CHAPTER 5
Civil Rights, Equality, and Social Movements
Learning Objectives
5.1 Define civil rights and the three types of equality: political, social, and economic
5.2 List the means groups employ to pursue equality within and outside the system.
5.3 Assess the history of racial discrimination against African Americans, including
the role courts played in initially denying African Americans full equality.
5.4 Describe the Court-created framework of equality, the voting rights legislation,
and the challenges they have presented in recent times.
5.5 Evaluate the more recent battles waged over affirmative action and racial
profiling.
5.6 Summarize the history of women's rights, including the role of the courts in
recognizing such rights, from women's suffrage up through the present.
5.7 Explain Title IX's effect on women's rights.
5.8 Trace the struggles for equality waged by other racial, religious, and ethnic
groups, including Native Americans, Asian Americans, Muslims, and Hispanic
Americans.
5.9 Discuss the struggles of older Americans, Americans with disabilities, and gays
and lesbians.
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Types of Equality
Civil Rights- protected rights of
3
individuals against arbitrary or
discriminatory treatment by
governments or individuals.
The 14th Amendment (1868) introduced
the notion of equality into the
Constitution by specifying that a state
could not deny “any person within its
jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.”
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Types of Equality
Political Equality-voting, running for
office, petition the government tor redress of
grievances,free speech, free press, and the
access to an education
Social Equality-public and private to
stores, theaters, restaurants, hotels, and
public transportation
Economic Equality-Equality of
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opportunity or equality of results. Do not agree
with your book regarding equality of results.
( Communism/Socialism)
( A little earlier than book)
Different Standards
The Equal Protection Clause and
Constitutional Standards of
Review
If government has a law that treats
individuals and groups differently in
different areas, different standards
of review are used to evaluate the
constitutionality.
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Suspect Classification
Strict Judicial Scrutiny- Reserved for
Fundamental freedoms (including religion,
speech, assembly, press) and for areas
including race, ethnicity, and citizenship
Is the classification (discrimination) necessary
to the accomplishment of a permissible state
goal? Is it the least restrictive way to reach that
goal?(narrowly focused). Tends to invalidate
almost all state laws that segregate on racial,
ethnicity, and citizenship.
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
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Exceedingly persuasive /
Intermediate standard – gender. Does the
classification serve an important governmental
objective and is it substantially related to those
ends? VMI Institute/Draft

Rationality standard to some state
objective-age, wealth, mental retardation, and
sexual orientation. Is there any rational
foundation for the discrimination? (Obergefell
decision changed the sexual orientation as far
as same sex marriage. (On the due process
clause and equal protection)
The Struggle for Equality: Approaches and
Tactics
Booker T Washington/accommodation
Working within the Political System. Contrary to
book, Washington was not giving up the right to
vote. Education and respect would gain the
prestige
W.E.B Du Bois (agitation)

Litigation

Legal Boycott

Civil Disobedience

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The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
Missouri compromise-No slavery above
36 degree latitude
William Lloyd Garrison 1831
Liberator-”fatal characteristic” of slavery was
that it denied African Americans the basic
legal rights to own property, enter into
contracts, and testify in courts
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The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
Many abolitionists believed in economic rights
but not political rights. Did not think
emancipation automatically entitled freed
slaves to the right to vote or serve on juries
Missouri admitted to the union as a slave
state and to maintain the balance of slave and
free states, Maine was carved out of a portion
of Massachusetts.
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The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin
(1852)
Dred Scot v. Sanford (1857) Blacks were “so
inferior and no rights to be respected” and
were to be considered as property
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The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
1861-states rights and territorial expansion
and slavery. Emancipation Proclamation
declared the freedom of all slaves in states
fighting the Union and allowed blacks to enlist
in the Union army
By 1865, the war was essentially transformed
into a battle over the end of the
institutionalization of slavery
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The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
After Civil War (1865), African Americans
could legally marry, worship, and travel to
other parts . Still there were problems with
states allowing for “full rights.”
Black Codes –denying most legal rights to
newly freed slaves; passed by southern states
following the Civil War.
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The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
1865-1877 Reconstruction-mixed blessing for
the slaves
Because of the Black Codes initiated by some
states, the Federal Government saw the need
to add amendments to the Constitution
Civil War Amendments13th Amendment (1865)- Banished slavery
from all states
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The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
14 Amendment (1868)-Full US and State
citizenship to people born/naturalized in the
US and the equal protection of the law . Also,
barred states from abridging “the privileges or
immunities of citizenship” or depriving “any
person of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law. (Passed to negate the
infamous Black Codes)
15
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The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
15th Amendment(1870) forbade the denial or
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abridgment of the right to vote by any
government on account of race or previous
servitude
In addition to the Constitutional amendments
the Republican Congress passed the Civil
Rights laws of 1866: African Americans could
sue, inherit, purchase property, lease,
challenge in federal court
The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
Congress passed the Civil Rights Laws of
1875- African Americans access to public
accommodations and prohibited exclusion
African American from jury service.
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Racial Discrimination: From
Slavery to Reconstruction
Though Amendments and Congressional laws
were passed, there were some negative
Supreme Court Cases to follow:
Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) Great body of
Civil rights still lay under the protection of
state government not the US Constitution
1877 Reconstruction ends
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Civil Rights Cases of (1883) states cannot
discriminate but protection of civil rights from
individual private discrimination would not
violate the Constitution. So restaurants and
hotels could freely discriminate. ( Reversal of
the 1875 Civil Rights law)
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson- Separate but equal
was allowed as long as the equal protection
clause was no violation
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Jim Crow laws in the beginning of the 20th(1890”s1900's)
Century-required segregation in public
schools, railroads buses, restaurants, hotels,
theaters, and other public facilities . Excluded
blacks from militia and denied them certain
education and welfare service
NAACP (1909) Litigation-
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Political,
educational, social, and economic
equality
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The Struggle for Equality: Approaches
and Tactics
 Various court cases from Table
5.1 P.117 culminating in
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
and Cooper v . Aaron (1958)
– Cooper v. Aaron (1958)
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Racial Segregation and Barriers to
Equality
– Numerous cases brought forth by
Thurgood Marshall with the NAACP
legal fund. First started with Law
Schools and Graduate schools and
eventually went for elementary/high
schools
22
23
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reserved.
Brown v Board of Education(1954)
Kansas law that required segregated
public schools
Brought by the NAACP
De Jure Segregation-discrimination
brought forth by law
Overruled Plessy v. Ferguson
Discrimination inherently unequal
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Brown v Board of Education(1954)
Did not say anything about the
following”
De Facto Segregation being
constitutional- Discrimination not from
laws but from housing patterns (housing)
Implementation of Brown v Board of
Education (timing)
25
A year later after the Brown decision
(1955) the Supreme Court addressed
the implementation by declaring to
proceed with all deliberate speed
Little Rock Arkansas/Gov. Faubus
Cooper v. Aaron (1958) -cannot nullify
Brown v Board by state legislatures or
state executive officials by evasive
schemes for segregation
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Significant and widespread change
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would not occur until after passage
of civil rights legislation in the mid1960's, which gave the executive
branch of the government increased
power to enforce school
desegregation in local districts
Federal money into local schools
gave extra bite to desegregation
Civil Rights Act of 1964-
– Banned racial discrimination in all public
accommodations including those that
were publicly owned;
– Prohibited discrimination by employers,
and instituted the EEOC to investigate
complaints of discrimination
– Denied public funds to schools that
discriminated in employment
28
Civil Rights Act of 1964-
– Congress drew its authority for passing
the legislation from the Interstate
Commerce Clause
29
The African American Struggle
for Equality and Civil Rights
30
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School
District (1971), the Supreme Court ruled that
all vestiges of state imposed segregation from
De Jure discrimination, or discrimination by
law, must be eliminated at once. The Court
also ruled that lower federal courts had the
authority to fashion a wide variety of
remedies including busing, racial quotas,
and the pairing of schools to end, dual
segregate school system.
White Flight to suburbs. Funds refused later
for attempts to draw students back to city.
Now go back to Birmingham 1963
-Turning Point in other areas
Rosa Parks on transportation. Boycotts on
bus system. Sit ins at lunch counters.
 Nonviolent methods from the SCLC and the
student more radical and militant actions.
1963 Letter from Birmingham City Jail
TV showing riots and dogs/4 AA school girls
killed
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Letters From Birmingham Jail:
MLK had stated the following:
One had a moral responsibility to disobey
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unjust laws
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the
oppressor, it must be demanded by the
oppressed
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere
Not to seek solace and security in Black
Nationalist ideologies
August 1963 March on Washington- “I Have A
Dream” speech
Attention at the Federal level
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Voting Rights
Literary Tests,Grandfather clause,
white primary, poll taxes
White Primary allowed African Americans to
vote only in general elections not primary
elections. In the South, the Democrat Primary
was the main event because which ever
candidate won, they would go on to win the
general election. So deprived of picking out
the candidate that would go against the other
34 party
(grandfather's clause eliminated earlier,
white primary eliminated by Smith v.
