What were the original grandfather clauses found in many state constitutions in the American South?
Only citizens whose grandfather voted before Reconstruction could vote unless they passed a wealth or literacy test.
What book led President Abraham Lincoln to describe the author as "the little woman who started the big war" because of the effect the book had on changing public opinion?
Uncle Tom's Cabin
What did the Supreme Court decide in Korematsu v. United States (1944) regarding the internment of those with Japanese ancestry living in the United States?
The Supreme Court gave the US military the power to ban Americans of Japanese ancestry; also set up internment camps to hold the Japanese in for the duration of the war.
What strategy did the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) use most effectively to advance civil rights for African Americans?
Boycott of the Montgomery bus system
What did the Civil Rights Cases accomplish?
Outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women, validate state black codes
What are the poll taxes and how did they affect the African American communities after the Civil War era?
taxes on the right to vote that were due when African Americans had the last amount of money on hand. Black voting fell by 62%.
Why was the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unsuccessful?
Supreme Court decided that public discrimination could not be prohibited by the act because such discrimination was private, not a state act.
Did the Hispanic community win their civil rights before the African American community?
Yes; in 1848 Mexicans were granted US citizenship, although they were never granted rights as complete as the African American community.
In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court determined that __________ were unconstitutional.
segregation by race in schools
Are American Indian tribes sovereign nations?
They are distinct governments
What did the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 do?
Hold school boards or districts responsible for both student-on-student harassment and harassment of students by teachers; allows retaliatory lawsuits by coaches on behalf of their sports teams denied equal treatment by school boards.
What are the main goals behind the affirmative action programs?
African Americans were not US citizens, and therefore could not sue in federal court.
According to the Supreme Court decisions in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke and the two University of Michigan cases noted in the chapter, what sorts of affirmative action programs for admission to public universities are permissible, and
To provide special opportunities to those who suffer from discrimination
What did the Supreme Court decide in Korematsu v. United States? What does this decision suggest about the Court's willingness to protect civil rights during wartime?
The use of strict quotas are inappropriate, but they were free to "take race into account
What provision of the Fourteenth Amendment serves as a cornerstone of our understanding of civil rights?
Equal protection clause, which prohibits states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws
How are the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 similar?
They guarantee citizenship to all free slaves
What were some of the core principles championed by Dr. Martin Luther King?
Nonviolent protest, civil disobedience
What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ban?
Discrimination in public accommodations
Women were guaranteed the right to vote by the __________ Amendment.
19th
Has the Supreme Court prohibited school districts from using race when determining which students will attend which schools?
yes
What kinds of accommodations would an employer most likely have to make to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act?
They would have to acquire or modify work equipment, adjust work schedules, guarantee access to public facilities, etc.
If you thought you were getting an inferior public education because of your ethnicity, what amendment would you rely on most heavily to justify your case?
Fourteenth amendment: equal protection clause
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act?
It extends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to all citizens with physical or mental disabilities.
What was the Civil Rights Act?
It sought an end to racial segregation and discrimination.
Why did southern states enact poll taxes?
They enacted poll taxes in an effort to side step the intent of the Fifteenth amendment
How could the Fourteenth Amendment be used to support same-sex marriage?
It forbids states from abridging the "privileges or immunities of citizenship" or depriving any person from "life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law.
What was the goal of the women's suffrage movement?
Full equality for women
What was the result of the Korematsu v. United States decision?
The Civil liberties Act was passed and Congress apologized for the Japanese Americans treatment during the Civil War.
The Fifteenth Amendment guarantees citizens the right to vote regardless of __________.
race, color, or previous condition of servitude
How would the Supreme Court review the constitutionality of a law establishing a public elementary school open only to African American students from poor neighborhoods?
As a violation of the separate-but-equal requirements
What was the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy?
The military would no longer ask gays and lesbians if they were homosexual, but it barred them from revealing their sexual orientation under threat of discharge.
What does the 15th amendment do?
Guarantees the right of citizens to vote, regardless of race, color, etc.
In spite of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women in the early twenty-first century still earn less than men, which led President Barack Obama to sign what law?
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
How do the rational basis and the intermediate standard of review differ?
Rational basis review refers to the lowest three levels of scrutiny applied by all courts. Intermediate standard of review is a higher level of scrutiny.
In what types of cases has Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped women achieve key victories?
Allowance of voluntary programs to redress historical discrimination against women.
What is strict scrutiny, and what kinds of situations would most likely be violations of it?
Heightened standard of review used by the Supreme Court to determine the constitutional validity of a challenged practice.
The Fourteenth Amendment attempted to guarantee what to former slaves?
citizenship
Why was Rosa Parks arrested?
For violating an Alabama law banning integration of public facilities, including buses.
What are grandfather clauses, and why were they enacted?
Voter qualification provision in many southern states that allowed only those citizens whose grandfathers had voted before Reconstruction to vote unless they passed a wealth or literacy test.
What was Reconstruction? How did its ending open the door for the adoption of Jim Crow laws?
Reconstruction generally refers to the period in United States history immediately following the Civil War in which the federal government set the conditions that would allow the rebellious Southern states back into the Union.
When reconstruction ended in
Can the admissions office at a public university establish a permissible affirmative action policy that awards minority students by bumping up their SAT score by 100 points?
no
What precipitated the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in front of the colored section of the bus for a white man.
According to the "Take a Closer Look" feature box, what book helped inspire abolitionists?
Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
What strategies for expanding civil rights did the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. support?
* Formation of new groups, SCLC -focusing on nonviolent protest and civil disobedience. SNCC- shine the spotlight on segregated public accommodations The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the "I Have a Dream" speech
How does the Supreme Court evaluate gender classifications?
Court has upheld draft registration provisions for male only, state statutory rape laws that apply only to female victims, different requirements for a child's acquisition of citizenship based on whether the citizen parent is mother or father.
