Chapter 5 Beyond Equal Protection and Civil Rights: Equal Protection

1
Chapter 5 Beyond Equal Protection and Civil
Rights Equal Protection

• Juliet Alfaro
• With material from American Government and
  Politics Today, Texas Edition by Schmidt,
  Shelley, Bardes.
  

2
Introduction to Civil Rights

• All Men are created equal was set forth in the
  Declaration of Independence but.
  
• Majority of people had few rights
• Slaves excluded from political process
• Women excluded
• Native Americans excluded
• African Americans (some were free) excluded
• Non-landowning white males

3
Equality is the heart of civil rights

• All rights rooted in the Fourteenth Amendments
  guarantee of equal protection under the law.
  
• what the government must do to ensure equal
  protection
  
• what the government must do to ensure freedom
  from discrimination
  
• Civil liberties are limitations are limitations
  on government. (what government cannot do.)
  

4
This discussion includes..

• The story of groups to be free from
  discrimination, specifically
  
• The movement in the 50s and 60s
• The womens movement, 1850 to present
• These movements resulted in significant
  legislation such as the right to vote and the
  right to equal protection under the laws.
  

5
Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln

• Liberty and slavery-opposite as Heaven and
  Hell-are both in the constitution.
  
• All men are created equal except.

6
African-Americans and the Consequences of Slavery
in the U.S.

• Before 1863, the constitution protected slavery
• The Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) upheld the
  constitutionality of slavery by ruling hat slaves
  were not citizens of the U.S. and were not
  entitled to the rights of citizenship.
• The Missouri Compromise which banned slavery
  north of southern border of Missouri was ruled
  unconstitutional.

7
African-Americans and the Consequences of Slavery
in the U.S.
Did the Dred Scott case have negative
consequences? Most scholars believe that Dred Sco
tt added to the spark of the Civil War.
8
Constitutional Inequality ended with.

• President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation
  ended slavery in 1863.
  
• The passage of the
• 13th Amendment
• 14th Amendment
• 15th Amendment

9
The Civil War Amendments

• Thirteenth Amendment (1865) neither slavery nor
  involuntary servitude shall exist in the United
  States
  
• Fourteenth Amendment (1868) all persons born or
  naturalized in the United State are citizens
  

10
The Civil War Amendments (cont.)

• states cannot abridge the privileges or
  immunities of citizens
  
• all persons (whether or not they are citizens)
  are entitled to due process
  
• all persons are entitled to equal protection
• Fifteenth Amendment (1870) the right to vote
  shall not be denied because of race, color or
  previous condition of servitude

11
Civil Rights Acts of 1865 to 1875 were aimed to
enforce the amendments.

• Passed by Republican Controlled Congress to
  protect violations by the states.
  
• The Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1866
• extended citizenship to anyone born in the United
  States
  
• gave African Americans full equality before the
  law
  
• authorized the president to enforce the act
  through use of force
  
• The Enforcement Act of 1870
• set out specific penalties for interfering with
  the right to vote given by the 15th amendment and
  the CRA of 1866.

12
Civil Rights Acts of 1865 to 1875 (cont.)

• The Anti-Ku Klux Klan Act or the Civil Rights Act
  of 1872.
  
• made it a federal crime to deprive an individual
  of his or her rights secured by federal laws and
  the constitution using law and customs
  
• The Second Civil Rights Act (1875)
• everyone is entitled to equal enjoyment of public
  accommodation and places of public amusement
  
• imposed penalties for violators

13
The Ineffectiveness of the Civil Rights

• The Civil Rights Cases and Plessy v. Ferguson
  (1896)nullified the Civil Right Acts or
  Reconstruction Statutes.
  
• Other barriers imposed on the minority prevented
  universal suffrage.

14
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 were nullified
(rendered void) through

• The Civil Rights Cases (1883)
• the Supreme Court rules that the 14th amendment
  only prevents official discriminatory acts by
  states, not by private individuals
  
• Individual invasion of individual rights is not
  the subject matter of the Amendment
  
• Most Americans supported this decision (sad
  commentary on Americans of that era)
  
• 20 years later, the majority forgot the
  amendments and CRA laws, and the proslavery
  secessionists gained power in the south.
  

