Civil Rights

Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.- Robert Ingersoll

• Civil liberties is the guarantee of your basic rights

• Civil rights is the guarantee of equal treatment

• Various types of discrimination- Racial, age, gender, sexual orientation

• Court rules “suspect classifications” are illegal- that is basing decisions on race

• Some of the criteria:• Group has historically been discriminated against, and/or

have been subject to prejudice, hostility, and stereotypes• They possess a highly visible trait.• They are powerless to protect themselves via the political

process. • The group's distinguishing characteristic does not inhibit

it from contributing meaningfully to society

• Typically we think of discrimination, we think of black America. But it applies to all

• 14th amendment- equal protection!!– “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall

abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. “

• Plessy v Ferguson(1896)- Separate but equal- 14th applied BUT court said “if one race be inferior to the other socially the Constitution can not put them on the same plane” WOW!

• NAACP formed in 1909- Fought battles in court to work toward gaining civil rights

• Brown v The Board ( 1954)- Separate but equal educational facilities are inherently unequal . Huge landmark case for civil rights.

Did brown work?

• Percent of black students in majority white schools in south

• 1954- 0%• 1960- .1%• 1964- 2.3%• 1967- 13.9%• 1970- 33.1%

• Did states wait until 1964 to read Brown? Or was it something else that escalated desegregation in the mid 1960’s?

• Why did it take so long? Why were states able to ignore Brown to a large extent?

• What occurred in 1964 that really got the ball rolling?

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Banned discrimination in public places- Theatres, restaurants etc

• Required equal opportunity in hiring• Federal funding can be cut off if there is

evidence of discrimination• Provided for voting rights• Encouraged desegregation of public schools,

gave Attorney general power to enforce BINGO

Discrimination gone?

• Dejure discrimination cured – Discrimination by law

• De facto discrimination flourishes- Discrimination by habit, social preference. Who do YOU sit with in the cafeteria?

Other school desegregation plans

• Swann v Charlotte ( 1971)- Busing to create equal schools- Supreme court upheld law but did not require it.

Send my kid where?

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Prohibited any practice that would deny person the right to vote– Banned literacy tests etc– Allowed fed to oversee voting registration in

southern states that discriminated. By 1968 over 60% of southern blacks were registered and by 1990 the number of black legislators in Congress had risen from 2 in 1965 to 160.

Civil Rights Giants!

Other important stuff for Black Americans

• 1967- Cleveland elects first black mayor• Jones v Mayer( 1968) and Civil Rights Act of

1968 make racial discrimination in the sale of housing illegal

• “Your Home is Your Castle” – George Mahoney

Women

Women, can’t live with them….

• Last to vote- 19th amendment in 1920• Courts and women– Reed v Reed (1971)- “arbitrary” gender

discrimination is illegal

Woman is the only creature in nature that hunts down its hunters and

devours the prey alive.ABRAHAM MILLER

But it goes both ways

• Orr v Orr (1978)- Alimony can be paid to men too!!! Yippee!

• Mississippi v Hogan (1982)- Nursing school for just women is illegal

• Rostker v Goldberg (1980)- Male only draft legal- rights of women lose to Constitutional role to provide fro common defense

Women and Congress

• Civil Rights Act of 1964- banned gender discrimination

Women and Congress

• Title IX of the Education Act of 1972-

Women and Congress

• Pregnancy discrimination act of 1978- Can not discriminate, must allow leave

Women and Congress

• Civil Rights & Women’s Equality in Employment Act- (1991)- Equal rights at work

Women and Congress

• Comparable worth- Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2005 female full-time wage and salary workers made 81% of what men did.

• Anthony Kennedy on wages- "neither law nor logic deems the free market system a suspect enterprise."

But after all….

•KIDDING!!! Really• Sexist Pig:

The ERA- Women want everything!• 1923- Introduced in Congress• 1923-1970- Introduced every year, to no avail• 1971- Approved in House 354-24• 1972- Approved in Senate 84-8, 7 year limit on ratification

set• 1975-1977- Foes mount attack• 1977- 7 year extension sought, 1982 new deadline• 1981- Reagan opposes ERA• 1982- ERA comes up 3 states short• 1985- Present- ERA reintroduced every year

So why is this controversial thing?

• Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

• Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

• Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification

Affirmative Action

• 1941, FDR signed Executive Order 8802 which outlawed segregationist hiring policies by defense-related industries which held federal contracts.

• 1953-. Truman urged the Bureau of Employment Security "to act positively and affirmatively to implement the policy of nondiscrimination . . . ."

More timeline• 1961-Phrase "affirmative action" first used in JFK Exec

Order -requires federal contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin

• 1965- LBJ- “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "You are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.”

• In 1967, Johnson expanded the Executive Order to include affirmative action requirements to benefit women.

AA and the Courts

• "In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity." Sandra Day O’Connor Grutter V Bollinger

AA and the Courts• REGENTS OF U OF CALIF V BAKKE(1978)- BAKKE SUED TO GET

INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL. 16% OS SLOTS SET ASIDE FOR MINORITIES. SCORES NEED TO BE IN 46TH AND 35TH %TILE. BAKKE WAS 96 &97 %TILE. HE WINS, BUT COURT SAID SCHOOL COULD ADOPT “ADMISSIONS PROGRAM WHERE RACE AND ETHNICITY IS SIMPLY ONE ELEMENT TO BE WEIGHED FAIRLY…” NO QUOTAS

• • U.S. STEELWORKERS V WEBER(1979)- WEBER DOES NOT GET IN

APPRENTICE PROGRAM.COURT RULES THAT SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAM IS INTENDED TO RECTIFY PAST DISCRIMINATION. WEBER LOSES.

AA and the Courts• ADARAND CONSTRUCTORS V PENA (1995)- RULED

AGAINST CONTRACT SET-ASIDES FOR MINORITIES. IT SAID FED PROGRAMS THAT CONSIDER RACE, EVEN TO EXPAND OPPORTUNITY, SHOULD BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

• GRUTTER V BOLLINGER (2003)- RACE CAN BE USED IN

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS BUT ADDED LIMITS. 5-4 RULING UPHELD AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY AT U. OF MICHIGAN GRAD SCHOOL. 6-3 VOTE STRUCK DOWN UNDERGRAD 20 POINT ADVANTAGE TO BLACK APPLICANTS ON ADMISSIONS RATING SCALE.

Grutter ruling

So how do we feel about it?

So, does it work? Do we need it?

• A policy to redress prior discrimination? • By 1997:– 77% of Americans approve of interracial marriage– 93% would vote for a black president (Yeah, right!)– 57% of whites say affirmative action not needed,

only 14% of blacks agree

Results?