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CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES

CIVIL RIGHTS AND
DEMOCRACY

Political thought, 2013

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Political thought, 2013

CIVIL RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY

History of CR begins with Rosa Parks- Montgomery, Alabama, 1955- she set
off a boycott which ended up in the Supreme Court ruling that the city of
Montgomery could not maintain its policy of segregation.
The case of Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka- the SC told the
nations public schools to desegregate with deliberate speed- Americans
still debate what means equal rights for all and full participation by all in
ther govt.
The history of civil rights began in the second half of the 19th c
The real change came only later:
- 1896-1954- debates over the notion of legal equality
- 1954-1968- the question of achieving equality
- 1968 on whether actual equality can be achieved

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Political thought, 2013

Central issues to be clarified first: civil rights, equality and discrimination

Democracy requires the elimination of discrimination (unequal treatment
based on ethnicity, race, gender and other discriminations)
Equal treatment is achieved through the protection of civil rights, the
constituitonally guaranteed and protected rights that may not be
arbitrarily removed by the govt. These rights are referred to as natural or
inalianable rights, granted by God or nature to all human beings.(Jefferson, The Declaration...)

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Political thought, 2013

Civil rights linked to the idea of equality

2 basic forms: de jure equality-requires that there be no legally
mandated obstacles to equal treatment
de facto equality- looks at results- remains a distant
objective

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Political thought, 2013

Time line
First slaves 1619
The Declaration The Fugitive Act, 1793 allowed runaway slaves to be captured and
returned to the owners
The Constitution slaves : other persons three-fifth of a person
1820: the Missouri Compromise Missoury was admitted as a slave
state along with the free state of Maine while slavery was prohibited on the
remainder of Louisiana
Nat Turners revolt 1831- about 70 slaves in Virginia- was defeated
The Dred Scott Case -1857- the SC ruled that Scott could not sue in federal
court because no A-A could ever become a citizen of the US (Chief Justice
Roger Taney: even if Scott were free he could not sue because AA were not
included under the word citizen.- the case closed the door to judicial
remedies for AA
Abraham Lincoln 1863- The Emancipation Proclamation- renewed the
possibility of equality for all- depended on his winning the Civil war and
Congress to support it

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Political thought, 2013

Civil War Amendments

A XIII 1865- abolished slavery- Congress passed legislation allowing AA
to testfy ag whites in federal courts: estblished the Freedmens
Bureau(1865) to assist the newly freed slaves to make the transition to
freedom
At the same time the souhters states were passing the black
codes(imposed opprssive labour practices for slaves)- Pres. Andrew
Johnson gave extra powers to the Freedmens Bureau to protect the civil
rights of the AA.
The Civil Rights Act 1866- to protect civil rights
A XIV AA became citizens and were given the rights of all citizens
A XV- right to vote
Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Acts -1870-71
The Jim Crow laws- laws passed by the southern states to separate races
in public places such as railroads, streetcars, schools ans cemeteries- was
challenged by the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896

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Political thought, 2013

Homer Adolph Plessy rode in the whites car- the SC upheld his arrest
stating that the A XIV states only political equality and not social equality.
The consequences of the Plessy ruling were revealed in Cumming v. County
Board of Education (1899) in which the court approved separate but
eqyual public schools in Georgia.

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Political thought, 2013

Establishing legal equality

In 1909 - W.E.B.DuBois the first A-A to earn a PhD from Harvard
DuBois formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) to litigate on behalf of racial equality
During WW II the lead in ensuring full protection to the A-A was taken by
the White House.
Harry Truman- 1948- no segregation in the military and in federal
employment
- he asked Congress to ban discrimination by private
employers and labor unions, outlaw poll taxes, passs
a federal antilynching law, create a permanent civil
rights commission and compel fair elections.

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Political thought, 2013

The modern civil rights movement

It began with Rosa Parks refusal to give the seat on a bus in Montgomery,
Alabama, 1955-56
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr became the spokesman of the AA. Like
Mahatma Gandhi he preached civil disobedience (breaking the law in a
nonviolent way , even to the point of demonstrating that a law is unjust.
1963 President Lyndon Johnson urged Congress in the name of the
assassinated President Kennedy to enact a civil rights law so that we can
move forward to eliminate from this nation every trace of discrimination
and oppression that is based upon race ir color, Congress passed the Civil
Rights Act of 1964- it greatly increased the federal govts ability to fight
discrimination

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Political thought, 2013

Affirmative action
= programs that attempt to improve the chances of minority applicants for
jobs , housing, employment, or garduate admissions by giving them a
boost relative to white applicants
Equality of opportunity= people should have equal rights and opportunities
to develop their talent all people should begin at the same starting point
in a race

Equality of result= they all complete the race at the same point

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Political thought, 2013

Civil rights movement

Rosa Parks
Civil disobedience
Boycott
Protest marches
Sit-ins

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Political thought, 2013

CIVIL LIBERTIES
Bill of Rights- Bill of Liberties- the provisions were defining the area of
personal liberty, free of givernmental restrictions, which include: the right
to free speech, the right to the free execrcise of religion, prohibitions against
unreasonable searches and seizures, guarantees of due process of law and
the right to privacy (including the right of women to have an abortion)
Jefferson: a Bill of Rights is what people are entitled to against every
government on earth...
Civil liberties- protections from improper government action= thou shall
nots restraints upon govt
Substantive liberties= restraints on what the gvt shall and shall not have the
power to do
Ex: establishing a religion, quartering troops in private homes without
consent, or seizing private property without just compensation
Procedural liberties= restarints on how the gvt is supposed to act

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Political thought, 2013

Due process of law (A 5)= the rigth of every citizen against arbitrary
action by national or state gvts.
no person shall be...deprived of life, liberty , or property without due
process of law.
For ex; even if the gvt has the substantive power to declare certain act to be
crimes and to arrest and imprison persons who violate criminal laws, it may
not do so without meticulously observing procedures designed to protect
the accused person. The best known procedural rule is that accused person
ispresumed innocent until proven guilty. It does not questionb the power of
gvt to punish someone who for committing a crime, but only the way the gvt
determines who committed the crime.

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Political thought, 2013

The BILL OF RIGHTS

Amendment I: limits on Congress

Amendments II, III, IV : limits on the Executive
Amendments V, VI, VII, VIII: limits on teh Judiciary
Amendments IX, X: limits on the National Government