Allright 1944 and poll taxes eliminated at
the federal level with the 24th Amendment)
Voting Rights Act of 1965
35
Invalidated literacy tests and property
requirements. Required select states with
histories of voting discrimination to get
approval from Department of Justice if
voting laws were changed
Housing
Restrictive Covenants in deed
restrictions. Eventually removed.
Neighborhoods may write but states
cannot be a party to these deed
restrictions (1917)
The NAACP finally succeeded in undercutting
restrictive covenants in Shelley v. Kraemer
(1948).
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Housing (con't)
Civil Rights Act of 1964-banned discrimination
in all public accommodations, including those
privately owned and the withholding of federal
funds from discriminatory state and local
programs that discriminated in housing
Civil Rights Act of 1968- Banned race
discrimination in housing, including
realtors, and made interference with a
citizen's civil rights a federal crime
37
Affirmative Action (Employment)
Means different things to different people
Quotas, active recruitment, no discrimination
with application
City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989)
dealt with minority business set-aside. The
Court applied strict judicial scrutiny to
race-conscious efforts to remedy the
effects of past discrimination.
38
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For years, the Court had applied the standard
of strict judicial scrutiny to government
restriction on measures that disadvantaged
individuals based on their race or citizenship
status.
The Supreme Court found the Richmond city
council failed to demonstrate a specific
history of discrimination in the city’s
construction industry sufficient to justify a
race-based program of relief.
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It was constitutionally unacceptable because
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it was not narrowly tailored to achieve any
goal except “outright racial balancing.”
Adarand v. Pena (1995) -White businessman
couldn't be considered for bid. Supreme Court
said any racial classification may be
considered unconstitutional unless it meets
the test of strict scrutiny and that it must be
narrowly tailored
No affirmative action employment plan has
been upheld as constitutional since the early
1990's
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 declared that hiring
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practices that have a disproportionate impact
on women and minorities must be “job –related
for the position in question and consistent
with business necessity. The city’s height
requirement for police officers would be illegal
unless the city could show that a height of at least
5 feet 5 inches was necessary to do the job.
Furthermore the Civil Rights Act of 1991 allowed
women, minorities, and the disabled to sue for
monetary damages in cases of intentional job
discrimination and harassment.
Ricci case brings up the disproportionate impact
Ricci v. DeStefano (2009) Case- Concerned
firemen not getting promotions because no
African Americans had passed this particular
test. Test was not biased. Reverse
discrimination would not be allowed even if
there is a disproportionate impact on
minorities because you still could not ignore
equal protection clause of the 14th
amendment. Needs to be narrowly drawn.
42
Education (Universities)
Affirmative action-Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke(1973)- University could
take in race and ethnicity along with other
elements to bring diversity of outlooks and
ideas
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Education (Universities)
1)Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) upheld
university program/ diverse races contributes
to a holistic review and contributing to
diversity (which the Supreme Court
considered a compelling reason) 2)Gratz v.
Bollinger (2003) Struck down because
awarded 20 points. Was more like a quota
44
© Gregory Shamus/Reuters/Corbis
Students at the University of Michigan rally in support of
affirmative action. In 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
the use of affirmative action by the University of Michigan’s
Law School but struck down the affirmative action program
utilized in that university’s undergraduate admissions.
45
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Fisher v. University-10% rule in Texas. Was
never in question. It was the other program, the
so called “holistic program” that was used to
round out the remaining slots, using race and
ethnicity as one factor among many
Kennedy-(2016)universities substantial but not
total leeway in designing their admission
program. Universities in position to define
intangible characteristic like student body
diversity that are central to its identity and
educational mission.
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However, has to reconcile the pursuit of
diversity with the constitutional promise of
equal treatment and dignity. Need balancing
programs. Relying on 10% rule, encouraged
parents to keep in low performing African
American schools
Thought racial classifications were concrete and
amorphous and so compelling reason
established.
47
Alito was stunned given the previous oral
argument in 2015. UT never gave a coherent
explanation for its need to discriminate on the
basis of race. Position relied on noxious racial
assumptions than inner city African Americans
were different from African Americans from
other neighborhoods. Statistical data
incomplete and did not show a narrow
tailoring.
48
Racial Profiling-The law enforcement practice
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of taking race into account when identifying
possible suspects of crime
SB 1070 (AZ)
Couldn't arrest on mere suspicion but could
ask if illegal after an arrest
Businesses could require proof of citizenship
Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman/Fredie Gray,
Mike Brown/North Carolina (gun was present
and not book). “No hands up” but perpetuated
by media. Oklahoma case and Bland in Texas
A policeman interviews several teenagers that
he suspects of being undocumented on a street
corner in Tucson, Arizona.
