Civil Rights and Public Policy Chapter 5

Introduction Civil Rights: Definition: Policies designed to protect people against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by government officials or individuals. Racial Discrimination Gender Discrimination Discrimination based on age, disability, sexual orientation and other factors

Two Centuries of Struggle Conceptions of Equality Equal opportunity Equal results Early American Views of Equality The Constitution and Inequality 14 th Amendment: “…equal protection of the laws.”

Introduction

Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy The Era of Slavery Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) The Civil War The Thirteenth Amendment The Era of Reconstruction and Resegregation Jim Crow laws Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy

The Era of Civil Rights Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Court ordered integration and busing of students de jure/de facto segregation Civil Rights Act of 1964 Made racial discrimination illegal in many areas Created EEOC Strengthened voting right legislation Withhold federal grants from institutions practicing racial discrimination Authorized Justice Dept. to initiate lawsuits to desegregate public schools Voting Rights Act of 1965 Insured the right to vote Eliminated racial Gerrymandering

Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy Percentage of Black Students Attending School With any Whites in Southern States (Figure 5.1)

Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy

Getting and Using the Right To Vote Suffrage: The legal right to vote. Fifteenth Amendment: Extended suffrage to African Americans Grandfather clauses those who’s grandfathers could vote in 1860 were exempt from literacy tests Poll Taxes: Small taxes levied on the right to vote. White Primary: Only whites were allowed to vote in the party primaries.

Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy Getting and Using the Right To Vote Smith v. Allwright (1944): ended white primaries. Twenty-fourth Amendment: Eliminated poll taxes for federal elections. Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966) - no poll taxes at all. Voting Rights Act of 1965: Helped end formal and informal barriers to voting. Including gerrymandering

Race, the Constitution, and Public Policy Other Minority Groups Native Americans Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez (1978) self government by Indians Hispanic Americans Largest minority group in America 13% of the population Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund Asian Americans Korematsu v. United States (1944)

Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy The Battle for the Vote Nineteenth Amendment: Extended suffrage to women in The “Doldrums”: Laws were designed to protect women, and protect men from competition with women. The Second Feminist Wave NOW Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique 1963 “ the problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered.... Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night – she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question– ‘Is this all?’ ” Reed v. Reed (1971) any Gender based qualifications, classifications-- unconstitutional

Women, the Constitution, and Public Policy

The Second Feminist Wave, continued… Draft is not discriminatory Women in the Workplace Wage Discrimination and Comparable Worth Title IX of the Education Act Women in the Military Sexual Harassment Faragher v. City of Boca Raton – employers are responsible for preventing and eliminating harassment at work.

Newly Active Groups Under the Civil Rights Umbrella Civil Rights and the Graying of America Are the Young a Disadvantaged Group, Too? Civil Rights and People With Disabilities Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 Requires employers and public facilities to make “reasonable accommodations and prohibit employment discrimination Gay and Lesbian Rights

Newly Active Groups Under the Civil Rights Umbrella

Affirmative Action Definition: A policy designed to give special attention to or compensatory treatment of members of some previously disadvantaged group. A move towards equal results? Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) Adarand Constructors v. Pena (1995) Federal programs that classify persons by race are unconstitutional unless narrowly defined

Affirmative Action

Understanding Civil Rights and Public Policy Civil Rights and Democracy Equality favors majority rule. Equality v. individual liberty Suffrage gave many groups political power. Civil Rights and the Scope of Government Civil rights laws increase the size of government. Civil rights protect individuals.