Objective: Explain how the Supreme Court has at times allowed the restriction of the civil rights of minority groups and at other times has protected those rights.
Starter: What portion of STEM jobs in the United States are held by women?
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1.How accurate was your prediction?
2.What is the big story this information tells?
3.Why do you think that is?
4.What is one cause of the information in this graphic?
5.What is one consequence of this?
6.Do you find his information surprising?
7.The average male STEM worker earns $37.69 an hour. What do you think the average female STEM worker earns?
Recap: Explain how the government has responded to social movements.
Review: Find a partner and sit or stand across from them.
Practice Questions
"The white man can lynch and burn and bomb and beat Negroes--that's all right: 'Have patience'...'The customs are entrenched'...'Things are getting better.' ....Well, I believe it's a crime for anyone who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself....
I tried in every speech I made to clarify my new position regarding white people--I don't speak against the sincere, well-meaning, good white people....I am speaking against and my fight is against the white racists. I firmly believe that Negroes have the right to fight against these racists, by any means that are necessary....
I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem--just to avoid violence. I don't go for non-violence if it also means a delayed solution. To me a delayed solution is a non-solution."
I tried in every speech I made to clarify my new position regarding white people--I don't speak against the sincere, well-meaning, good white people....I am speaking against and my fight is against the white racists. I firmly believe that Negroes have the right to fight against these racists, by any means that are necessary....
I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem--just to avoid violence. I don't go for non-violence if it also means a delayed solution. To me a delayed solution is a non-solution."
Malcolm X, from The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
- Identify a constitutional provision that supports Malcolm X's insistence on human rights for blacks.
- Explain a difference between Malcolm X's recommended citizen-state interactions and the citizen-state interactions described by Martin Luther King, Jr. in "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."
- Explain how Malcolm X's approach reflects the relationship between political behavior and the rule of law.
Quiz Today: Civil Rights
Balancing Minority and Majority Rights
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In the case of Shaw v. Reno (1993), the U.S. Attorney General rejected a North Carolina congressional reapportionment plan because the plan created only one black-majority district. North Carolina submitted a second plan creating two black-majority districts. One of these districts was, in parts, no wider than the interstate road along which it stretched. Five North Carolina residents challenged the constitutionality of this unusually shaped district, alleging that its only purpose was to secure the election of additional black representatives. After a three-judge District Court ruled that they failed to state a constitutional claim, the residents appealed and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Did the North Carolina residents' claim, that the State created a racially gerrymandered district, raise a valid constitutional issue under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause? |
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Yes. The Court held that although North Carolina's reapportionment plan was racially neutral on its face, the resulting district shape was bizarre enough to suggest that it constituted an effort to separate voters into different districts based on race. The unusual district, while perhaps created by noble intentions, seemed to exceed what was reasonably necessary to avoid racial imbalances. After concluding that the residents' claim did give rise to an equal protection challenge, the Court remanded - adding that in the absence of contradictory evidence, the District Court would have to decide whether or not some compelling governmental interest justified North Carolina's plan.
Subsequent Supreme Court decisions refined the Shaw ruling by holding that the use of race as a "predominant factor" in drawing district lines should be presumed to be unconstitutional.
Subsequent Supreme Court decisions refined the Shaw ruling by holding that the use of race as a "predominant factor" in drawing district lines should be presumed to be unconstitutional.
Other Equality Movements
Agism
- The Age Discrimination Act (1967) prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of age
- Most jobs cannot have mandatory retirement ages
- Laws favoring men over women in family law violate the equal protection clause
- Any classification based on gender "must be reasonable, not arbitrary, and must rest on some ground of difference"
- The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) requires most businesses to make their offices accessible to the disabled
- Public transportation, new construction, and places that accommodate the public must be wheelchair accessible
- The rights of individuals with intellectual disabilities are also protected
- The 14th Amendment's due process clause guarantees the right to marry as a fundamental civil liberty
- The 14th Amendment's equal protection clause requires a state to recognize a marriage license from another state
Closer: Explain how the Supreme Court has at times allowed the restriction of the civil rights of minority groups and at other times has protected those rights.
Next Time
Next Topic: Affirmative Action
Textbook: Sections 5.6-5.7 (pp. 154-159)
Project due in two class periods
Textbook: Sections 5.6-5.7 (pp. 154-159)
Project due in two class periods