direct action movements?
Important Laws/Policies (What are they and their effects on our society): Title IX of the Education Amendments, Americans with Disabilities Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
Difference between de jure and de facto segregation? Examples.
What is the difference between the standards of strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, and the rational basis test? Which kinds of policies fall under each area for the courts?
How did the Education Acts of 1965 and 1972 force states that had pushed back against integration to integrate their schools?
What is the importance of Shaw v. Reno in determining how states must draw district boundaries during redistricting?
How is judicial activism used by both liberal and conservative justices?