U.S. History Unit 7 Terms #1-13 Civil Rights

What are Civil Rights? Civil Rights refer to the positive acts a government takes to protect us against arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by the government or individuals. “All men are created equal” – Declaration of Independence, 1776.

Three-Fifths Compromise Every five slaves counted as three free persons. From Article 1, Section 2 of the US Constitution, Representatives and direct Taxes were determined by the number of persons a state had. States determined who could vote. Depiction of the Constitutional Convention.

De-jure Segregation Defintion: Segregation by law. Occurred in the South in the century after the Civil War during what was known as the Jim Crow Era. Jim Crow laws were local laws that created and enforced a system of racial segregation in public facilities including schools, parks, theaters, restaurants, transportation, etc.

De-Facto Segregation Definition: Segregation by custom or practice, not based on laws, but rather social norms and expectations. Even after many Jim Crow laws were ruled unconstitutional or eliminated, much segregation still existed. The laws may have changed but peoples behavior and attitudes did not.

Affirmative Action Affirmative action is an attempt to promote equal opportunity. It was often used in government and educational settings to ensure that minority groups within a society are included in all programs. The justification for affirmative action is to compensate for past discrimination, persecution or exploitation by the ruling class of a culture, or to address existing discrimination Started in 1961 under Kennedy, and continued under Johnson. Originally just applied to racial discrimination but eventually to gender discrimination as well.

Affirmative Action Bakke v. Regents of the University of California (1978) Bars quota system but allows race as a factor for admission. Hopwood v. Texas (1996) 4 white students filed suit that they were denied admission when minorities with lower qualifications were accepted. Originally they lost…appeal two years later reverses decision. School may no longer use race for admissions. California Proposition 209 (1996) Amended the state constitution to prohibit discrimination

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Federal Government given broad power to prevent discrimination. All citizens equal access to all public facilities: restaurants, parks, libraries, and theaters. Attorney General can bring lawsuits to force school desegregation = Enforcement. Private employers had to end discrimination in the work place.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Federal examiners could register voters. Discriminatory devices – literacy tests, poll taxes – were suspended. Act is a turning point for the Civil Rights movement. Movement shifts focus to social and economic equality. Cover picture from Pravda “Police Brutality, USA.”

Immigration Act of 1965 Abolished the national origins quota system which had been in place since the 1920s. Opened up immigration and made a priority system for people with family in the U.S., people with valuable skills and education, and people escaping violence or poor conditions in their homeland.

Feminism Definition: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. A range of political movements, and social movements that share a common goal: to achieve equal political, economic, personal, and social rights for women. Feminist movements have campaigned for women's rights, including the right to vote, to work, to earn fair wages or equal pay, to own property, to receive education, to have equal rights within marriage.

ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) The proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) states that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply equally to all persons regardless of their sex. In 1972, the ERA was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The original seven-year time limit was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at that deadline, the ERA had been ratified by only 35 states, three states short of the 38 required to put it into the Constitution.

Title IX (Title Nine) Passed in 1972, Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. The principal objective of Title IX is to avoid the use of federal money in education programs that are discriminatory based on gender. From that point on, any educational program receiving federal funding must allow equal opportunity for males and females.

California Proposition 209 (Prop 209) Passed in 1996, Proposition 209 amended the California Constitution to prohibit public institutions from discriminating on the basis of race, sex, or ethnicity. Opposed by supporters of Afirmitive Action. They argued that it would end practices of tutoring, mentoring, outreach and recruitment of women and minorities in California universities and businesses. Supporters of Prop 209 contended that existing affirmative action programs led public employers and universities to reject applicants based on their race, in other words reverse discrimination.

California Proposition 8 (Prop 8) Prop 8, eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry in CA. California voters approved Prop 8 in 2008 with 52% of the vote shortly after the state Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriages are legal. The measure put gay and lesbian marriages on hold in the state, but a federal appeals court later rule Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.