50
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The Women's Movement
and Gender Equality
Judicial Scrutiny of Gender
Discrimination and the Equal Rights
Amendment19th Amendment in 1920
Several cases sex role stereotypes
of women as weak
National Organization for Women
(NOW)1970's
51
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Equal Rights that no state or congress could
deny or abridge equal rights on account of sex
ERA-Came 3 votes short of becoming a
Constitutional Amendment
Supreme Court Uses 14th Amendment
Virginia Military Institute (VMI) 1996 – Using
“exceedingly persuasive” not strict scrutiny
52
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Ledbetter could not seek redress of
grievances under the provisions of the Equal
Pay Act for discrimination that had occurred
over a period of years because time had run
out. (Equal pay Act of 1963- Legislation that
requires employers to pay men and women
equal pay for equal work.)
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which
overruled the Court’s decision bearing her
name. Note: addressed only time constraints
and not equal pay.
53
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Office of Personnel management conceded
factors other than discrimination could
contribute to the differences in pay between
men and women. Part-time, experience,caregiving responsibilities. factor in and explains
some of the discrepancy
Physician,lawyers/judges/businesses
increased
Firefighters, police officers, construction
workers not as much
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Sexual Harassment
Quid pro quo harassment –involves a
supervisor threatening an employee with
retaliation unless the employee submits to
sexual advances. “You either sleep with me or
you are fired.”
Hostile Environment- More difficult. Pervasive
harassment in which person is not able to do
job. Repeated requests for dates despite
rejections.
55
Title IX Three-part test was formulated in
the 1970’s and includes the following:
Having numbers of male and female athletes
proportionate to enrollment
Expanding opportunities for the
underrepresented gender (usually women)
Meeting the interests and abilities of the women
on campus
56
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Title IX (1972)- prohibits the exclusion of
women from an educational program or
activity receiving financial assistance
Courts have interpreted those provisions to
force colleges and universities to provide as
many athletic teams for women as they do
for men
More programs for women but has also cut
out many swimming, gymnastics for men
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Other Struggles for Equality
Native Americans
Asian Americans-Korematsu v.
U.S. - 1944 the US supreme court
upheld the constitutionality of this
action.
Reverse discrimination in
universities
58
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Other Struggles for Equality
Hispanic Americans
Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund (MALDEF)
LULAC
Voting Rights Act and challenging redistricting
plans.
Education/Immigration/Driver’s License
San Antonio Independent School District v.
Rodriguez- To appropriate state funds equally
among the school district.
59
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Other Struggles for Equality
Senator Marco Rubio,
seen here campaigning
for Mitt Romney in 2012,
looks to build up
Republican support
among Hispanic voters in
Florida and elsewhere.
60
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AP Images/Rex Features
Muslim Americans
Hispanic Americans
Other Struggles for Equality
Older Americans
Individuals with Disabilities
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
established a national commitment to such
mainstreaming efforts and extended to those
with disabilities protection from discrimination
in employment and public accommodations
comparable to that afforded women and racial
minorities under the 1964 Civil Rights Act
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Other Struggles for Equality
 Eliminate barrier to their full participation in
American society
Businesses to make environment accessible
and schools to provide additional assistance
and accommodations
Includes not only neurological but other
chronic illnesses and psychological
Corrections for disabilities allow
In 1999, the US Supreme Court issued
decisions redefining and limiting the scope of
the ADA
62
Steven Rubin/The Image Works
Activists for the rights of individuals with disabilities
at a rally advocating broader enforcement of the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
63
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Other Struggles for Equality
Gays and Lesbians
Don't ask, don't tell (1993)
Romer v. Evans (1996)- prohibiting any
special rights or privileges to
homosexuals. Unconstitutional because
making one group inferior and state
could not state a rational argument.
64
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Other Struggles for Equality
Gays and Lesbians
Lawrence v. Tribe (2003)-Privacy in the
bed room
Defense of marriage Act- Passed during
Clinton's presidency. Barring same sex
marital benefits under federal law. Also
allowed states to not have to recognize
same-sex marriages from other states.
Overturned in 2014
65
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Other Struggles for Equality
Gays and Lesbians
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015 ) same sex
in 50 states
Concerns about religious
freedom/expression vs. discrimination
Flower, pizza. Provide to gay customers
but not for a wedding.
66
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Supreme Court Decision on
Same-Sex Marriage
Click picture to view video
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