Civil Rights: Dred Scott & Amendments

• Civil rights are fundamental rights that ensure equal treatment and protection under the law for all citizens, preventing discrimination based on race, religion, gender, etc.
• Civil rights include the right to vote, a fair trial, equal access to education and employment, and freedom from discrimination.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

• Dred Scott sued for his freedom in 1857, arguing that his residence in a free territory should make him a free man.
• The Supreme Court ruled against Scott, stating that as a slave, he was not a citizen and had no right to sue.
• Chief Justice Roger said people of African ancestry were not intended to be included as citizens in the Constitution and could not claim its rights and privileges.
• This decision reinforced the pro-slavery stance and deepened the divide leading to the Civil War.

Amendments After the Civil War

• Amendments were created to protect newly freed slaves after the Civil War.
• The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the entire United States and granted Congress the power to enforce this.
• The 14th Amendment applied the Bill of Rights to all citizens regardless of race, allowing the federal government to challenge states that violated citizens' rights based on race.
• It overturned the Dred Scott decision by declaring everyone born in the U.S., including Black men and former slaves, as citizens.
• The 15th Amendment secured voting rights for Black men, prohibiting refusal based on race or previous condition of servitude.
• The existence of these Amendments led to resentment and resistance.

Black/Slave Codes

• Southern state legislatures tried to bypass the amendments to suppress the newly freed slave population based on beliefs of racial superiority.
• Black/slave codes were created to enforce separation between white and newly freed Black Americans.
• Vagrancy laws made it illegal for Black people to be unemployed or without a fixed residence, leading to arrests, fines, and forced labor.
• Freedmen were prohibited from carrying firearms.
• Laws prohibited interracial marriage.
• Black Codes limited the type of property African Americans could own, excluded them from certain businesses and restricted their ability to own land or even rent it.

Plessy v. Ferguson

• In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.
• Homer Plessy was arrested for refusing to leave a whites-only railroad car in Louisiana.
• The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was constitutional if facilities were equal, establishing legal precedent for segregation.
• Established legal segregation for over half a century.

Jim Crow Laws

• Jim Crow laws were state and local laws, mainly in the South, that enforced racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans.
• These laws segregated public facilities like schools, parks, transportation, and restaurants, with inferior facilities for African Americans.
• Jim Crow laws perpetuated racial inequality, and segregation, leading to legal discrimination for decades.
• These laws were challenged and overturned during the Civil Rights Movements of the 1950s and 1960s.

Examples of Jim Crow Laws

• Literacy tests were used to prevent African Americans from voting, with intentionally difficult and unfair questions.
• The grandfather clause allowed individuals to vote if their grandfathers had been eligible before the Civil War, exempting white voters and discriminating against African Americans.
• Poll taxes required individuals to pay a fee to vote, preventing many African Americans and poor whites from voting.
• The poll tax was outlawed in federal elections by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment in 1964.

19th Amendment

• Despite being citizens, white, and from the correct social economic class women in the United States were unable to vote.
• Women fought for their right to vote after the 14th and 15th Amendments were passed.
• The National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was formed to support women gaining the right to vote, so they could vote on social reforms or help pass labor laws to protect women.
• Women organized marches, spoke in public, and wrote letters to lawmakers.
• Wyoming granted women the right to vote in 1869, and by 1912, at least half of the states allowed women to vote.
• On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote.

Brown v. Board of Education

• The Supreme Court case in 1954, declared separation in education is illegal.
• Linda, an African American girl, had to travel further to a black school despite living closer to a white school.
• Her father sued, claiming unequal treatment, and the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, making segregation in schools illegal and starting the integration of races in education.

More Supreme Court Cases

• Many more cases were brought before the US Supreme Court to challenge segregation, discriminations, and racisms.

Mendez v. Westminster 1946

• The Mendez family argued that segregating their children solely because of their Mexican ancestry was unconstitutional.
• A federal court ruled that segregation of Mexican-American students in California's public schools was unconstitutional.

Loving v. Virginia 1967

• Mildred Loving, an African-American woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in Washington D.C. to circumvent Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited interracial marriage.
• The case involved Mildred and Richard Loving, who were convicted and sentenced after marrying in Washington D.C. and returning to Virginia, a state with an anti-miscegenation law
• The Supreme Court struck down state laws banning interracial marriage, ruling them a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.