Chapter 6

 

Equal Rights

 

"Beware of any right that is given to you; the only real rights are those that you take for yourself."

 

Mr. Dooley

Irish-American Bartender

Finley Peter Dunne - Humorist

 

 

 

I.       Gender

 

Women's Rights

 

 

Hegemony

 

-dominate class develops an idea and believes it.

 

-idea is adopted, and society evolves and is happy

 

eg. “slavery”

 

 

Anne Hutchinson-         the "dissenter"

 

1. A woman with a brain

Women were not supposed to be smart.

She stepped out of her   "sphere"

 

 

2. Spoke out against predestination

 

Role of women pre-Civil War

1. mothers

2. domestics

3. inferior labor

 

Coverture

A women's identity was covered or absorbed by her husbands.  Through tradition, a husband would control a wife's property, punish her, and provide her with only minimal necessities.

 

 

*        Women's movement

*        Abolitionists

 

1848 - Declaration of Rights

and Sentiments – Seneca Falls NY

 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Lucretia Mott

 

After Civil War,

the alliance dissolves Women are lost in shuffle

 

 

Bradwell v Illinois (1873) -prevented a women from

practicing law (she passed the bar exam) because of her natural timidity and delicacy

 

 

*Women did work for 1/4 the pay

* Same jobs as men!

 

 

Progressive Era 1890 - 1920

 

NAWSA – Susan B. Anthony

Suffrage / Temperance

 

                   Even - NAACP

Labor – Always an issue; Middle Class Progressives stressed safety in the work place

 

* No correlation accepted between

long hours and low pay

 

*protective legislation (especially for women and children)

 

----Cases

 

Lochner v NY (1905)

Protection from abusing workers through long hours

 

  

Muller v Oregon (1908) Using the Brandeis Brief

(medical evidence, data)

 

Pregnant women have to be protected because of her inferior physical nature

 

 

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 1911

 

 

WWI - finally gave women respect they deserved

 

                                                             

19th Amendment

 

ERA -        1920's

 

 

 

The Feminine Mystique-  Betty Friedan

 

 

Reed v Reed (1971)

A case which gave women the right to legally handle her deceased child's estate

 

 

Frontiero v Richardson (1973)

Women could have a man as a dependent

 

Roe v Wade (1973)

*Feminists standard of equality*

 

ERA - 1970's & 1980's  equal pay

 Passed 84-8 in the Senate

 Passed 354-24 in the House

(Did not get past State Legislature)

 

The Success of Roe actually hurt the momentum.

Needs 38 states, Dies June 30, 1982

 

 

Title IX (1972)

 

 

 

 

 

NOW

(National Organization of Women)

works to promote gender equality

 

 

however

 

Rostker v Goldberg (1981)

Women not included in US Selective Service Process

 

                                                but

 

 

 

 

Planned Parenthood of

SE Penn v Casey (1992)

Trimester approach is abolished substituting the undue burden standard.  (States could regulate as long as they did not pose undue burden on a pregnant women)

 

Principles of

Roe v Wade affirmed

 

and

 

NOW v Schiedler (1994)

Quick action against those accused of violence against

Women’s Clinics

 

 

 

Romer v Evans (1996)

Bars discrimination based on sexual preference.  Not rational or reasonable

 

 

 

                                                            **

Gay Rights

a formidable political block

*        2.8 American Men

*        1.4 American Females

 

1992 - President Clinton supported gays in the military

 

not well received in Congress, strongly opposed by Sen Sam Nunn then Chair of the Armed Services Committee.

(Don't ask, don't tell policy)

 

PAC - Human Rights Campaign

1995 -annual budget of 8 million

 

 

(2000 election donated 1.1m)

 

1996 - President Clinton was in opposition of same sex marriages

 

2000

Boy Scouts of America v Dale

Can prohibit gay scoutmaster

(private organization)

 

2004 – Bush against recognizing

       same sex marriages

 

Major Campaign Issue

 

 

 

                                                             **

 

Disabled Americans

-protected by Civil Rights Acts;

 

1990 -  Americans with Disabilities Act 

 

 

                                                            **

 

Multiculturalism - 1990's

 

*        acceptance

*        tolerance

*        harmony

 

 

Integration--->loss of identity?

 

Historically  acculturalization

-immigration

 

 

assimilation/acculturalization

 

loss of ethnicity = Americanization

 

 

Native Americans

 

-Indian Removal Policy

-Dawes Act 1887

 

-Indian Reorganization Act 1934

 

*        1972 - "Trail of Broken Treaties" at BIA in DC

 

*        American Indian Movement (AIM)

seized area of Wounded Knee in So. Dakota. 

