Module 4 Civil Rights

Overview

Module 4 for the fourth week of the course includes the following page giving an overview of the Module’s content and the week’s activities:

Module 4 (Week 4) Overview

Photo credit: U.S. Supreme Court – Architect of the Capitol, aoc.gov.

Civil Rights

This week the focus is on civil rights (Chapter 5), guarantees of equality based on the Fourteenth Amendment. Remember the Declaration of Independence statement “all men are created equal”? The Declaration is not a law, but it set forth basic principles upon which the country was founded, including the principle of equal protection of the laws which was eventually embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment at the end of the Civil War. [NOTE: Civil liberties – free speech, free press, freedom of religion, rights in criminal cases – are different from Civil Rights – we will study civil liberties next week.] “Civil rights” are protections against actions by both government and private actors.

Civil rights and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibit discriminatory treatment based on immutable (unchangeable) characteristics of an individual or a group with which they are associated. These characteristics can include but are not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, physical disability, age and sexual orientation. Civil rights cannot be understood fully without looking at the historical context in which they have developed. Laws may be passed by Congress or state legislatures protecting civil rights (Civil Rights Act of 1964; Respect for Marriage Act of 2022; Indian Reorganization Act of 1934), or diminishing them (Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; Defense of Marriage Act of 1996). Presidents may issue executive orders doing the same (Obama’s DACA order protecting “Dreamers”; Trump’s 20017 ban on immigrants from some Muslim-predominant countries). But these issues are often decided ultimately by the courts. Major decisions by the US Supreme Court over the years have been instrumental in defining the nature and scope of civil rights (e.g., Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, declaring segregation constitutional; Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, outlawing school public school segregation). History teaches us that, unfortunately, these moments of limited progress are often followed by long periods of backlash and retrenchment.

[insert photo of young student seeking admission to Little Rock High School amidst angry protesters]

Photo: Elizabeth Eckford walking to newly desegregated public high school in Little Rock AR, 1957, being hounded by angry white citizens. She was one of 9 students that a federal court ordered be admitted to the all-white school against state and local resistance.

Consequences of Slavery. Civil rights in America cannot be understood today without acknowledging the consequences of the long-term institution of slavery, which we examined in our first week. President Lincoln’s abolition of slavery (in certain states) by the Emancipation Proclamation was followed by Congress passing and the states ratifying the 13^th,14^th, 15^th Amendments to the Constitution following the Civil War. The 13th abolished slavery, the 14th guaranteed equal protection of the law to formerly enslaved persons, and the 15th granted voting rights to formerly enslaved men (not women). These amendments, and civil rights laws passed by Congress, led to an 11-year post-war period called Reconstruction, which saw formerly enslaved African Americans in southern states gain political and economic power. But when an unrelated political settlement in Washington DC led to withdrawal of federal troops from the South, white political leaders quickly began denying equal rights to African Americans without fear of federal interference. This led to nearly a century of discriminatory state laws that denied Blacks the right to vote, and Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation of Blacks and whites in nearly every corner of social life. It also unleashed the terrorizing of Black communities with lynchings, cross burnings and other atrocities by mobs of white citizens (Ku Klux Klan, Red Shirts and others).

After 80+ years of enduring and fighting back against these oppressive conditions that clearly violated their constitutional rights, in the 1940-50s Black activists and their allies forced the government to begin dismantling these laws and practices through actions by the Executive branch (President Truman desegregated the military), the Supreme Court (desegregated public schools), and later by Congress (enacted civil rights and voting rights laws). While African Americans, and other groups, have made significant gains in recovering their civil rights, significant injustices continue today.

[insert photo of George Floyd mural art]

Racism Today. The murder of George Floyd, a Black man, at the knee of a white policeman in Minneapolis, the brutality of which was recorded by a bystander’s camera phone, is just the latest in a long line of killings of unarmed black men by police or vigilantes in recent years. Even a Black Republican U.S. senator from North Carolina, Tim Scott, has spoken out about being stopped frequently by police simply because he was driving a new car in the “wrong neighborhood.” The 2020 protests across the nation over the death of George Floyd were a continuation of a long tradition of direct action and mass demonstrations in civil rights battles against racism. As further evidence, you saw the Ted Talk by Baratunde Thurston about the all too common 911 calls by white people seeking police response to Black people doing everyday lawful activities.

Other groups struggle against oppression. African Americans are not the only group that has been subjected to the crushing force of systemic racism. Other groups – Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos – have their own unique histories of struggle against discrimination and violence. They have benefited from, and contributed to, the civil rights gains by African Americans.

insert photos of 1) ERA marchers; 2) “Stop Asian Hate” demonstrators; 3) marchers at Standing Rock Sioux Tribe oil pipeline protest]

Like African Americans, these other groups have waged battles against unequal treatment. In addition, women struggled for and won the right to vote in 1920, reproductive rights in the 1970s (and again now after overturning of Roe v Wade), and continue to fight for equal treatment in employment (e.g., gender wage gap). More recently, those in the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning) community have worked to overcome longtime discrimination in areas of education, employment, military service and family (marriage, adoption).

Whether based on race, ethnicity, gender, national origin or sexual orientation, discrimination persists in society, and these groups continue to fight for their civil rights – for equal treatment under the law. And while overt acts of racism are less common now compared to the past, systemic discrimination is much more persistent and resistant to change. It requires examining how seemingly innocent policies and practices of the dominant culture that favor White people (privilege/advantage) have the effect of disadvantaging people of color. Lessons from the past tell us that changing these kinds of systems requires collective political action through voting, contacting elected officials, joining protests and sharing our views through media (social media, newspaper letters to the editor) and with friends, family and co-workers.

[insert image of cover of Prof. Richardson’s book]

History impacts our politics. While your textbook authors do a good job of covering a massive amount of information in a single chapter, I want you to see the broader historical and political context of the civil rights struggles. I will ask you to read from part of a book, How the South Won the Civil War by Professor Heather Cox Richardson of Boston College, a political historian who tries to set these struggles in historical and ideological context. Her thesis is that the conflict embedded in our founding documents – “all men are created equal” but slavery is allowed – has never been fully resolved. It has been an ongoing ideological battle between political parties and factions with opposing visions of American society and government. And it continues to the present day. One vision evokes the words of the Declaration of Independence and Abraham Lincoln and believes in a government that guarantees political power and equal opportunity for ordinary people; the other believes that a society ruled by and benefiting wealthy business people, and a limited role for government, is the preferred system.

Gen Z – you’re up. As the newest generation to emerge in our society – Gen Z – you will eventually carry the responsibility for deciding in what direction this ideological battle proceeds. But it begins with listening to the voices of people who have suffered from and fought back against oppression. It means listening to the solutions they say need to happen. And it leads to each of us finding ways to support solutions we can with our own personal and collective action. The outcome may well determine whether the “American Experiment” – equality for all – survives. Or, as President Lincoln said, “whether that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall long endure.”

Classroom Lessons and Activities

Additional Resources

Other resources and documents used in class for this Module, including PowerPoint lecture slides, are in the Appendix.