Civil Rights
Unit 5
Civil Rights
Key Questions/Ideas
Areas of Study
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Equality and Equal Rights
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The Quest for Equal Justice
Equal Protection of the Laws •
Voting Rights
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Rights To Equal Access
Education Rights
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How can the government best ensure equal
rights for all?
Why is the Supreme Court so important in
determining civil rights?
Explain the concept of equality and assess the
rights of citizens.
Compare and contrast the efforts of various
groups to obtain equal protection of the laws.
Analyze the Supreme Court’s three-tiered
approach used to evaluate discriminatory laws.
Trace the evolution of voting rights and analyze
the protections provided by the 1965 Voting
Rights Act.
Describe congressional legislation against
discrimination in housing, employment, and
accommodations.
Evaluate the historical process of school
integration and the current state of affirmative
action.
Asses the status of civil rights in the US today.
The story of civil rights in the US is the
struggle to reconcile our ideals as a nation
with the realities of discrimination
individuals and groups may still encounter
in daily life.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands
which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions
of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn,
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient
sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former
Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and
usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove
this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
• Civil Liberties
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• Civil Rights
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AMENDMENT XIV Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized
in the United States, and
subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State
wherein they reside. 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.
Incorporation
Case
Year
Provision
Amendment
Gitlow v. New York
1925
Freedom of speech
First
Near v. Minnesota
1931
Freedom of the press
First
Powell v. Alabama
1932
Right to counsel in capital cases
Sixth
De Jonge v. Oregon
1937
Freedom of assembly, right to petition
First
Cantwell v. Connecticut
1940
Free exercise of religion
First
Everson v. Board of Education
1947
No establishment of religion
First
In re Oliver
1948
Right to public trial
Sixth
Wolf v. Colorado
1949
Right against unreasonable search and
seizure
Fourth
Mapp v. Ohio
1961
Exclusionary rule
Fourth (and Fifth h)
Robinson v. California
1962
Right against cruel and unusual punishment
Eighth
Gideon v. Wainwright
1963
Right to counsel in felony cases
Sixth
Malloy v. Hogan
1964
Right against self-incrimination
Fifth h
Pointer v. Texas
1965
Right to confront witnesses
Sixth
Griswold v. Connecticut
1965
Privacy
First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth,
and Ninth
Parker v. Gladden
1966
Right to impartial jury
Sixth
Klopfer v. North Carolina
1967
Right to speedy trial
Sixth
Washington v. Texas
1967
Right to compulsory process
Sixth
Duncan v. Louisiana
1968
Right to jury trial in cases involving serious
crime
Sixth
Benton v. Maryland
1969
Right against double jeopardy
Fifth h
Argersinger v. Hamlin
1972
Right to counsel in any criminal case with
potential sentence of incarceration
Sixth