American Democracy Now - Chapter 5

affirmative action

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

inherent characteristics

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

Black Codes

Laws passed immediately after the Civil War by the confederate states that limited the rights of "freemen" (former slaves).

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.

Intermediate scrutiny test

Need an argument to discriminate (example - based on sex )

Strict scrutiny test

Need good argument to allow a racial or ethnic division

Equal protection clause

Part of 14th amendment establishing equal protection of all citizens

Brown v Board of Education (1954)

Plessy reversed in education only

24th Amendment

Poll taxes and undue burden on voting not allowed

University of California v Bakke (1978)

Race can be considered for college admission in effort to gain diversity but racial quotas are not allowed

de facto segregation

Segregation caused by the fact that people tend to live in neighborhoods with others of their own race, religion, or ethnic group.

de jure segregation

Segregation mandated by law.

Plessy v Feruson (1896)

Separate but equal is constitutional

equal protection clause

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

standing to sue

The ability to bring lawsuits in court.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

allowed access to public facilities and no discrimination for jobs; no discrimination based on sex in federal jobs

1965 Voting Rights Act

cannot discriminate against people voting based on race

Equal Rights Amendment

constitutional amendment proposed in 1973 about women's rights; failed to ratify by just 3 states

Equal Pay Act of 1963

may not pay differently based on sex

Title IX

no discrimination based on sex in education

15th Amendment

right to vote cannot be abridged based on religion or race

19th Amendment

right to vote cannot be abridged based on sex

gender gap

tendency of men and women to differ in political and voting preferences

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.

suspect classifications

Distinctions based on race, religion, national origin, and sex, 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 violate the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause.

14th Amendment

Every citizen has equal protection under law

poll tax

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

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896 Supreme Court ruling creating the separate but equal doctrine.

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

1st women's right convention rewrote Declaration of Independence to include women - Declaration of Sentiments

grandfather clause

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

hate crime

A crime committed against a person, property, or society, where 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.

steering

The practice by which realtors steered African American families to certain neighborhoods and white families to others.

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 Fourteenth Amendment.