15
The Civil Rights Act were nullified (rendered
void) (cont.)

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
• -was the most significant.
• stated that segregation did not violate the 14th
  amendment
  
• established the separate-but-equal doctrine
• paved the way constitutionally for a system of
  racial segregation developed, especially in the
  South

16
Jim Crow Laws
17
Voting BarriersThe ability
of African-Americans to vote was greatly
restricted when reconstruction federal troops
that occupied the south were withdrawn in
1877.The states gained control and used a
number of laws to restrict voting.An effective
barrier was to claim that political parties were
private entities..This allowed the Democratic
party to keep minorities from voting in their
primaries - the white primary..
18
Barriers to voting by African Americans

• the white primary a state primary election in
  which only whites may vote
  
• allowed because Southern politicians claimed
  political parties were private entities
  
• was outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1944 (Smith
  v. Allwright)
  

19
Barriers to voting by African Americans (cont.)

• grandfather clause restricting voting to
  individuals who could prove that their
  grandfathers had voter prior to 1867
  
• was used to exempt whites from poll taxes
• was used to exempt whites from literacy tests
• poll taxes required the payment of a fee to
  vote
  

20
Barriers to voting by African Americans (cont.)

• intended to disenfranchise poor African
  Americans
  
• was outlawed in national elections by the 24th
  amendment in1964
  
• was outlawed in all elections by the Supreme
  Court in 1966
  
• literacy tests -- required potential voters to
  read, recite or interpret complicated texts
  
• intended to disenfranchise African Americans

21
Extralegal Methods

• Especially in the south, minorities were made to
  feel second-class through social custom.
  
• Familiarity of a white woman by a minority man
  or boy was a serious offense - lynching was
  used to punish the accused.
  
• Outside the south race riots (job competition)
  were sparked by the majority especially during
  labor shortages during WWII, 1939-1945.

22
The end of the separate-but-equal doctrine.

• A series of lawsuits launched the legal attack on
  the separate-but-equal doctrine.
  
• The lawsuits sought to admit the minority to
  state professional schoolsby the 1950s,
  admitted minorities could not be assigned to
  separate areas of the school including
  cafeterias, libraries and classrooms..

23
In 1951, Oliver Brown decided his daughter should
got to an all-white school seven blocks away
versus an all non-white school twenty-one blocks
awayThe NAACP accepted the challenge
Brown v. Board (1954)
24
Brown v. Board of 1954

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
  Supreme Court unanimously rules that public
  school segregation violates the 14th amendment.
  Plessy overturned.
• Then the second case
• Brown v. Board of Education (1955) orders
  desegregation with all deliberate speed
  
• Court ordered busing transporting African
  American children to white schools and white
  children to African American schools

25
With all Deliberate Speed

• The Supreme Court declared that district courts
  were needed to enforce school desegregation.
  
• the school transportation system, personnel,
  and revision of school districts and attendance
  areas into compact units to achieve a system of
  determining admission to the pubic schools on a
  nonracial basis

26
Reactions to School Integration

• In 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used the
  national guard to block integration of Central
  High School in Little Rock.
  
• President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the
  national guard and sent the Armys 101st Airborne
  Division to ease violence
  
• The school was integrated.
• Then in 1962, James Meredith tried to enroll at
  the University of Mississippi, but the violence
  forced President Kennedy to send 30,000 combat
  troops to restore peace.

27
Integration and Busing

• Integration was a difficult task because of
  residential concentrations, and many northern
  school districts created segregated schools by
  drawing arbitrary district lines
• The residential concentration results in de facto
  segregation and de jure segregation results from
  law or administrative decisions.

28
Court Ordered Busing

• Busing seemed to be the obvious solution to de
  facto and de jure segregation, but busing was
  unpopular by many groups.
  
