REVIEW—CIVIL RIGHTS

Who is Ruby Bridges?

First child to integrate schools in New Orleans. She is accompanied by U.S. Marshals.

How did the legal question in Brown v. Board of Education differ from the legal questions in earlier rulings such as Sweatt v. Painter?

Brown was testing the constitutionality of "separate but equal" while Sweatt supported building higher separate facilities for African American students.

How did Southern States react to the ruling in the Brown case? What seemed to persuade many school districts to finally integrate?

Efforts to shut down public schools to prevent integration By 1964 (ten years after Brown decision), 98 percent of black children in the South still attended all black schools. Civil Rights Act of 1964 cut off federal aid to school districts still practicing segregation.

Who was Thurgood Marshall?

First African American to serve on the Supreme Court

What is the Equal Protection Clause and where is it found?

Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

What law made segregated public accommodations illegal, and what was the Constitutional basis of the law, and why? In what case did the Supreme Court uphold the law?

Jim Crow laws created segregated societies—shopping districts, hospitals, brothels, churches, hotels and motels, restaurants, and much more.

Please review the information about poll taxes, literacy tests, white primaries, and other devices used to keep black citizens from voting.

Literacy tests—very difficult to pass. Limited registration—offices open perhaps one to two days per month Violence and intimidation From 1902-1964, Texas had a poll tax of $1.50 that had to be paid by January 31st for the rest of the year. Poll taxes in federal elections were abolished by Congress in 1964 and for state elections by the Supreme Court in 1966. In Texas, voter registration rose by about 41 percent between 1964 and 1968. In 1923, the Texas legislature passed a law that no black citizen could participate in the Democratic Party Primary. Realizing the law was clearly unconstitutional, in 1927, the Texas legislature said that the Democratic Party could decide who could vote in its primaries, and the party immediately said "all white Democrats.." could vote.

What is patriarchy? What are some facts that show our society is patriarchal? What are the origins of patriarchy?

Patriarchy is a form of social organization in which the man is recognized as the head of the family. Patriarchy is the dominant legal, religious, and cultural view in the world today.

How did the March from Selma to Montgomery affect voting rights? What did the President do after the March to call attention to the voting issues of black Americans?

Selma to Montgomery March was a key factor. President Johnson asked Congress to enact the Voting Rights Act. In his address, he used the phrase, "We shall overcome."

what was the purpose of the lunch counter sit-ins and where did they take place? Please review the details of the sit-ins.

Sit-ins at Woolworths in Greensboro, NC in 1960 After being threatened to go to jail, they set up a economic boycott - They did not buy anything from Woolsworth

What was/is the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund?

The NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund began to bring suits against the states under leadership of Thurgood Marshall

Why was the case of Plessy v. Ferguson so important?

The Supreme Court approved segregated facilities in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 But in the view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.... The arbitrary separation of citizens, on the basis of race, while they are on a public highway, is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution. It cannot be justified upon any legal grounds. Plessy v. Ferguson is an important case because: 1. It ended so-called Black Codes in the Southern States. 2. It ruled that segregated facilities are legal. 3. It overturned separate but equal. 4. It called for an end to Jim Crow Laws.

Under what Constitutional provision was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 enacted?

Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it an offense to discriminate against any customer or patron in a place of public accommodation because of race, color, religion, or national origin. This law was challenged but the Supreme Court upheld it in the case of Heart of Atlanta v. United States.

Which civil rights act dealt with voting issues? What did it do?

Voting Rights Act suspended the use of literacy tests, sent in federal registrars to register voters and monitor elections.

What important ruling did the SC make in the Brown v. Board of Education case? What was the language used by the Court?

Why is this case so important? Because the Supreme Court began ruling on a different question: can separate but equal ever be equal? In this case, the Supreme Court answered that question by saying no: "We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Of course, that was not the end of the story. It took many more years before schools were actually integrated. And in many of those cases, there were dramatic stories: