POLI 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: African-American Civil Rights Movement (1954–1968), De Jure, Emancipation Proclamation
22 May 2018
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Department
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Civil Rights.
I. The extension of Civil Rights
a. Comparing civil rights movement
i. Mainstream African American civil rights
ii. Maistea oe’s iil ights
II. Commonalities with civil rights movements
a. Thinking about how to remove two types of discrimination
i. De jure discrimination
1. Discrimination by law.
2. Laws that treat one group differently from the other
3. Might be obvious, or could be more subtle.
ii. De facto discrimination
1. Often a bigger challenge to overcome. Discrimination by tradition and
habit. Often times people do’t eogize that they ae doig it
2. Still exists. Question is how you deal with this.
iii. Often civil rights movements start with de jure discrimination, and then move
on.
b. About 6% of the population had the right to vote in the first presidential election
i. Only white men, but very few white men
III. Mainstream African American Civil Rights Intro
a. Constitution literally says African Americans are property and 3/5ths of a person
b. There could have been free black people, but that did not guarantee you any rights
i. Just eause you ee’t a slae does ot ea you ee a itize
c. Every time a state came into the union, there was an underlying question of what to do
with slavery
i. They were making agreements about what states could have slaves
d. The question was not really about whether slaves or blacks were citizens, the question
was slavery at large. Where was slavery going to exist?
IV. African American civil rights—early
a. Dred Scott v Sanford (1857) acceptance that blacks slaves not citizens
i. Dred scott had been moving. Moved to state where slavery was not recognized.
The SC was deciding: is Dred Scott free? What do we do with states with
different laws. And what does it mean for someone to be free?
ii. The chief justice is a southern sympathizer
iii. Says that dred scott is not free. “ays that Ded “ott should’t hae ee ee
able to bring the case because he says that Dred Scott was property and no
better than a mule.
iv. Even for free blacks, their citizenship status was very questionable.
b. So what happened? Civil War
i. First step in changing legal status of blacks in the US
ii. Timing important: first thing that happens is that slavery is officially ended in
the US.
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1. Emancipation Proclamation during civil war only freed slaves in the
rebel territories. There were still 4 states in the union that had slavery.
2. The real end to slavery came in the 13th amendment. The 13th
amendment erases the 3/5ths clause.
3. Question: slavery is done, but what is their citizenship status?
a. Immediately, many states (most in south) passed black codes
b. Black codes= laws right after 13th amend that explicitly took
away rights from former slaves.
i. Most cases the states that passed these laws wanted to
see the slaves put back where they were. Purposes
were to take away rights. Example: former slaves and
laks a’t o property, cannot vote. Took away
citizenship rights.
iii. Black codes and the 14th and 15th amendments
1. There is gap between 13 and (14 and 15). 14 and 15 fixed the problem
of citizenship
a. 13th amendment ends slavery, but 14th and 15th amendments
defined former slaves as citizens
b. 14th amendment: if you are born or naturalized into US, you are
citizen of the US and the state where you live. As such, you are
guanrateed three things
i. Equal protection: everyone is treated same by laws
ii. Due process: everyone has the same steps in the legal
process. (judiciiary).
iii. Privileges and immunities of citizenship (some question
of what exactly this means).
c. 15th Amendment: gives right to vote to former male slaves
does’t say ale, ut that’s hat it eat
d. What about black women?
i. No itizeship o ights. Does’t say this, it is just the
understanding.
e. Post civil rights politics—states started to try and get around the
14th amendment. States started thinking about makinglaws that
deactivate 14th amendment without actually discriminating.
i. Have to be sneakier.
ii. After 14 and 15, we get a new series of laws that take
away rights from former slaves
iv. Jim Crow laws and Plessy v Ferguson – separate but equal.
1. Jim crow: segregation and sets of laws.
2. On the surface, they look like they apply to everyone but in reality, they
treat people differently
3. They are implicitly discriminatory
4. Examples of jim crow
a. Literacy test: have to take a test to prove that you can read
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The extension of civil rights: comparing civil rights movement, mainstream african american civil rights, mai(cid:374)st(cid:396)ea(cid:373) (cid:449)o(cid:373)e(cid:374)"s (cid:272)i(cid:448)il (cid:396)ights. Often times people do(cid:374)"t (cid:396)e(cid:272)og(cid:374)ize that they a(cid:396)e doi(cid:374)g it: still exists. African american civil rights early: dred scott v sanford (1857) acceptance that blacks slaves not citizens, dred scott had been moving. Moved to state where slavery was not recognized. What do we do with states with different laws. And what does it mean for someone to be free: the chief justice is a southern sympathizer, says that dred scott is not free. There were still 4 states in the union that had slavery: the real end to slavery came in the 13th amendment. Example: former slaves and (cid:271)la(cid:272)ks (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t o(cid:449)(cid:374) property, cannot vote. Took away citizenship rights: black codes and the 14th and 15th amendments, there is gap between 13 and (14 and 15).