• When minorities were bused in Boston to
  blue-collar Irish-Catholic areas, violence broke
  out.
  
• In the mid-70s, close to 50 of minorities and
  75 of non-minorities were opposed to busing.
  
• However, the Supreme Court continued to uphold
  busing plans
  

29
The End of Integration?

• The Supreme Court changed direction on court
  ordered busing in the 1980s and 1990s by not
  supporting race-conscious policies to further
  integration and diversity.
• In 2001, Belk v. Charlotte Mecklenberg Board of
  Education held that the district had achieved its
  goal of integrationrace based admission quotas
  could not be used.

30
The Resurgence of Minority Schools

• De facto segregation has occurred.
• White flight and high minority birthrates in
  urban areas resulted in .
  
• 1 out of 3 minority students goes to school with
  more than 90 minority enrollment.
  
• 15 out of 16 minorities (in cities) go to schools
  with almost no whites.
  
• The goal today seems to be providing a better
  education, even in segregated schools.

31
The Civil Rights Movement

• The Brown decision was a moral victory, but did
  nothing to change segregation, and only applied
  to public schools.
  
• Rosa Parks, 43, in 1955 refused to give up her
  seat on a bus, and was fined 10.00.
  
• Martin Luther King organized a boycott of a bus
  line in Montgomery, Alabama which lasted one
  year.
  

Then in 1956, a federal district court issued an
injunction prohibiting segregation of Montgomery
buses.
32
Kings philosophy of Non-Violence

• In 1957, Martin Luther King formed the Southern
  Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
  
• Advocated nonviolent civil disobedience to
  achieve racial justice.
  
• Influenced by Mahatma Ghandi (1869-1948).
• He employed nonviolent demonstrations, marches
  and public disobedience against the British
  colonial system in India.

33
NonViolent Demonstrations

• For the next ten years, many Americans of all
  races participated in sit-ins, freedom rides and
  marches.
  
• Violent resistance meeting with nonviolence
  created support for the civil rights movement.
  
• The Woolworth sit-in in Greensboro, North
  Carolina resulted in enraged, trashy customer
  behavior.
  
• In six months, hundreds of southern lunch
  counters were serving everyone.
  
• These sit-ins worked to integrate busing,
  railroads and terminals.

34
Marches and Demonstrations

• In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, Police Commissioner
  Bull Connor launched an attack on marchers and
  protesters with police dogs and cattle prods.it
  was televised King was jailed,
• The violent response city government helped end
  Jim Crow Laws.
  
• Then the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were passed.

35

• In 1963, Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin
  organized the march on Washington for Jobs and
  Freedom.
  
• King led a quarter million person march in
  Washington D.C. where he gave his I have a Dream
  Speech
  

I have a dream that my four little children
will one day live in a nation where they will not
be judged by the color of their skin but by the
content of their character..
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37
Black Power

• Black Muslims and separatist African-Americans
  advocated a militant stance and resisted cultural
  assimilation.
  
• King may not have been as successful without the
  fear that the Black Power leaders instilled by
  supporting fighting back.
  

38
Malcolm Little - Malcolm X

• Black Power leader Malcolm X, assassinated in
  1965, believed that African-Americans fell into
  two groups.
  
• Uncle Toms, those accommodating the white
  establishment
  
• New Negroes, those who took pride in their
  color and culture and demanded racial separation
  and power.
  
• He created a new identity and symbol.

39
The Climax of Civil Rights Movement The Second
Reconstruction Period

• Marches, demonstrations, police-dog attacks,
  cattle prods, beatings, violence and militancy
  promoted a political environment compelled to
  support new civil rights legislation.

40
Modern Civil Rights Legislation

• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• forbade discrimination on the basis of race,
  color, religion, gender and national origin in
  
• voter registration
• public accommodations
• public schools
• expanded the power of the Civil Rights
  Commission
  
• withheld funds from programs administered in a
  discriminatory way
  
• established the right to equality of opportunity
  in employment (created the EEOC)
  

41
Title VII of The CRA of 1964

• Title VII is the basis of employment
  discrimination.
  
• It forbids employment discrimination on race,
  color, religion, servitude, gender or national
  origin.
  
• By executive order, employment discrimination was
  banned by firms receiving federal funding.
  
• To administer Title VII, the CRA of 1964 created
  the five-member EEOC.
  
• The EEOC issues guidelines, investigates, and can
  order subpoenas, hold hearings, examine
  witnesses, and ask for evidence.

42
Modern Civil Rights Legislation (cont.)

• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• outlawed discriminatory voter registration tests
• authorized federal registration and
  administration of voting where discrimination
  took place
  
• resulted in massive voter registration drives of
  African Americans in the South

43
Modern Civil Rights Legislation-

• Civil Rights Act of 1968
• forbade discrimination in housing and imposed
  penalties on individuals attempting to interfere
  with individual rights
  
• This led to laws forbidding discriminatory
  mortgage lending practices.
  
• Today lenders must report race, gender, income
  and decisions on their loan applications.
  

44
Consequences of Civil Rights Legislation

• By 1980, 55.8 of African Americans of voting age
  in the south are registered.
  
• Recent elections indicate that registered voting
  age African-Americans is just slightly less than
  their white counterparts.
  
• After a heated congressional debate, President
  Bush signed a 25 year extension of the VRA of
  1965 due to expire in 2007.

45
Political Participation by African-Americans

• 8500 elected officials in America
• Polls show voters do not view race a factor when
  voting for president.
  
• In 1958, 38 of respondents and in 2005 92
  respondents said they would vote for an
  African-American presidential candidate.

46
Participation by other Minorities

• All minorities benefit form the CRA of 1964
  because of the race, color or national origin
  clause.
  
• Amendments of the VRA of 1965 gives protections
  to Hispanics, Native-Americans, Asian Americans
  and Native Alaskans.
  
• Bilingual ballots are required in counties where
  5 or more speak a language other than English.
  
• Hispanics are gaining power, and participation
  has increased, but the number of political
  officeholders remains disproportionate compared
  to the overall population.
• But the influx of immigrants from Mexico will
  likely change the future political climate.
  
• In New Mexico, Hawaii, and California,
  collectively, Asian-Americans, African Americans,
  Native Americans and Hispanics are the
  majorityTexas is next by 2015.

47
Lingering Social and Economic Disparities

• How do we deal with poverty and violence or
  cross-cultural problems?
  
• Should government equalize the economic and
  social disparities?
  
• Or should a coalition of government groups,
  business, community based groups, and individuals
  address these issues?
  
• Race consciousness continues to divide
  AmericaHas racial equality been achieved?

48
Womens Struggle for Equal Rights

• Womens Suffrage Movement
• was connected to the abolition movement
• suffragists organized the first womens right
  convention at Seneca Falls, NY in 1848
  
• established womens suffrage associations
• finally won passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
  in 1920

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50
Womens Struggle for Equal Rights (cont.)

• The Modern Womens Movement
• spurred in by the publication of Betty Friedans
  The Feminine Mystique ( 1963)
  
• connected to the Civil Rights Movement of the
  1960s
  
• argued for ratification of the Equal Rights
  Amendment
  
• failed to win the necessary states for
  ratification

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52
Womens Struggle for Equal Rights (cont.)

• has targeted gender discrimination by challenging
  policies and laws in federal courts
  
• has advocated and encouraged an increasingly
  prominent role for women in government and
  politics

53
Gender Based Discrimination in the Work Place

• gender discrimination any practice, policy or
  procedure that denies equality of treatment to an
  individual or group because of gender
  
• prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
  of 1964
  
• applies even to protective policies, policies
  designed to protect women of child-bearing age
  

54
Gender Based Discrimination in the Work Place
(Cont.)

• sexual harassment unwanted physical or verbal
  conduct or abuse of a sexual nature that
  
• interferes with a recipients job performance
• OR
• creates a hostile environment
• OR
• carries and implicit or explicit threat of
  adverse employment consequences

