CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO: Civil Rights Movement

Definitions

 Civil liberties: protections from government power

 Civil Rights: protection government secures for citizens

Slavery and the Constitution

 “ALL men created equal, equal rights: life liberty, pursuit of happiness” stated in constitution but
 Population is 18% enslaved people during constitution convention
 How and where slavery is addressed in the constitution (at the founding):
o 3/5th s compromise : enumeration clause
o Article 1, section 2, para 3
o Article 1, section 9:
o Article 4, section 2: fugitive slave clause
 Key moments pre-civil war
o Missouri Compromise (1820)
 Missouri residents who are mostly from slaved states want to enter the union
and also wanted to be in a state which allowed slavery
 North felt the issue of slavery would trickly out; but slavery was now moving
westward as slaves moved
 Reached a compromise; enter union as a slaved state but will enter alongside
maine which would be a free state
o Compromise of 1850
 Grievances between north and south continue
 Because California applies to enter union
 Annoyance with states leaving from South
 North upset because slave trade is still continuing
 South agrees to allow states to decide whether they want to be free/ slave state
but also wants a fugitive state law
o Dred Scott v Sanford (1857)
 Goes back South to file a lawsuit in state of Missouri
 Landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that held the U.S.
Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African
descent
 Therefore they could not enjoy the rights and privileges the Constitution
conferred upon American citizens
 Civil War and Reconstruction
o Emancipation Proclamation 1863: all persons held as slaves within rebellious states are
and henceforth shall be free (ceremonial)
o But still leaves persons in border states struggling
o 13th amendment officially bans slavery
 o 14th amendment equal protection of laws for all people born in US including former
slaves
o Right to vote 15th amendment
o Republicans begin to have an issue with having to have elections but slavery has stopped
and has caused a divided upset nation; are facing prospect of losing election
o So begin enacting measures to increase support in south; trying to ensure formerly
enslaved individuals have the opportunity to vote
 End of reconstruction
o Republicans are now tired and there is a resurgence of federal troops from south
o However this causes an increase in rise of white democratic power
o By 1877 all formerly confederate states are controlled by white Democrats
o Entry of Jim Crow Laws adopted throughout 1890s: segregation policies across social and
political spaces
o Enforced by preventing black individuals from voting via legal procedures
 Prevent them from voting in primaries
 Start imposing pre-voting taxes (targets formerly enslaved individuals who are
too poor to afford)
 Literacy test
 By 1910n fewer than 10% of black men eligible to vote
 Grandfather clause protecting poor white individuals (anyone who had voting
rights pre civil war- descendants can still vote)
o Plessy v Fergusson
 Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the
U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for people of color were equal in quality
to those of white people
 A doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal"

 20th century struggle for civil rights

o Political process
 Start with pressure in early 1900s: 1909 NAACP is formed (Crucial to later
litigation), researchers writing about lynching and mob violence in the South,
Black americans begin migrating from south to non-jim crow states.
 Democrats are now facing pressure because they want black votes
 New deal programs are offered to black americans, able to gain access to
welfare under FDR
 1940s Banning discriminatory employment, stops segregation in military: FDR
 Johnson is competing for being representative for elections; gave black
americans the ability to sue if their voting power was denied
 Southerners start seeing that their position isn’t attracting voters

o Legal action
  Party realignment
 Lots of NAACP work
 They argue against separate but equal
 In 1930s they consistently take a stand against this
 1950: Brown v Borne
 Takes a long time to move into effect: showed that litigation wasn’t so effective
o Mass movement
 Legislative action is needed, but how would you get congress to do something it
does not want to do?
 CBoycotts , Sit-Ins , Marches
 Lots of movements led by clergy (social entrepreneurs) who was revered by
black community: MLK etc
 Rosa Parks
 Montgomery Bus Boycott 1955
 Sit Ins
 National Marches
 Civil Rights Act 1964
 Prohibits discrimination in employment
 Prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs
 Voting rights act 1965
 Outlaws literacy tests
 Needed portions of the country to get DOJ clearance before changing
any laws affecting voting
 Federal observers to monitor elections
 Directed AG to challenge use of poll taxes

Suffrage and Gender Equality

 Early history
o Wyoming first state to allow women to vote
o Urban upper middle class women vote is thought of as an extension of white male vote
by conservatives
o After 19th amendment; women do not suddenly start voting
o Strong variation across country in women using their right to vote
o Equal opportunity in civil rights act
 Organisation like NOFW created
 Family leave act etc
