AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Civil Rights

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Founding Tension Declaration of Independence “All men are created equal” We have inalienable rights to... Life, Liberty & Property but... He also owned slaves

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Equality in the Constitution 13 th Amendment (1865)  abolished slavery 14 th Amendment (1868)  granted “equal protection of the laws” to all 15 th Amendment (1870)  gave African Americans the right to vote

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Some Key Cases Scott v. Sandford 1857 The Court held that Black people were property and could not be citizens or have the rights of a citizen

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS - Judiciary Taney Opinion They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS - Judiciary Taney Opinion He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights 14 th Amendment ~ 1868 All persons born or naturalized in the United States... are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights 14 th Amendment ~ 1868 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.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Some Key Cases Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 The Court held that “equal but separate accommodations” was constitutional Background = “Jim Crow” laws

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Harlan Dissent The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time if it remains true to its great heritage and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Harlan Dissent But in 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.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS - Judiciary Harlan Dissent 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...

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS - Judiciary Harlan Dissent If evils will result from the commingling of the two races upon public highways established for the benefit of all, they will be infinitely less than those that will surely come from state legislation regulating the enjoyment of civil rights upon the basis of race.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Harlan Dissent We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people above all other peoples. But it is difficult to reconcile that boast with a state of the law which, practically, puts the brand of servitude and degradation upon a large class of our fellow-citizens, our equals before the law.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Harlan Dissent The thin disguise of 'equal' accommodations for passengers in railroad coaches will not mislead any one, nor atone for the wrong this day done.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Some Key Cases Brown v. Board of Education 1954 The Court held that School segregation was unconstitutional... because it violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14 th Amendment Key in expanding civil rights

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights After Brown Rosa Parks 1955 Refused to move to the back of the bus. Led to a one year long boycott of Montgomery buses... led by MLK “the First Lady of Civil Rights”

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights After Brown The Little Rock Nine 1957 Nine students enrolled at Little Rock Central High President Eisenhower had to send in troops to protect them

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights George Wallace Governor of Alabama Inaugural Speech 1963 Today I have stood, where once Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. It is very appropriate then that from this Cradle of the Confederacy, this Heart of the Great Anglo-Saxon Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us done, time and time again through history...

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights George Wallace Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny... and I say... segregation now... segregation tomorrow... and segregation forever.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Kennedy In response to Wallace Sent in the National Guard We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the Constitution.

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Kennedy If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public; if he cannot send his children to the best public school available; if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him;

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Kennedy If, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?

AP U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS – Civil Rights Kennedy One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice; they are not yet freed from social and economic oppression.