55
Gender Based Discrimination in the Work Place
(cont.)

• wage discrimination women earn 76 cents for
  every 1.00 earned by men
  
• the glass ceiling the phenomenon of women
  holding few of the top positions in professions
  or businesses
  

56
Affirmative Action

• a policy in educational admissions or job hiring
• gives special consideration or compensatory
  treatment to traditionally disadvantaged groups
  
• is an effort to overcome present effects of past
  discrimination

57
Obstacles to Affirmative Action

• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
  (1978) a reverse discrimination case the
  Supreme Court ruled that using race as the sole
  criterion for admission to a university is
  improper
• Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena (1995) -
  Affirmative action programs cannot use quotas for
  unqualified persons

58
Obstacles to Affirmative Action (cont.)

• The Supreme Court let the decision stand in
  Hopwood v. State of Texas (1996) a federal
  appellate court ruled that the use of race as a
  means of achieving racial diversity undercuts the
  14th amendment
• California Proposition 209 ended all
  state-sponsored affirmative action programs in
  the state

59
Special Protection for Older Americans

• Population Projections
• Attempts to Protect Older Americans
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
  prohibits discrimination on the basis of age
  unless age is shown to be a bona fide
  occupational qualification
• Mandatory Retirement is prohibited in most
  occupation by an amendment to the ADEA (1978)

60
Elderly Population by Age
61
Securing Rights for Persons with Disabilities

• The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
• requires all public buildings and services be
  accessible to persons with disabilities
  
• requires employers make reasonable accommodations
  for people with disabilities
  
• defines disabilities as physical or mental
  impairments that substantially limit everyday
  activities
  
• In Bragdon v. Abbott (1998) the Supreme Court
  ruled that an HIV infection falls under the
  protection of the ADA

62
The Rights and Status of Gay Males and Lesbians

• in decades past, most states had anti-sodomy
  laws
  
• most laws now have been repealed
• the Supreme Court upheld a law in Bowers v.
  Hardwick (1986) that made homosexual conduct
  between two adults a crime

63
Lawrence and Garner v. Texas

• One of the major cases in the 2002 Term, Lawrence
  and Garner v. Texas struck down a state law that
  criminalized homosexual sodomy. In reaching its
  decision, the Supreme Court overturned a 1986
  precedent, Bowers v. Hardwick. The argument --
  and the opinion announcement -- are available as
  MP3 downloads under a "some rights reserved"
  Creative Commons license.  Listen! More Featured
  Audio

64
The Rights and Status of Gay Males and Lesbians
(cont.)

• in Romer v. Evans (1986) the Supreme Court ruled
  that a Colorado amendment that invalidated state
  laws protecting homosexuals violated the equal
  protection clause
• now 11 states and 165 municipalities have laws
  that protect gay men and lesbians from
  discrimination

65
The Gay Community and Politics

• Gay Men and Lesbians in the Military
• 1993 Clinton administration policy was
  characterized as dont ask, dont tell
  
• Supreme Court will likely rule on the issue
• Same-sex marriages
• the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that denying
  marriage licenses to gay couples might violate
  the equal protection clause of the state
  constitution

66
The Gay Community and Politics (cont.)

• in a referendum, voters in Hawaii opposed
  allowing same-sex marriages
  
• the Vermont legislature has passed a law allowing
  same-sex civil unions
  
• Child Custody and Adoption
• courts now no longer deny custody or visitation
  to persons solely on the basis of sexual
  orientation
  

67
The Rights and Status of Juveniles

• parents are viewed as protectors of childrens
  rights
  
• the 26th amendment grants 18 - 21 year olds the
  right to vote
  
• most contracts entered into by minors cannot be
  enforced
  
• parents can be held liable for minors negligent
  actions
  

68
The Rights and Status of Juveniles (cont.)

• minors are sometimes viewed as incapable of
  criminal intent
  
• when minors are tried as adults, they are
  afforded the same protections, but are subject to
  adult penalties (including the death penalty)