19

Civil Rights

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The Civil Rights Movement: Blacks I

Major Steps in the movement:1. Blacks move in to interest groups and advocate change in the court

a. Progress, in a majoritarian political system, depended on 1. Finding more white allies

2. Moving into policy-making arenas where whites didn’t have a decided advantage (the Courts)

3. Result: Plessy-Gaines-Sipuel-Sweatt-McLaurin-Brown decisions: separate inherently unequal

2. Blacks mobilize northern opinion on behalf of this civil rights movementa. Northern whites initially supported movement, as they see this as an unfair white/black struggle

b. Integration opposed in South; Brown decision relies on social science

c. De Jure (South) vs. De Facto (North) Segregation: busing to ameliorate intended segregation

d. Busing can end if segregation due solely to housing patterns

e. Handout: rates of mortgage grants/redlining

3. Northern opposition emerges in face of unilaterally imposed AA and businga. Imposed quotas must now meet strict scrutiny of having to serve a legitimate government purpose

4. Congressional Campaign

a. Agenda-setting success offset by coalition-building defeats: whites see demonstrations and riots as lawlessness

b. Legislative politics: deadlock with Southern Democratic positions in Congress

c. Kennedy reluctant to submit strong civil rights legislation

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The Civil Rights Movement: Blacks II4. The Congressional Campaign, pt. 2

a. 4 developments broke deadlock

1. Public Opinion change

2. Violent white reaction of segregationists received extensive media coverage

3. Kennedy assassination

4. 1964 Democratic Landslide

5. Five Bills pass, 1957-1968

a. 1957, 1960, 1965: Voting Rights Acts

b. 1968: Housing Discrimination Laws

c. 1964: Civil Rights Act: the high point- employment, public accommodations, voting, schools

6. Effects since 1964

a. Mood of Congress has shifted and is now supportive of rights

1. 1988 overturn of Reagan’s veto of the civil rights law

b. Dramatic rise in African American voting and change in public opinion

7. But, 1992 Harvard Project on School Desegregation:

a. 67% of blacks attend majority black institutions; 77% in 1964

b. Money follows students

c. Blacks (and Hispanics) granted home mortgages at a rate of 40% compared to whites

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Figure 19.2: Growing Support Among Southern Democrats in Congress for Civil Rights Bills

Sources: Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation, vols. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8.

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Table 19.1: Increase in Number of Black Elected Officials

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The Civil Rights Movement: WomenMarked by a conflict between protection and liberty

Women’s movement faced with asking to repeal “protective” measures

Led to defeat of ERA (That plus Phyllis Schafly’s hot dogs and pie)

1.Standards of protection: between Reasonableness and Strict Scrutinya. Prohibited classifications: age of adulthood, drinking age, arbitrary height/weight,

mandatory pregnancy leaves, Little league exclusion, business/professional associations, retirement benefits, high school coaching salaries

b. Acceptable classifications: Statutory rape, single-gender schools, Widows’ property tax exemptions, delayed Naval promotions. VMI case bordered on strict scrutiny

2.The Drafta. Rostker v. Goldberg (1981): men w/o women can be required to register

b. Women in air/sea combat, but not ground

3.Sexual Harassmenta. Quid pro quo

b. Hostile environment

4.Abortiona. 1789-1973: States

b. 1973-1989: Roe v. Wade. 1989- present: some restrictions o.k.