Equal Rights:
Struggling Toward Fairness
Chapter 5 Main Points:
1. Disadvantaged groups have had to struggle for equal rights.
Ex. – African Americans, Women, Native Americans
2. Americans have obtained substantial equality under the law.
Ex. - Discrimination because of characteristics has
declined.
3. Legal equality for all Americans has not resulted in de facto
equality.
Ex. – Affirmative Action, busing.
In 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested for
disobeying a segregation law in
Montgomery, Alabama, that required her to
give up her seat on a bus to a white person.
Women’s Rights Movement
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, women began to work for
equal rights. They wanted to end discrimination against women at
home and work. To accomplish this, women began taking part in
marches, working for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment
(ERA), and generally speaking out against inequality.
The Indian Reorganization Act, passed in 1934
during the Franklin Roosevelt administration,
attempted to give Native Americans increased
control over their lives.
The history of America shows that
disadvantaged groups have rarely
achieved a greater measure of
justice without a struggle. Their
gains have nearly always followed
intense and sustained political
action that forced entrenched
interest to relinquish or share
their privileged status.
Thomas Jefferson
1. People were of equal moral worth.
2. People deserve equal treatment under
the law.
3. Only free men deserved legal equality.
African Americans
Invoice for Slave Purchases
This invoice, dated 1835, lists
the names and prices of
slaves purchased by an
individual slave owner. By
1800, eight years before
the abolition of slave
importation, some 930,000
slaves resided in the
United States, of whom
36,000 lived in the
northern states. The
majority of slaves (more
than 9.5 million) were
forcibly shipped to the
agricultural plantations of
Central and South America
and the Caribbean.
Civil War Ends Slavery,
During the American Civil War,
the Battle of Gettysburg
began on July 1, 1863, when a
Confederate brigade
searching for a badly needed
supply of shoes in the small
town of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania, ran into Union
cavalry. After the three days
of battle were over, Union
forces claimed victory,
although both sides suffered
heavy casualties. This
photograph of the battlefield
shows the dead soldiers.
Union Casualties at Gettysburg
But not racism.
“Unequal Justice”
1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson – “Separate but Equal”
Black children were forced into separate schools that had
few teachers and inadequate libraries;
they were given worn out text books that had been used
previously in white schools.
1930’s - The Supreme Court began to acknowledge the plight of
the underprivileged.
1st Ruling – The Court said that if no separate facilities existed for
African Americans, they must be allowed to use those
reserved for whites.
Oklahoma had no separate law school for blacks when it was ordered to
admit Ada Sipuel in 1949. It created one in a roped-off corridor of the
state capitol building while the white students continued to meet at the
University of Oklahoma’s law school in Norman, twenty miles away.
How did Black Americans
challenge discriminatory
policies?
Legal Action
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
(1954)
The Supreme Court of the United States
unanimously declared that it was
unconstitutional to create separate schools for
children on the basis of race. The Brown ruling
ranks as one of the most important Supreme
Court decisions of the 20th century. At the time
of the decision, 17 southern states and the
District of Columbia required that all public
schools be racially segregated.
Why? Because it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment
The Black Civil Rights Movement
Birmingham police commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor, would meet
protesters with violence. In May 1963 King and his SCLC staff escalated
antisegregation marches in Birmingham by encouraging teenagers and school
children to join. Hundreds of singing children filled the streets of downtown
Birmingham, angering Connor, who sent police officers with attack dogs and
firefighters with high-pressure water hoses against the marchers. Scenes of
young protesters being attacked by dogs and pinned against buildings by
torrents of water from fire hoses were shown in newspapers and on
televisions around the world.
The Black Civil Rights Movement
King and other black leaders organized the 1963 March on
Washington, a massive protest in Washington, D.C., for jobs and civil
rights. On August 28, 1963, King delivered a stirring address to an
audience of more than 200,000 civil rights supporters. His “I Have a
Dream” speech expressed the hopes of the civil rights movement in
oratory as moving as any in American history.
Civil Rights Legislation
1964 – The Civil Rights Act
Provided African Americans and other minorities
with equal access to public facilities and
job discrimination.
1965 - The Voting Rights Act
Ended racial barriers to voting.
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony, along with fellow reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
led the woman-suffrage movement in the United States during the 19th
century. Both activists believed that women could not effectively promote
social reform without the right to vote. Anthony devoted 50 years of her life to
the suffrage movement; she died in 1906, 14 years before the 19th
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States granted women the right
to vote. In 1979 she became the first woman to be pictured on circulating
United States currency, the one-dollar coin.
Women's Legal and Political Gains
1920 – 19th Amendment
Gave women the right to vote.
1963 – Equal Pay Act
1972 – Title IX of the Education Amendment
Prohibits sexual discrimination in education.
1973 – Congress approves the ERA
The ERA failed ratification by three states.
(Three-fourths majority required for ratification)
Gender Gap – the tendency of women
and men to differ in their political
attitudes and voting preferences.
Government statistics indicate that more than two
thirds of employment-aged women work outside
the home compared with only one in eight a halfcentury ago.
1993 – Congress passed the Family and Medical
Leave Act – provides twelve weeks of unpaid
leave for employees, male or female, to care for a
new baby or a seriously ill family member.
Women in the U.S. Labor Force
The participation of women in the labor force expanded dramatically
during the 20th century, with the greatest increase occurring among
married women. In 1900 less than 10 percent of married women
held jobs outside the home. In 1998 about 61 percent held jobs in
the work place.
Glass Ceiling – The invisible barrier to
advancement that talented women
encounter after they have reached
the middle-management level.
Comparable Worth – Proposal to pay
women equally for work that is of
similar difficulty and that requires
similar training.
The average pay for full-time female
employees is only about three-fourths
that of full-time male employees.
Native Americans
By 1900 – Indian population had dropped
from 10 million to less than
1
million.
Reservations are ruled by the treaties signed
when they were established.
State governments have no direct authority
over them.
The federal government has only limited
authority.
Current U.S. policy is to promote selfgovernment and self-sufficiency while
preserving the Native American culture.
Native Americans were not even official
citizens of the United States until passage
of an act of Congress in 1924.
Hispanic Americans

The fastest-growing minority group in the United States in
that of Hispanic Americans. With more than 35 million
Hispanics now living in the U.S. they have replace African
Americans as the largest racial or ethnic minority group.

Legal and Political Action

Proposition 187 – Aimed to cut off public services to illegal
immigrants.
State-funded food stamps, welfare, medical care except for
life-threatening situations, no longer eligible for public
schooling at ay level.

** Most of the provisions of Proposition 187 were declared
unconstitutional.

** 10 Million illegal workers in the U.S. – mostly Hispanic.
Equality Under The Law
Equal-Protection Clause – Forbids any state from denying
equal protection of the laws to any
individual within its jurisdiction.
Reasonable-basis test – The courts require government only to
show that a particular law has a
sound basis.
(21 year-olds can drink alcohol / 20 year-olds cannot)
Reasonable because alcohol related accidents decrease
with older drivers.
** Does not apply to racial or ethnic classifications.
Strict-scrutiny test - Any law that treats people differently
because of race or ethnicity are
considered unconstitutional.
Intermediate Scrutiny Test
United States v. Virginia (1996)
(VMI) In June 1996 the Supreme Court of the
United States ordered the Virginia Military
Institute(157 year-old state supported school) to
admit women. The school complied with the order
in the fall of 1997 by admitting 32 women to its
incoming class of 460 students.
In August 1995, following a two-anda-half-year legal battle, Shannon
Faulkner became the first full-time
female student at The Citadel.
The 14th Amendment applies only to action
by government. It does not prohibit
discrimination by private parties. As a
result, for a long period of time in the
nation’s history, owners could legally bar
black people from restaurants, hotels,
and other accommodations. Employers
could freely discriminate in their job
practices. Since the 1960’s, firms have
had much less freedom to discriminate on
the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, or
religion.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Entitles persons to equal access to restaurants,
hotels, bars, theaters, gas stations – all general
public services. The legislation also bars
discrimination in the hiring, promotion, and wages of
medium to large sized firms.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has nearly eliminated the most overt
forms of discrimination in the area of public accommodations.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Forbids discrimination in voting and registration. It
also eliminated the practice of having to pass a
literacy test to vote.
Equality of Result
Civil Rights problems involve deeply rooted conditions,
habits, and prejudices and affect whole categories of
people. For these reasons, a new civil rights policy
rarely produces a sudden and dramatic change in
society.

De Facto Discrimination – Discrimination that is
a consequence of social, economic, and
cultural biases and conditions.

De Jure Discrimination – Discrimination on the
basis of race, sex, religion, ethnicity,
and the like that results from a law.
Equality of Result
Aim of policies intended to reduce or eliminate
de facto discrimination.
My Belief – The governments responsibility
extends no further than the removal of legal
barriers to equality. (Personal Liberties)
Given that position, I believe that some policies
intended to achieve equality of result, such as
affirmative action and busing, are inherently
wrong.
Affirmative Action:
Workplace Integration
There is a difficulty in converting newly
acquired legal rights into everyday realities.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited
discrimination in the workplace, women and
minorities didn’t suddenly obtain jobs for
which they were qualified. The Civil Rights
Act did not require employers to prove that
their hiring practices were not
discriminatory. Instead, the burden of proof
was on the woman or minority group
member who had been denied a particular
job. A broader remedy was required.
Affirmative Action
► Programs
designed to
ensure that women,
minorities, and other
traditionally
disadvantaged groups
have full access and
equal opportunities in
employment,
education, and other
areas of life.


** Places the burden of proof on the
providers of opportunities, who, to some
extent, must be able to demonstrate that
any disproportionate granting of
opportunities to white males is not he
result of some discriminatory practices.
Most Americans support affirmative action
when it comes to programs that will give
women and minorities an equal chance at
opportunities but oppose it when it comes
to programs that will give them
preferential treatment and lead to reverse
discrimination.
University of California
Regents v. Bakke (1978)
Alan Bakke, a white male, had been twice
denied admission to a University of
California Medical School, even though his
admission scores were higher than those
of several minority-group students who
had been accepted. Bakke claimed the
school had a quota system for minorities
that discriminated against white males.
The Supreme Court ruled in Bakke’s favor
but did not invalidate affirmative action
per se.
Adarand v. Pena 1995
The Supreme Court examined a federal statute
that reserved “not less than 10 percent” of funds
provided for highway construction for small
businesses owned by “socially and economically
disadvantaged individuals.” The court’s majority
opinion, written by Sandra Day O’Connor,
overturned the statute and declared that even
federal affirmative action programs are
constitutional only when they are “narrowly
tailored” to serve a “compelling government
interest.” In other words, the government cannot
issue general requirements (such as a quota of
10%) as a means of remedying past
discrimination.
Gratz v. Bollinger 2003
The Supreme Court stuck down the
University of Michigan’s point system
for undergraduate admission, which
granted twenty points (out of total of
one hundred and fifty possible
points) to minority applicants.
School Integration: Busing
The 1954 Brown ruling mandated an
end to forced segregation of public
schools. Brown did not mandate that
school integration take place. Ten
years after Brown, less than 3% of
black children were attending
schools that were predominantly
white.
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
County Board of Education 1971


The Supreme Court ruled that the busing
of children from one neighborhood to
another was a permissible way for courts
to compel the integration of public
schools.
Unlike Brown, which affected mainly the
South, Swann also applied to northern
communities in which African Americans
and whites live apart as a result of
economic and cultural differences.