Equal Rights: Struggling
Toward Fairness
Chapter 5
Struggle for Equality

African Americans
 Brown
vs. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
 Black civil rights movement
 March
on Washington, 1963
 Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965)
 Aftermath
of the civil rights movement
 Discrepancies in
convictions and sentencing
 Movement into political office
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2
Struggle for Equality

Women
 Legal
and political gains
 Title VII
of the Civil Rights Act (1964)
 Title IX of the Education Amendment (1972)
 Job-related
issues
 Family
leave
 Comparable worth (gender pay equity)
 Sexual harassment
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3
Struggle for Equality

Native Americans
 Suits
to regain land
 Negative discrepancy in health, wealth, and
education

Hispanic Americans
 Legal
and political action: Cesar Estrada Chavez,
(1927-1993)
 Guest workers
 Growing political power (Democratic leanings)
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4
Struggle for Equality

Asian Americans
 Long
tradition of immigration restriction, ended
1965
 Over 12 million Asian Americans
 Emphasis on academic achievement in Asian
American communities
 Upwardly mobile group
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5
Struggle for Equality

Other groups and their rights
 Older
Americans
 Disabled
 Gays
Americans
and lesbians
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6
Equality Under the Law: the
Fourteenth Amendment

Forbids states from denying equal protection

Strict scrutiny test



Intermediate scrutiny test



Suspect category—assumed unconstitutional in the absence of an
overwhelming justification
Applies to race, ethnicity, etc.
Almost suspect category—assumed unconstitutional unless the law
serves a clearly compelling and justified purpose
Applies to gender
Reasonable basis test


Not suspect category—assumed constitutional unless no sound
rationale for the law can be provided
Applies to age, income, etc.
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Levels of Court Review for Laws
that Treat Americans Differently
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8
Equality Under the Law:
Equal Access

The Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968
 Accommodations
and jobs
 Public
accommodations cannot refuse to serve
customers based on race
 Most employers cannot refuse to consider applicants
based on race
 Housing
 Prohibition of
redlining
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9
Equality Under the Law:
Equal Ballots

Barring of whites-only primaries, 1940s
 Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibited poll
taxes, 1960s
 Voting Rights Act of 1965 allowed federal
agents to oversee voter registration
 Some race-based gerrymandering is allowed
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10
What’s Your Opinion?

Should private discrimination be allowed?
 Should
private country clubs and organizations be
allowed to discriminate based on:
 Religion, race,
color, ethnic background?
 Gender, age, income?
 Physical characteristics, sexual preference, lifestyles?
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11
Equality of Result

De facto discrimination
 Social,

economic, cultural biases  discrimination
De jure discrimination
 Specific
law  discrimination
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12
Equality of Result

Affirmative action: workplace integration
 Full
and equal opportunities in education,
employment, etc. for all
 Controversy over ends and means

Affirmative action in law
 University
of California Regents v. Bakke (1978)
 Adarand v. Pena (1995)
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What’s Your Opinion?

Which position on affirmative action programs
comes closer to your own point of view?
 Keep
them without rigid quotas?
 Phase them out?
 Don’t know or have an opinion?
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14
Equality of Result

School integration
 Busing: controversial policy to end de facto
segregation of public schools
 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Bd.
of Education (1971)
 Roberts Court decision, 2007
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15
Persistent Discrimination

Superficial differences
 Decline
in overt racism
 Growing
numbers of minorities in higher
education
 Growing
number of minorities in white-collar
professions
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Persistent Discrimination

Deep divisions
 Continuing inequality
in:

health care and mortality rate

nutrition
 education
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