Civil Rights – part 3
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Other Groups
Asian Americans
They are a dangerous
element. There is no
way to determine their
loyalty.
General
DeWitt
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Other Groups
Asian Americans
Korematsu v. United States
1944
The Court upheld the constitutionality of
internment of Japanese Americans
during WW II
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Other Groups
Native Americans
Indian Citizenship Act of . . . 1924
• Made Native Americans citizens
• Gave right to vote
California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians
- 1987
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Other Groups
Hispanics
Hernandez v. Texas
1954
The Court extended protection against
discrimination to Hispanics . . . widening
definition of discrimination beyond race
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Other Groups
Hispanics
Key civil rights leader
Cèsar Chavez
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Other Groups
Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
• Requires employers and public facilities to
make reasonable accommodations for
people with disabilities
• Prohibits discrimination in employment
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive
Order 8802, which outlawed segregationist hiring
policies by defense-related industries which held federal
contracts.
During 1953 President Harry S. Truman's Committee on
Government Contract Compliance urged the Bureau of
Employment Security "to act positively and affirmatively
to implement the policy of nondiscrimination . . . ."
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
The actual phrase "affirmative action" was first used in
John F. Kennedy's 1961 Executive Order 10925:
• which requires federal contractors to "take affirmative
action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that
employees are treated during employment, without
regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.“
The same language was later used in Lyndon Johnson's
1965 Executive Order 11246.
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Johnson Speech in 1965
The voting rights bill will be the latest,
and among the most important, in a long series of
victories.
But this victory--as Winston Churchill said of another
triumph for freedom--"is not the end. It is not even the
beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the
beginning.
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Johnson Speech in 1965
That beginning is freedom; and the
barriers to that freedom are tumbling down.
Freedom is the right to share, share fully and equally, in
American society--to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public
place, to go to school.
It is the right to be treated in every part of our national
life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all
others.
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Johnson Speech in 1965
But freedom is not enough.
You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying:
Now you are free to go where you want, and do as you
desire, and choose the leaders you please.
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Johnson Speech in 1965
You do not take a person who, for years,
has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him
up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are
free to compete with all the others," and still justly
believe that you have been completely fair.
Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of
opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk
through those gates.
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Key Questions:
• Equal Opportunity or Equal Results?
• How achieve?
Key Concerns:
• Quotas
• Violate “equal protection”?
• Reverse discrimination?
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Regents of the University of California
v. Bakke
1978
The Court held that race or ethnicity
can be one element in admissions
(among other elements) . . .
but quotas are not OK.
Allan Bakke
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Proposition 209
California - 1996
Banned affirmative action programs based on race,
ethnicity, or gender in:
• Hiring
• Contracting
• Educational admissions
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Gratz v. Bollinger
2003
In a 6-3 decision . . .
The Court held that the point system
used by the University of Michigan
was too much like a quota system,
and therefore unconstitutional.
CJ Rehnquist
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
William Rehnquist
Served as a law clerk to a
Supreme Court justice involved
in the Brown decision.
In a memo to the justice concerning the
Brown case, the young Rehnquist wrote:
"Plessy vs. Ferguson was right
and should be reaffirmed."
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Grutter v. Bollinger
2003
In a 5-4 decision . . .
The Court held that the inclusion of
race as a “plus” in the University of
Michigan’s Law School admissions
process was individualistic and
non-mechanical, therefore OK.
Sandra Day
O’Connor
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
Grutter v. Bollinger
2003
She further wrote that in using race
as a factor in admissions, colleges
would be "obtaining the educational
benefits that flow from a diverse
student body."
Sandra Day
O’Connor
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights
Affirmative Action
3 Justifications in College Admissions
• Rectify past discrimination
• Create diversity of viewpoints & experience in the
student body for educational purposes
• Improve diversity in future leaders for society to
better reflect the population
AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights