CIVIL RIGHTS

Chapter 6Mr. Manzo

American Government:

Continuity and Change

CIVIL RIGHTSIn this chapter we will cover…

1. The Civil Rights Movement

2. Affirmative Action3. Continuity and Change

What are Civil Rights?

Civil Rights refers to the positive acts governments take to protect against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government or individuals.

Segregation

• De jure (required by law) segregation-occurred when local, state, or national laws required racial separation

• EX -widespread in the South for about 80 years

• De facto (in reality) segregationEX-residential housing patterns, economic

factors, personal choice, "white flight" from central cities, discrimination by home owners, real estate agents, and lending institutions

Black Codes• Southern states passed laws (Black

Codes) that prohibited Black Americans from– Voting

– Sitting on juries

– Or even appearing in public places

                                      

Jim Crow Laws• During the years of Jim Crow, state laws mandated

racial separation in – schools

– parks

– playgrounds

– restaurants

– hotels

– public transportation

– theatres

– restrooms and so on.

• These laws remained in effect throughout the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) upheld the constitutionality of separate railroad cars for blacks and whites. Speaking for the Court, Justice Henry Billings Brown argued that as long as the separate facilities for each race were "equal," they were permitted under the Constitution

Sample Questions from a Literacy TestState of Louisiana

One wrong answer denotes failure of the test. (10 min)

1. Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.

2. Draw a line under the last word in this line.3. Cross out the longest word in this line.4. Draw a line around the shortest word in this line.5. Circle the first, first letter of the alphabet in this line.6. In the space below draw three circles, one inside the other.7. Above the letter X make a small cross.8. Draw a line through the letter below that comes earliest in the

alphabet. ZVSEDGMKYTPHC9. Draw a line through the letter below that comes last in the alphabet.

ZVSEDGMKYTPHC10. In the space below write the word noise backwards and place a dot

over what would be its second letter should it have been written forward.

11. Give your age in days.

The Civil War Amendments

• 13th Amendment – banned all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude

• 14th Amendment -- guarantees equal protection of the laws and due process to all citizens

• 15th Amendment -- specifically gives blacks the right to vote

Shortly after ratification the Southern states devised ways around these amendments by passing laws that restricted opportunities for Black Americans.

Women’s rights were not addressed in these Amendments!

19th Amendment

Women are granted the franchise (right to vote)

• Linda Carol Brown, was not allowed to attend a school four blocks from her house because it was for white students. Instead, she had to walk twenty-one blocks to the nearest all-black school.

Brown vs. Board of Education

Brown vs. Board of Education

• 64 years after the Plessy decision the Court the struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine in the landmark case

• Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)

“With All Deliberate Speed”

• A year later, in Brown II the Court ruled that segregated systems must be dismantled “with all deliberate speed.”

3. The Civil Rights Movement

• The Brown vs. Board decision sparked the development of the modern civil rights movement.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964• Outlawed arbitrary discrimination in voter registration• Barred discrimination in public accommodation• Authorized the US Justice Department to initiate

lawsuits to desegregate schools and public facilities• Allowed the federal government to withhold funds from

discriminatory state and local programs• Prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color,

religion, national origin or sex• Created the Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission (EEOC) to monitor and enforce bans on employment discrimination

Voting Rights Acts of 1965

• Outlawed literacy tests and Poll tax

• Helped to register new voters

The Impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Southerners argued that the Act violated the Constitution and was an unwarranted use of federal power.

• The Court ruled that state imposed (de jure) segregation must be eliminated at once.

• However, a full decade after Brown, less than 1% of African American children in the South attended integrated schools.

• Over time, these rulings and laws opened up numerous occupations to minorities but especially to women.

Title IX: Student Participation in Athletics

The Women's Educational Equity Act of 1974In the assessment of the "interests and abilities" portion of the Title IX regulations, a three part test governs. All that is required under Title IX is that an institution be in compliance with one part of that test. No one part of the test is the predominant or "true" measure of compliance. The three parts of the test are:

• Part One: Substantial Proportionality. This part of the test is satisfied when participation opportunities for men and women are "substantially proportionate" to their respective undergraduate enrollments.Part Two: History and Continuing Practice. This part of the test is satisfied when an institution has a history and continuing practice of program expansion that is responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex (typically female).Part Three: Effectively Accommodating Interests and Abilities. This part of the test is satisfied when an institution is meeting the interests and abilities of its female students even where there are disproportionately fewer females than males participating in sports.

Title IX• Considering that it wasn't until 1920 that the

19th Amendment of the Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote, the bare numbers are nonetheless astonishing:

• In 1971, the year before Title IX became law, fewer than 300,000 girls participated in high school sports, about one in 27. Today, the number approaches 3 million, or approximately one in 2½.

• The number of women participating in intercollegiate sports in that same span has gone from about 30,000 to more than 150,000. In the last 20 years alone, the number of women's college teams has nearly doubled.

• Before Title IX, only tennis and golf had established professional tours. Today, there are also women's professional leagues for soccer, volleyball, bowling and two for basketball. Women have even made inroads in the traditionally male sport of boxing.

Title IX• Here's the bad news: • While women comprise approximately 54 percent of the enrollment in

the 832 schools that responded to the NCAA's 1999-2000 Gender Equity Study, they account for only 41 percent of the athletes. This violates Title IX's premise that the ratio of female athletes and male athletes should be roughly equivalent to the overall proportion of female and male students.

• According to 2000-2001 figures, men's college programs still maintain significant advantages over women's in average scholarships (60.5 percent), operating expenses (64.5 percent), recruiting expenses (68.2 percent) and head coaching salaries (59.5 percent).

• Only 44 percent of the head coaches of women's teams are female, an all-time low that represents less than half the pre-Title IX figure.

5. Affirmative Action

• Is a policy designed to redress prior discrimination.

• Bakke v. Regents of the University of California (1978)

• Adarand v Pena 1995

• Grutter v. Bollinger, Gratz v. Bollinger 2003

Rights for Disabled

• Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975- free public education regardless of disability.

• Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 – extended protections to disabled

6. Continuity and Change

• It took over 100 years from the first shot of the Civil War until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights of 1965 for African Americans to begin to fully exercise their rights.

• Women only achieved the right to vote in 1920.

• Still today we do not have a consensus in America about race and gender relations.

• Many argue that racism and sexism are alive and well in America.