CHAPTER 11 CIVIL RIGHTS Equal Justice Under the Law Section 2

The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection of the law. Despite attempts to protect their civil rights after the Civil War, African Americans suffered discrimination, unequal treatment, and legalized segregation. Women’s struggle for equal justice initially centered on the right to vote. Section 2 at a Glance Equal Justice under Law

Equal Protection of the Law a The Equal Protection Clause 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause: “No State shall... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Specifically targeted at states; protects civil rights Reasonable Distinction There are times when it is appropriate and legal to distinguish between different groups of people. Three tests the courts use to determine fairness: Rational Basis Tests (“good reason”; driver’s license) Intermediate Scrutiny Test (higher standard; Selective Service) Strict Scrutiny Test (highest standard) — Restriction of a fundamental right — Classification made based on race or national origin (“suspect classification”)

Laws and Segregation after the Civil War Post–Civil War Laws 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments Many federal civil rights laws Little effect on society Racial Segregation Progress in the South, 1865–1877 Compromise of 1877 led to: — Violence — Segregation: separation of racial groups Jim Crow laws Aimed at African Americans Raised positions of whites while lowering nonwhites Examples: schools, theaters Separate-but-equal doctrine 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson: Louisiana law requiring separate railway cars for whites Allowed separate facilities so long as they were “equal”

Voting Rights for Women Winning the Vote Early 1900s: Suffrage effort began again 1920: Nineteenth Amendment “The right of citizens... to vote shall not be denied... on account of sex...” The Women’s Movement Begins 1848: Seneca Falls Convention Conflict in women’s support of Fifteenth Amendment States, especially in the West, begin giving women voting rights Women’s demand for equal rights grew out their participation in the struggle for African Americans’ rights. The main goal was women’s suffrage (right to vote).

Rolling Back Segregation Early Legal Challenges NAACP fought to end de jure segregation (legal segregation) Example: Gaines v. Canada (1938), Sweatt v. Painter (1950) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) Filed on behalf of all African American students; overturned Plessy School Desegregation Schools begin phasing out separation of groups based on race De facto segregation (segregation in fact; reflect social and economic differences between groups)

Landmark Supreme Court Cases Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) Why It Matters: In this case the Supreme Court ruled that de jure segregation violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution. This decision led to desegregation and helped spark the civil rights movement.

Vocabulary PrejudiceA negative opinion formed without just grounds RacismDiscrimination and unfair treatment based on race ReservationAn area of public land set aside by the government for Native Americans Japanese American Internment The mandatory relocation of all people of Japanese descent on the West Coast to War Relocation Centers in 1942 Equal Protection ClauseClause within the Fourteenth Amendment that requires states to apply the law the same way for one person that they would for another person in the same circumstances Suspect ClassificationA classification based on race or national origin SegregationThe separation of racial groups

Vocabulary Jim Crow LawsSegregation laws that reduced participation in government by African Americans Separate-But-Equal-DoctrineThe policy requiring separate facilities for racial groups were legal so long as the facilities were “equal” SuffrageThe right to vote Seneca Falls ConventionThe first women’s rights convention in the United States De Jure SegregationSegregation by law DesegregationEnding the formal separation of groups based on race De Facto SegregationSegregation in fact, even without laws that require segregation