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.