What kinds of gains have been made in the gay rights movement? How has public opinion opened the door for greater legal and constitutional protection? How might it eventually affect the issue of same-sex marriage?
Higher incomes and educational levels than other minority groups, and they are beginning to convert these advantages into political clout. Incremental legal change. In 1996 for example, the US Supreme Court ruled that an amendment to the Colorado constitu
What was the result of the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision?
* The Supreme Court ruled that a university's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school's use of "affirmative action" to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances.
What are civil rights? Why was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so important in furthering civil rights for all groups?
* The government-protected rights of individuals against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by governments or individuals. Because it outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women.
What were the Black Codes passed by many of the former Confederate states designed to do?
Designed to restrict freed blacks' activity and ensure their availability as a labor force now that slavery had been abolished
According to the Supreme Court's decisions in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), in what area could Congress prohibit discrimination against African Americans?
Prohibit only state or governmental action, but not private act of discrimination.
Describe the status of American Indian governments within the context of the U.S. political system. How does this status affect the ability of American Indian tribes to make public policy on tribal lands?
The movement for American Indian has had a radical as well as a more traditional branch. During the 18th and 19th amendment, the US isolated American Indians on reservations as it confiscated their lands and denied them basic political rights.
The provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that prohibits any state from denying "any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" is known as the __________ clause.
equal protection
What were Black Codes?
Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the war.
What does the 14th amendment do?
Allows citizenship to any person born in the US, forbids a state to deny a person his or her natural rights.
A law that classified people according to __________ would be given strict scrutiny by the Supreme Court to determine its constitutionality.
Suspect Classifications
What is Title IX, and what kinds of situations would most likely be
violations of it?
Provisions of the education amendments of 1972 that bars educational institutions that receive federal funds from discriminating against female students.
Situations with violations would be sport facilities, access to premium playing times, and quality eq
How does federal law deal with American Indian tribes?
Considers Indian tribes distinct government, their land should never be taken from them without their consent, and their property right and liberty shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in lawful laws authorized by congress.
What is the Equal Rights Amendment?
Proposed amendments to the constitution that states "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account sex
Be familiar with examples of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest.
Civil disobedience- Rosa parks bus boycott, brown v board Nonviolent protest- organized boycotts, sit ins in segregated restaurants and bus stations
What did the Supreme Court determine was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education?
Racial segregation in public schools
The Thirteenth Amendment bans slavery. When was it passed?
1865
What was the basis for the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that upheld the constitutionality of a state law requiring segregated railroad facilities?
They believed that separation of the races was instinctive and could not be changed by laws.
What was the primary focus at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention for activists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott?
women's rights
How has the Equal Rights Amendment affected women's civil rights?
Equality of rights under the law should not be denied
Does the 14th amendment affect both men and women?
yes
What is the Equal Pay Act of 1963?
What is the Equal Pay Act of 1963? Legislation that requires employers to pay men and women equal pay for equal work.
How does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) define a disabled person? What rights are guaranteed to disabled people under the ADA? What infrastructure must be created to ensure these rights?
Someone with a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more "life activities" or who has a record of such impairment. Guarantees access to public facilities, employment, and communication services. Acquire or modify work equipment, adjust work sc
What were the Jim Crow laws?
Laws enacted by southern states that required segregation in public schools, theaters, hotels, and other public accommodations.
What was the objective of the women's suffrage movement?
For women to have the same rights any citizen of the US should have
What was the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy? What was the penalty for a soldier who violated this policy? Why was it implemented? What is the current status of the policy?
The military was no longer to ask gays and lesbians if they were homosexual, but it barred them from revealing their sexual orientation under threat of discharge. Despite the compromise, the armed services discharged thousands of the basis of their sexual
The Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) primarily enhanced the civil liberties of __________.
gays and lesbians
Why did Congress pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
The cumulative effect of collective actions including sit ins, boycotts, marches, and freedom rides as well as bombings, lynching's, and other deaths inflicted retaliation- led congress to pass the voting rights. Kennedys request to ban discrimination in
What was the Supreme Court's justification for overturning the separate-but-equal doctrine?
Brown vs. Board, the supreme court ruled segregation in the public schools
Compare and contrast the use of nonviolent protest (also known as civil disobedience) and litigation during the civil rights movement. Which was more successful and why?
Nonviolent- deliberate refusal to obey the law or comply with orders of public officials. Litigation- strategy that would first target segregation in professional graduate education. Civil disobedience, because people obey the laws in a proper manor, less
What were the effects of Gratz v Bollinger and Grutter v Bollinger?
Gratz v Bollinger- the court struck down Michigan's undergraduate point system, which gave minority applicants twenty automatic points simply because they were minorities.
Grutter v Bollinger- the court voted to uphold the constitutionality of the Univers
Does the Supreme Court affirm the right of consenting adults to engage in private sexual activity?
yes
How did the Supreme Court clarify the 13th amendment in The Slaughterhouse Cases in 1873?
Has been invoked to seek a stop to the estimated 100,000 to 300,000 American children and teens forced into sex trafficking each year.
What did Jim Crow laws mandate?
Laws enacted by southern states that required segregation in public schools, theaters, hotels, and other public accommodations.
What was the Supreme Court's rationale in the Civil Rights Cases (1883) for why Congress could not prohibit discrimination in public accommodations?
Supreme court decided that discrimination in a variety of public accommodations, including theaters, hotels, and railroads, could not be prohibited by the act because such discrimination was private, not state, discrimination.
What did Brown v. Board of Education do?
It ended legal school segregation by holding that separate is not equal.
What was the main purpose for the March on Washington?
To support the law that Kennedy had passed banning discrimination in public; to demonstrate support for anti-discrimination legislation