Civil Rights
Unit VI
VI. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 5–15%
A. The development of civil liberties and civil
rights by judicial interpretation
B. Knowledge of substantive rights and liberties
C. The impact of the Fourteenth Amendment on
the constitutional development of rights and
liberties
I. Conceptions of Equality
A. The Declaration of Independence
1. “all men are created equal”
2. Indicates a belief in political equality, legal
equality, equality of opportunity
B. The Constitution
1. Neither the Constitution or the Bill of Rights uses
the word equality
2. 14th Amendment
a. Forbids states from denying “equal protection of the
laws”
b. Plays a key role in the civil rights struggle
C. Supreme Court
A. Reasonable classification
1. Government must have the power to make
reasonable classifications between persons and
groups
2. Includes: denying the right to vote to citizens under
18 or high excise tax on cigarettes which smokers
must pay
B. Strict scrutiny
1. Classification by race and ethnic background is
suspect
2. Must be justified by “compelling public interest”
II. Struggle for racial equality
A. Dred Scot decision (1857)
1. Black people were not citizens and could not petition
the courts
2. Established that national legislation could not limit
the spread of slavery
3. Repealed the NW Ordinance of 1787 & Missouri
Compromise
B. Reconstruction Amendments
1. 13th – abolished slavery
2. 14th – former slaves are citizens; invalidates Dred
Scott decision
3. 15th suffrage for African American males
C. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
1. Dispute over a Louisiana law requiring “equal
but separate accommodations for the white
and colored races” on railroad coaches
2. Supreme court upheld the law
3. Doctrine sanctioned segregation and
strengthened the states at the expense of the
federal government
D. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
(1954)
1. Racially segregated schools violated Equal
Protection clause of the 14th amendment
2. Reversed the separate but equal principle
E. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
1. Bill finally passed when the Senate invoked
cloture to end 83 days of filibuster
2. Did the following:
a. Ended Jim Crow segregation by making discrimination
illegal in hotels, motels, restaurants and other public
accommodation
E. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
b. Prohibited employment discrimination bases on race,
color, national origin, religion, gender
c. Created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
to monitor
d. Authorized the Department of Justice to initiate
lawsuits to desegregate public facilities and schools
3. Supreme Court upheld the provisions outlawing segregation in
places of public accommodation by ruling that such segregation
involved interstate commerce and fell under legislative authority
of Congress
IMPORTANT!!
• AP US GOPO tests have devoted a significant
number of multiple choice questions to Brown
v. Board of Ed and the Civil Rights Act.
• Know that Brown used the Equal Protection
Clause of the 14th amendment to reverse
Plessy v. Ferguson.
• Court used interstate commerce provision to
uphold the Civil Rights Act.
III. The struggle for African American
Voting Rights
A. Methods of disenfranchising African
American voters
1.
2.
3.
4.
Poll taxes
Literacy tests
White primaries
By 1960 only 29% of African Americans of voting
age were registered to vote in the South. 61% of
whites were registered
B. Eliminating the poll tax
1. 24th Amendment (1964) prohibited poll taxes in
federal elections
2. In 1966, Supreme Court voided poll taxes in state
elections
A. The Voting Rights Act of 1965
1. Outlawed literacy tests
2. Legal oversight of voter registration in areas with
a history of discriminatory voting practices
3. Improved voter registration disparity
D. Racial gerrymandering
1. Following 1990 census, several states created
oddly shaped districts to give minority groups a
majority
2. Shaw v. Reno (1993): oddly shaped minoritymajority districts held to strict scrutiny
3. Subsequent rulings refined Shaw – use of race as
“predominant factor” is unconstitutional
IV. Women’s struggle for civil rights
A. Original status of women
1. Considered citizens but no political rights
2. Subjected to male-dominated system of family
law; for example, women could not divorce their
husbands, sign contracts, or dispose of property
3. Denied educational and career opportunities. In
1873, Supreme Court denied the right of women
to practice law, saying “The paramount destiny
and mission of women are to fulfill the noble and
benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law
of the Creator.”
B. Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
1. Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Lucretia Mott
organized
2. Adopted resolutions calling for the abolition of
legal, economic, social discrimination against
women
C. The Fight for suffrage
1. Women’s rights activists disappointed when the 15th
amendment failed to give women the right to vote
2. 19th amendment (1920) guaranteed women the right to
vote
D. The Equal Rights Amendment
1. Congress passed the ERA in 1972
2. 3 states short of the 3/4ths necessary
E. Milestones
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Equal Pay Act of 1963: equal pay for equal work; women earn $0.81
for every $1 men make
Civil Rights Act of 1964
1966, Betty Friedan and others found NOW (National Organization
for Women)
Reed v. Reed (1971)
a. Idaho law that preferred a father over a mother as executor
violated Equal Protection Clause of 14th amendment
b. New standard for judging sex discrimination cases: any law that
classifies people on the basis of gender “must be reasonable, not
arbitrary and must rest on some ground of difference”
Title IX of the Education Act of 1972 forbids discrimination against
female students (important in women’s athletics)
V. Affirmative Action