The United States Government’s Role in the Civil Rights

Movement

The Legal Basis of Civil Rights

The “Civil War amendments” to the Constitution are an important basis for civil rights protection in the United States.

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. The 15th Amendment guaranteed voting

rights for black men. Most directly, the 14th Amendment

provides the basis for national government protection of rights.

The Fourteenth AmendmentThe 14th Amendment established the nature of citizenship.

The Constitution was amended to change the language of counting citizens in the census. Slaves were considered 3/5 of a person.

Just as the 14th Amendment was the basis for the selective incorporation of the Bill of Rights, interpretations of its equal protection clause similarly are the basis of many of the debates of civil rights.

Equal protection clause: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

In its 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the racial segregation system of Jim Crow arguing that “separate but equal” train cars and other facilities did not violate the 14th Amendment’s “equal protection” clause.

Plessy vs. Ferguson

“Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation [by race] …do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other…”--Justice Henry Billings Brown, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

“Separate but Equal”

"A cafe near the tobacco market." Durham, North Carolina. May 1940.

" People waiting for a bus at the Greyhound bus terminal." Memphis, Tennessee. September 1943.

Esther Bubley, photographer.

•In Sweatt v. Painter (1950), theCourt rejected Texas’s claim that its“law school for Negroes”constituted an equal legaleducation for its white and blackcitizens.

•In Smith v. Allwright (1944), theCourt deemed Texas’s use of “whiteprimary” elections unconstitutional.

•In Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), theCourt ruled against race-based“restrictive covenants” in housing.

The SupremeCourt’s “separatebut equal” rule wasthe basis for civilrights cases in thefirst half of the 20thcentury.

Separate but Equal?

“… in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”

--Chief Justice Earl Warren,Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Brown v. Board of Education

· With help from the NAACP, the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka reached the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of Plessy v. Ferguson.

· In the case, Oliver Brown challenged that his daughter, Linda, should be allowed to attend an all-white school near her home instead of the distant all-black school she had been assigned to.

Oliver Brown was a welder for the Santa Fe Railroad and a part-time assistant pastor at St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Linda Brown was in the third grade when her father began his class action lawsuit.

· Brown’s lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, argued that “separate” could never be “equal” and that segregated schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee to provide “equal protection” to all citizens.

Standing outside a Topeka classroom in 1953 are the students represented in Oliver Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, From left: Vicki Henderson, Donald Henderson, Linda Brown (Oliver's daughter), James Emanuel, Nancy Todd, and Katherine Carper.

* In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Brown family, and schools nationwide were ordered to be desegregated.

George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James M. Nabrit, following Supreme Court decision ending segregation.

Linda Brown and her new class mates after Court decision.

Thurgood Marshall(1908-1993) Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court.

Integrated schools:

· In Little Rock, Arkansas, Gov. Orval Faubus opposed integration.

· Gov. Faubus was violating federal law.

· In 1957, he called out the National Guard in order to prevent African Americans from attending an all-white high school.

Bottom Row, Left to Right: Thelma Mothershed, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Gloria Ray; Top Row, Left to Right: Jefferson Thomas, Melba Pattillo, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls, Daisy Bates(NAACP President), Ernest Green

· Therefore, Pres. Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock where, under their protection, the African American students were able to enter Central High School.

African American students arriving at Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, in U.S. Army car, 1957.

Members of the 101st US-Airborne Division escorting the Little Rock Nine to school

The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown had importantpolitical consequences:

1. It began a slow process of school desegregation thatwas often met with resistance from state and localgovernments.

2. It sparked greater resolve for a growing civil rightsmovement that would use social protest to press forpolitical change.

3. It (and the political activism it sparked) led to importantcongressional actions, particularly the 1964 Civil RightsAct and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Political Consequences of Brown

The 1964 Civil Rights Actprotected:Voting rightsAccess to publicaccommodationsEnsuring the desegregationof public schoolsOutlawed discrimination inemployment on the basis ofrace, religion, and gender

Building on the successesof the African Americancivil rights movement,other groups pressed tomake rights protections“universal.”

Other Political Legislation

•Building on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,women’s efforts to end gender discrimination, particularly in employment practices, fed the growth of the Women’s movement and organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL).

•Equal Rights Amendment

•Modeling the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, Latinos and Asian Americans established similar legal strategies through the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and the Asian Law Caucus.

OTHER GROUPS IMPACTED BY THE ACT OF1964

•Benefiting from the advances of the Civil RightsMovement, Native Americans pressed for more rightsprotections in the 1960s and 1970s.

•Disabled Americans established their own legaldefense funds in the 1970s, became increasinglyactive in protests and demonstrations, and pressedfor their own equal access to public accommodationsachieving a significant victory in the Americans withDisabilities Act of 1990.

•Gay and lesbian citizens have also followed some of the successes of the African American civil rights movement in pushing for equal access to government protections of their rights to privacy and the right to civil unions and/or marriage.

OTHER GROUPS IMPACTED BY THE ACT OF1964

The Future of Civil RightsAffirmative Action