st
• Should Americans give up some civil liberties in order to protect the country from terrorism?
• If so, which ones?
• If not, how to fight repression?
Education
Selection of judges/justices
Support the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”
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Dynamics of Democracy , Chapter 5
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The term “civil rights” includes the equality of rights for the following:
RACE ETHNICITY
SEX
RELIGION
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SEXUAL
ORIENTATION

13 th ,14 th,
15 th
Amendments
Supreme
Court
Decisions
U.S.
Congress
State
Legislatures
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1619
First slaves arrive
1787
The 3/5 th rule
1808
Importing slaves made illegal…
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…despite ban, slave trade continues

1857
Dred
Scott case
1865
13 th
Amendment ratified
1865
Black
Codes
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1866 to 1875
Congress passes Civil
Rights Laws.
Blacks vote and hold office in
South.

1865 to 1877
Reconstruction
Federal troops in South
1868
14 th
Amendment ratified
1873
1870
15 th
Amendment ratified
Supreme Court
Ruling virtually nullifies 14 th
Amendment
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1877
Federal troops withdrawn
1865 Ku Klux
Klan formed —
Revived 1915
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1896
Plessy v.
Ferguson
1909
NAACP formed; legal strategy for civil rights

th
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1857- African Americans not citizens so they are not entitled to civil liberties
1865- Slavery was made illegal

th
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Laws that prevented
African-Americans from buying property, signing contracts, or serving on juries
Granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United
States”

th
U.S. v.
Cruikshank
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Gave African-
American men the right to vote
1876- Ruled that federal laws that punished those who violated rights of
African-Americans were unconstitutional

U.S. v.
Reese
Plessy v.
Ferguson
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1876- Ruled that the
15th Amendment did not guarantee all men over
21 a right to vote
1896- The court upheld the legality of segregated facilities

Gaines v.
Canada
Smith v.
Allwright
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1938- The court ruled that Missouri had to establish truly equal facilities
1944- The court ruled that whites-only primary elections were unconstitutional

Jim Crow Laws
Laws that discriminated against African-Americans, usually by enforcing segregation and limiting voting.
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• Outlawed discrimination in public accommodations under the Interstate Commerce Act
• No tax dollars could go to organizations that discriminated
• Outlawed job discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or sex
• Created the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) to enforce these rules
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• Sent federal registrars to Southern counties with less than 30% voter registration by African-Americans
• Courts authorized to review any redistricting plans that reduced chances of electing blacks
• Led to a dramatic increase in African-American voting and election of black officials
• Renewed in 2006 with strong support from civil rights groups and major business lobbyists
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• In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that separate was not equal and that public schools must be desegregated “with all deliberate speed”
• Outlawed “de jure” segregation, not “de facto”
• Chief Justice Earl Warren: “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”
• Pres. Eisenhower sent federal troops to Arkansas to enforce school integration
• Massive Southern resistance to integration until the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 cut federal funds to segregated schools
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• Local school district boundaries
• Courts will not order busing across district boundaries
• Housing is segregated by income and race
• “White flight” to suburbs to avoid attending integrated schools
• Affordable housing for poor and minorities is more available in central cities
• Lack of political support for changes in local school finance or district boundaries
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• Only 44 African-Americans in House, 1 in Senate (all
Democrats)
• African-Americans a key Democratic voting block:
90% in 2000 and 2004
• Majority-minority districts in the South help elect more blacks but reduce # of Democratic districts
• Race is a major reason for the resurgence of the
Republican Party in the South
• Republicans try to gain black votes on issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and funding for faith-based social programs
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• Wide support for civil rights and legal equality for African-
Americans
• Overt expression of racist opinions is no longer socially acceptable, but stereotypes persist
• Media coverage of violent crime gives a negative image of blacks, especially young males
• Whites over-estimate blacks as a proportion of the population, of criminals, or of welfare recipients
• White opposition to most policies that might help blacks: school busing, affirmative action, drug law reform, more generous welfare
• Strong support from BUSINESS for affirmative action, diversity,
2006 renewal of Voting Rights Act
Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2006