Internal conflicts

 

US v Sioux Nation of  Indians(1980)

 

 

                                                            **

 

Hispanic Americans

 

-migrant worker  "Chicano"

-Cesar Chavez

 

2000

California   -   Hispanics = 28%

54 delegates           4 Congressman              

 

illegals = 4 million ?

70% are Hispanic

 

 

 

Puerto Rico

US Commonwealth

 

In House of Representatives, Puerto Rico has a

Resident Commissioner

 

                                                             **

 

Asian Americans -

 

*        Chinese Exclusion Act (1880s)

 

*        Gentlemen's Agreement

 

 

                                                             **

 

African Americans

 

19^th Century

 

-Abolitionists

-Women’s Rights (Equal Suffrage)

 

 

Civil War Amendments

13^th              14^th              15^th

 

Black Codes

Laws denying newly freed African Americans legal rights

* State way of insuring dominance

 

Jim Crow Laws

Legal discrimination based on race…”whites only”

 

Civil Rights Act of 1875

(attempt to correct problem)

 

 

Civil Rights Cases (1883)

Supreme Court decided that discrimination in public accommodations such as railroads, theaters, restaurants

Hotels could not be prohibited

By the Civil Rights Act because it was private,

not state discrimination

The Scope of the Act narrowed

 

* “grandfather clauses” emerge

  attempts to keep Black Americans from becoming a voting block

 

 

* Plessy v Ferguson (1896) Created a separate but equal society

 -actually created a two nation country, especially in the south.

 

-bathrooms, seating areas, restaurants even church seating

 

@

-Jesse Owens awards dinner-

 

Pres. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren to the Supreme Court.  The Court proved to be very liberal during the 1950's and 1960's

 

Brown v Board of Education(1954)

argued by Thurgood Marshall:

 

How could a Black Law School be equal to Yale Law?

Public institutions can no longer be legally segregated

 

Public Schools were no longer segregated.

 

 

(last schools were de-segregated by 1972)

 

 

Not well received in the south.

 

Arkansas - 1957

Governor Oral Faubus sent State Militia to prevent Blacks from mixing in white schools.

 

Ike sent 1000 paratroopers to control the white mob and militia

 

Rosa Parks - tired seamstress who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama

 

She served as an inspiration for Dr. Martin Luther  King            Montgomery Bus Boycott.

 

The non-violent protest

Jesus Christ

Mohandas Gandhi

Dr. King

 

Strategy - always peaceful, well dressed 

 

protestors trained to take beatings

 

1) Southern resistance

- electric cattle prods, angry mobs, fire hoses

 

2)                Riots and fire bombings in the Northern States

 

3) June 1963 - Alabama Governor George Wallace prevented blacks from enrolling in the University of Alabama.  JFK forced him to back down

 

June 11, 1963 - JFK addressed the nation on T.V. calling for support on civil rights legislation.

@

That Night…..

 

NAACP leader of Mississippi, Medgar Evers, was murdered outside of his home

 

 

 

March on Washington Aug 28,1963.  The purpose was to drum up support for Kennedy sponsored legislation

 

200,000 gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial Blacks and Whites

 

Civil Rights Act (1964)  LBJ

-        racial discrimination not tolerated where there is federal funding.

 

-        strong attempt to protect right to vote

 

-        Equal Opportunity  Cmmission

 

-        Cooperation of the Attorney General in speeding up court cases to hasten de-segregation 

 

Suspect classification

Triggers the highest standard of scrutiny from the Supreme Court

 

 

 

(Strict Scrutiny- a heightened standard of review used by the SC to determine the constitutional validity of a challenged practice.

 

(Racial profiling,

blatant discrimination)

 

 

 

24 Amendment(1964)    no poll tax

 

Wesberry v Sanders(1964)  Gerrymandering

 

1965 - Voting Rights Act

 

Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg S D (1971)   

(students assigned to schools closet to their homes caused large segments of Blacks to only go to certain schools)

de jure discrimination

racial discrimination that is a direct result of law

 

 

 

The remedy for de jure segregation…………. Bussing

 

 

 

 

 

The Supreme Court was careful identify de facto segregation (segregation through housing patterns,

neighborhoods, not law)

 

Keyes v. School District No. 1 Denver, Colorado

The Court ruled that Denver Could not operate deliberately segregated schools by manipulating school boundaries

 

 

However…

Shaw v Reno (1993)

 

Miller v Johnson (1995)

 

Cases where the Court denounced

Impractical redistricting

 

 

Affirmative Action

 

Reverse Discrimination

(backlash)

 

Bakke and Weber decisions

 

 

Adarand Construction

V Penna (1995)

 

Affirmative action plans on a case by case basis

 

Michael B. Preston