Chapter 5: Civil Rights

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896 Supreme Court ruling creating the separate but equal doctrine

Grandfather clause

A clause exempting individuals from voting conditions such as poll taxes or literacy tests if they or their ancestors had voted before 1870, thus sparing most white voters.

Hate crime

A crime committed against a person, property, or society, in which the offender is motivated, in part or in whole, by his or her bias against the victim because of the victim's race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.

Poll tax

A fee for voting; levied to prevent poor African Americans in the South from voting

White primary

A primary election in which a party's nominees for general election were chosen but in which only white people were allowed to vote.

Literacy test

A test to determine eligibility to vote; designed so that few African Americans would pass.

Civil disobedience

Active, but nonviolent, refusal to comply with laws or governmental policies that are morally objectionable, while accepting the consequences of violating these laws.

What tactics did the whites in the South use to prevent African Americans from achieving equality before the civil rights era?

Black codes Jim Crow Laws

suspect classification

Distinctions based on race, religion, and national origin, which are assumed to be illegitimate

Separate but equal doctrine

Established by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, it said that separate but equal facilities for whites and nonwhites do not violated the 14 Amendment's equal protection clause.

Strict scrutiny test

Guidelines to courts use to determine the legality of suspect classification based discrimination; on the basis of this test, can achieve a compelling public interest.

What was the political status of Native Americans prior to the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924?

Had virtually no rights to the U.S. Citizenship, and even the laws that allowed immigrants to become citizens did not apply to Native Americans

Affirmative action

In the employment arena, international efforts to recruit, hire, train, and promote underutilized categories of workers (women and minority men); in higher education, international efforts to diversify the student body.

Inherent characteristics

Individual attributes such as race, national origin, religion, and sex

What civil rights organizations were former to represent Latinos, and what were their goals?

LULCA provides equal opportunities to Latinos and to protest discrimination, United Farm Workers, Chicano Movement, GI form- Mexican veterans of WW2, MALDEF

Black codes

Laws passed immediately after the Civil War by confederate states that limited the rights of "freemen" (people formerly enslaved).

Jim Crow laws

Laws requiring the strict separation of racial groups, with whites and "nonwhites" required to attend separate schools, work in different jobs, and use segregated public accommodations, such as transportation and restaurants.

ordinary scrutiny test (rational basis test)

On the basis of this test sex-based discrimination is legal if it is a reasonable means by which the government can achieve a legitimate public interest.

What strategies did the early civil rights movement employ to end discrimination?

Peaceful protests Sit-ins Voter registration protests

What civil rights did the 1964 civil rights act protect the minority, male citizens but not for female citizens?

Prohibited discrimination in education, employment, and public accommodations.

Nineteenth Amendment

Prohibited the national and state governments from abridging or denying citizens the right to vote on account of sex

de facto segregation

Segregation maintained by practice

De jure segregation

Segregation mandated by law.

Why did those fighting for women's civil rights begin their work by concentrating their efforts on state governments rather than on the national government?

States reserved that authority to determine who had the right to vote, be employed, and obtain the best education possible

Equal protection clause

The 14 Amendment clause stating that no state small "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws".

Intersectionality

The experience of multiple forms of oppression (based on race, gender, class, sexual orientation, or sexual identity) simultaneously.

Heightened scrutiny test

The guidelines used most frequently by the courts to determine the legality of sex-based discrimination; on the basis of this test, sex-based discrimination is legal if the government can prove that it is substantially related to the achievement of an important public interest.

standing to sue

The legal rights to bring lawsuits in court

Civil Rights

The rights and privileges guaranteed to all citizens under the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments; the idea that individuals are protected from discrimination based on characteristics such as race, national origin, religion, and sex.

Reconstruction era

The time after the civil war between 1866 and 1877 when the institutions and infrastructure of the South were rebuilt

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

This 1954 Supreme Court decision ruled that segregated schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14 Amendment.

For what purpose was the National Council or Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) formed?

To work for civil rights for Asian Americans