Civil Rights
AP GOVERNMENT
th
14
Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment is the only Amendment that references equality.
◦ The amendment forbids the states deny anyone equal protection of law.
Civil rights are policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment
by government officials and individuals
Scott v Sanford
The case of Scott v Sanford took place when a slave was brought into a territory where slavery
did not exist. Scott sued stating that since slavery was not legal where he no lived, he should be
allowed to go free.
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1856/1856_0/
The Decision
The Supreme Court made the following decision:
◦ All blacks in the United States were not citizens and therefore could not sue.
◦ Congress has no power to ban slavery in the western territories
◦ These decisions stood until the end of the civil war with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment which ended slavery
Jim Crow
After Reconstruction the south instituted many Jim Crow laws that were used to segregate black
and whites.
◦ The Supreme Court held the belief that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prohibit racial
discrimination by private businesses and individuals
Plessy v. Ferguson 1896
The case of Plessy v. Ferguson involved the precedent of separate but equal
◦ Homer Plessy was 1/8th African American. He decided to sit in the white only car of a train.
◦ Plessy was then arrested and placed in jail for violation of segregation laws
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1895/1895_210
The Decision
◦ It was ruled that as long as the separate facilities were equal, you could legally
separate people based upon race
Sweatt v Painter (1949)
In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School and
was rejected because he was black
◦ When Sweatt asked for the Courts to overrule his admission the university attempted to provide
separate but equal facilities for black law students
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1949/1949_44
The Decision
In a 9-0 decision, it was ruled that Sweatt must be admitted to the universities law school
◦ The Court stated that the facilities and the instruction in a “law school for Negroes” would be unequal
to that of the already established law school
◦ The Court also said that separation from the majority of law students harmed a black student’s abilities
to compete in the legal arena
Brown v. Board of Education 1954
The case of Brown v Board of Education took place in 1954 and argued that segregation in
schools was unfair
◦ They stated that inequality existed in the condition of school buildings, curricula, teacher qualifications,
and teacher salaries
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1952/1952_1/
The Decision
This case overturns the precedent of separate but equal.
◦ In a unanimous decision it was declared that “separate is inherently unequal”
Brown v Board is a case that would be classified as activist
Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education (1970)
In 1970, nearly 14,000 black students attended schools that were either all black or more than
99% black.
◦ When the case reached the Supreme Court, the debate looked at whether it was for the Court to
oversee and produce remedies for state imposed segregation
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1970/1970_281
The Decision
In a 9-0 decision, the Court mandated that the desegregation of these schools needed to occur.
The Court came up with the following four point plane
◦ 1. remedial plans were to be judge by effectiveness, and the use of mathematical rations or quotas
were legitimate “starting points” for solutions
◦ 2. predominantly or exclusively black schools required close scrutiny by court
◦ 3. non-contiguous attendance zones, as interim corrective measures, were with the courts’ remedial
powers
◦ 4. no rigid guidelines could be established concerning busing of students to particular schools
Civil Rights
The Civil Rights act of 1964 helped to curtail many of the racial discriminatory processes that
existed during the time period.
◦ The act accomplished the following:
◦ It made racial discrimination illegal in hotels, motels, restaurants, and other places of public
accommodation
◦ Forbade discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, or gender
◦ Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to monitor and enforce protections against job
discrimination
◦ Provided for withholding federal grants from state and local governments and other institutions that
practice racial discrimination
◦ Strengthened voting rights legislation
◦ Authorized the U.S. Justice Department to initiate lawsuits to desegregate public schools and facilities
Heart of Atlanta Motel v US
After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which forbade racial discrimination by places of
public accommodation, the Heart of Atlanta Motel refused to allow black customers to rent a
room
◦ The Court was tasked with determining if the Civil Rights Act of 1964 went beyond their Constitutional
authority to regulate interstate trade
The Decision
In a 9-0 decision, the Court ruled that the Commerce Clause allows Congress to regulate local
incidents of commerce
◦ It also ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was Constitutional as well.
Voting Rights
Voting Rights were another issue within the African American Community
◦ Suffrage, or the right to vote, was limited to free, property-holding white males.
Poll taxes, literacy tests, all white primaries and grandfather clauses were all used to
discriminate against African Americans voting.
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Guinn v United States (1915) made grandfather clauses unconstitutional,
Smith v Allwright (1944) made all white primaries unconstitutional,
The 24th Amendment (1964) outlawed poll taxes
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited any practice used to discriminate in voting practices
Affirmative action
Affirmative action involves efforts to bring about increased employment, promotion, or
admission for members of groups who have suffered from discrimination.
◦ The goal is to move beyond equal opportunity towards equal results
A landmark cases involving Affirmative Action was Regents of the University of California v Bakke
◦ Bakke had alleged that due to Affirmative Action he was being discriminated against because he was
white.
◦ Bakke’s test scores were far superior to those minorities being admitted to the program under the Affirmative Action program
◦ It was ordered that Bakke be admitted to the school, but did not forbid UC from admitting individuals based upon their race.
Hispanics
Hispanics have struggled with many of the same issues of equality that African Americans have
had issues with throughout our country's history
◦ Issues regarding including educational funding, equal representation in juries and immigration policy
have had major impacts on the Hispanic community.
◦ The case of Hernandez v Texas (1954) allowed Hispanic's to sit on juries for the first time in over 25 years.
◦ In the case of Plyler v Doe (1982), the Supreme Court established a ruling that stated withholding educational funds for illegal
immigrant students was a violation of the 14th Amendment.
Women’s Rights
Women's rights activists have existed in the United States since the abolitionist movement of
the Civil War era.
◦ The 19th Amendment, passed in 1920, gave women the constitutional right to vote for the first time in
American history.
◦ One of the first place where women fought for the right to vote was at the Seneca Falls convention.
◦ It was here where women declared that the tyranny of men over women needed to end and that equality needed to given to
women.
ERA
The Equal Rights Amendment attempted to further the cause of female equality.
◦ The ERA challenged the idea that women could not complete the same work of men and stated that
"equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on
account of sex.
◦ The amendment ultimately failed.
Inequality of Law
In the case of Reed v Reed (1971), it was determined that any gender-based classification
violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. This was the first time a law was
deemed unconstitutional on the basis of gender discrimination
The elderly
One group that has tried to hold on to their rights in this changing work is the elderly
◦ People 65 and older make up about 37 million people in the American population
◦ That is 12% of the American population
Many of the hot button issues regarding the elderly revolves around Social Security and
Medicare/Medicaid
◦ These programs account for a huge percentage of the American budget and only appears to be an
increasing expenditure.
The elderly American population is also dealing with age discrimination in the work place.
People with disabilities
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 strengthened the protection for Americans with
disabilities
◦ The ADA requires employers and administrations of public facilities to make “reasonable
accommodations” and prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities.
Gay and lesbian
Homophobia, or fear and hatred of homosexuals- has caused many issues within the United
States
◦ There have been many ruling against the civil rights of Homosexuals
◦ The case of Bowers v Harwick allowed states to ban homosexual relationships. (this was later overturned by Lawrence v Texas,
2003)
◦ The Supreme Court also allowed the Boy Scouts to ban homosexuals from their organization because it violated their principles.
This was in the case of the Boy Scouts v Dale.
◦ There have been recent success in the fight for gay civil rights
◦ Recently the “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” policy was struck down in the military
◦ In the case of Romer v Evans (1996) a state constitutional amendment was struck down after it tried to legalize discrimination
against gays