1. Civics: Chapter 11 Section 3
Civil Rights Laws
Civics:
Chapter 11
Section 3

2. Main Idea
In the 1950s and 1960s, an organized movement demanding civil rights changed American society and led to a series of new federal laws that protected the civil rights of African Americans and other groups.
IT was a firm commitment to their personal freedoms that drove American colonists to break from Great Britain in the Revolutionary War
QC: What is the Bill of Rights and what does it protect?

3. Questions
What was the civil rights movement, and what effects did it have on American society?
What new federal laws were passed in response to the civil rights movement?
How were civil rights extended to women, minorities, and people with disabilities?
How are affirmative action policies a part of the civil rights movement?

4. The Civil Rights Movement
A mass movement in the 1950s and 1960s to guarantee the civil rights of African Americans
Activists used nonviolent protests to fight against injustice and segregation and to work toward passage of new federal civil rights laws
March on Washington in 1963 drew 20,000 people to hear Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech

5. New Federal Laws
Civil Rights Act of 1957: established Civil Rights Commission, created a civil rights division in DOJ.
Civil Rights Act of 1960: gave government power to inspect voter registration polls
24th Amendment: banned poll taxes
Civil Rights Act of 1964: banned discrimination in voting, employment, public accommodations
Voting Rights Act of 1965: banned unfair tests for voting
Civil Rights Act of 1968: banned discrimination in housing
By mid 1960s, new federal laws began to transform the legal protections of everyone in the country

6. Extending Civil Rights
New laws also protected women, Hispanics, Native Americans, disabled
Native Americans: AIM-American Indian Movement: used protests and takeovers
New laws: Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975

7. Affirmative Action
A policy that requires employers and institutions to provide opportunities for members of certain historically underrepresented groups.
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) race can be used as one factor in admissions
Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, California (1987) sex as a factor of promotions
Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena (1995) A.A. must target specific past discrimination by society as whole
Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) reaffirmed that race can be used as one factor in admissions