copyright atomic dog publishing, 2006 key question for the 21 st century should americans give up...

Copyright Atomic Dog Publishing, 2006

Key Question for the 21st Century

• Should Americans give up some civil liberties in order to protect the country from terrorism?

• If so, which ones?

• If not, how to fight repression?

Education

Selection of judges/justices

Support the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

• “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”


Lecture 18. Race and Racism in the US

Dynamics of Democracy, Chapter 5


The term “civil rights” includes the equality of rights for the following:

ETHNICITY

SEXUAL ORIENTATION

Civil Rights

RACE

SEX

RELIGION


SupremeCourt

Decisions

Civil Rights for African-Americans

U.S. Congress

13th,14th, 15th Amendments

State Legislatures


1619

First slaves arrive

1787

The 3/5th rule 1808

Importing slaves made

illegal…

…despite ban, slave

trade continues

Slavery in America


1857

Dred Scott case

1865

13th Amendment

ratified

1865

Black Codes

1866 to 1875

Congress passes Civil Rights Laws. Blacks vote

and hold office in South.

Slavery in America


1865 to 1877

Reconstruction

Federal troops in South

1868

14th Amendment

ratified

1870

15th

Amendment ratified

1873

Supreme Court Ruling virtually

nullifies 14th Amendment

The Struggle for Civil Rights


1877

Federal troops

withdrawn1896

Plessy v. Ferguson

1909

NAACP formed; legal strategy for civil rights

The Struggle for Civil Rights

1865 Ku Klux Klan formed—Revived 1915


1865- Slavery was made illegal

Dred Scott

13th

Amendment

1857- African Americans not citizens so they are

not entitled to civil liberties


Granted citizenship to “all persons born or

naturalized in the United States”

Black Codes

14th

Amendment

Laws that prevented African-Americans from buying property, signing contracts, or serving on

juries


1876- Ruled that federal laws that punished those

who violated rights of African-Americans were

unconstitutional

15th Amendment

U.S. v. Cruikshank

Gave African-American men the

right to vote


1896- The court upheld the legality

of segregated facilities

U.S. v. Reese

Plessy v. Ferguson

1876- Ruled that the 15th Amendment did not guarantee all men over

21 a right to vote


1944- The court ruled that whites-only primary

elections were unconstitutional

Gaines v. Canada

Smith v. Allwright

1938- The court ruled that Missouri had to establish truly equal

facilities


Jim Crow Laws

Laws that discriminated against African-Americans,

usually by enforcing segregation and limiting

voting.

5-2b Jim Crow Laws


Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Outlawed discrimination in public accommodations under the Interstate Commerce Act

• No tax dollars could go to organizations that discriminated

• Outlawed job discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or sex

• Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to enforce these rules


Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Sent federal registrars to Southern counties with less than 30% voter registration by African-Americans

• Courts authorized to review any redistricting plans that reduced chances of electing blacks

• Led to a dramatic increase in African-American voting and election of black officials

• Renewed in 2006 with strong support from civil rights groups and major business lobbyists


• In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that separate was not equal and that public schools must be desegregated “with all deliberate speed”

• Outlawed “de jure” segregation, not “de facto”

• Chief Justice Earl Warren: “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”

• Pres. Eisenhower sent federal troops to Arkansas to enforce school integration

• Massive Southern resistance to integration until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 cut federal funds to segregated schools

Brown v. Board of Education


Why Most US Schools Remain Segregated

• Local school district boundaries

• Courts will not order busing across district boundaries

• Housing is segregated by income and race

• “White flight” to suburbs to avoid attending integrated schools

• Affordable housing for poor and minorities is more available in central cities

• Lack of political support for changes in local school finance or district boundaries


Race and Politics

• Only 44 African-Americans in House, 1 in Senate (all Democrats)

• African-Americans a key Democratic voting block: 90% in 2000 and 2004

• Majority-minority districts in the South help elect more blacks but reduce # of Democratic districts

• Race is a major reason for the resurgence of the Republican Party in the South

• Republicans try to gain black votes on issues such as abortion, gay marriage, and funding for faith-based social programs


Racial Attitudes in the US• Wide support for civil rights and legal equality for African-

Americans

• Overt expression of racist opinions is no longer socially acceptable, but stereotypes persist

• Media coverage of violent crime gives a negative image of blacks, especially young males

• Whites over-estimate blacks as a proportion of the population, of criminals, or of welfare recipients

• White opposition to most policies that might help blacks: school busing, affirmative action, drug law reform, more generous welfare

• Strong support from BUSINESS for affirmative action, diversity, 2006 renewal of Voting Rights Act

copyright atomic dog publishing, 2006 key question for the 21 st century should americans give up...

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