The Struggle

for Equality

Path to Abolishing Slavery

• The Constitutional Convention would have failed without a compromise on slavery.

• Counted slaves as 3/5ths of person

• Returned runaway slaves to their owners

In the Constitution

What terms are used to describe African Americans?

The Framers Use terms like,

“All other persons and such people”

What was the Missouri

Compromise of 1820

Divided new lands into “slave”

territories and “free” territories.

Who was Dred Scott?

Dred Scott Case 1857

• A Slave from South• Traveled and lived in North

– Slavery was illegal in this territory

• After coming back to Missouri, Scott argued he should be free

• Court ruled that according to the Constitution – Slaves were property

13th Amendment 1865

African Americans

Even though the Constitution banned slavery, the struggle for citizenship and the right to vote had only just begun.

14th Amendment - 1868

• Ensured Citizenship for CitizensTakes power away from states to grant citizenship

• Sometimes called the 2nd Bill of Rights

Did the 14th Amendment ensure equal treatment of

African Americans?

NO!

Many states

created new ways to

segregate.

What is suffrage?

The Right to VOTE

The Path to Suffrage• For African

Americans

• For Women

• For Young Adults

15th Amendment 1870

• States may not deny the vote to any person on the basis of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”

• What did they forget????????

WOMEN!!!

24th Amendment 1964

• Southern states were using a poll tax to prevent African Americans from voting.

This amendment made poll taxes illegal

Women’s Suffrage

Movement

When the Constitution was written, only white men had

the right to vote.

Women also did not have many other rights such as

the right to own property or to be educated for certain

jobs.

As time passed, many people came to feel that this was unfair and that women should have the

same rights as men in our country.

Women’s suffrage (right to vote) became an organized movement in 1848 at a convention in New York.

Women’s Suffrage Parade in New York

City

Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony

born: 2/15/1820

From: Adams,MA

1871 Arrested for voting in a presidential election

Her speech, “We, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we, the male citizens……..”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

In 1851 Stanton met Susan B. Anthony and for the next fifty years they worked together.

Stanton wrote and gave speeches

Anthony organized and campaigned to achieve these goals.

Lucretia Mott

Lucretia Mott helped to organize and call together the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York in July of 1848.

Seneca Falls Convention

•“We hold these truths to be self evident…..that all men AND WOMEN are created equal”

•1848

Sojourner Truth

Truth became a speaker on women's rights issues after attending a Women's Rights

Convention in 1850.

19th Amendment 1920

Finally after years of hard work, women earned the right to vote

26th Amendment 1971

Lowered voting age from 21 to 18

If you are old enough to die for your country – you should be able to vote

14th Amendment’s principle of EQUAL PROTECTION

•Equal Protection–Means that people must be treated fairly –

–it does not mean that everyone must be treated in exactly the same way.

Can you give an example of Equal

Protection?

The banks right to not have to give a loan to everyone who applies for one.

BUTCan’t base it on race, gender, or age.

Segregation

• Separation of blacks and whites in public places

• Laws of segregation were passed after 14th amendment granted citizenship

Did segregation violate the principle of equal protection under the law?

Plessy v. Ferguson 1896

• Homer Plessy• Refused to leave a

“whites only” railroad car

• Court said that separate but equal standards did not violate the 14th amendment

Thurgood Marshall 1950’s

• Can they really be equal and separate?

• NAACP (National Advancement of Colored People)

• First African American on Supreme Court

Brown v. Board of Education 1954

• Linda Brown– 7 blocks from white school– 21 blocks from African American school

• Supreme Court Case• Separate facilities are

inherently unequal• – students made to feel inferior• Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson of

1896

Brown v. Board of Education

Affirmative Action

• Steps to counteract the effects of past racial discrimination and discrimination against women.– Colleges,

businesses.

University of California v. Bakke 1973

• Reverse Discrimination • White applicant rejected• Other racial and ethnic groups

were admitted with lower GPAs, test scores and interview ratings.

• Stated race could be a factor when achieving a more diverse student body

Marchers protesting the Court's decision in Bakke. (AP/Wide World Photos)

Grutter v. Bollinger 2003

• White female denied admission (same grounds as Bakke)

• Race or ethnicity is a legal and necessary tool for determining college admissions

Phillips Case

• Ida Phillips– Denied employment

because of gender

– “Do You Have Young Children?”

• Court ruled that company could not have “one hiring policy for women and another for men”

Citizens and the Constitution

• 13th, 14th, and 15th came about as a result of the Civil War

• The other changes were made through peaceful efforts of active CITIZENS