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Civil Rights – 02 - #3
One Feature of and explain how that feature has presented obstacles to racial minority
groups in their efforts to achieve political goals.
Federalism: Power of the government is divided amongst different levels of government.
National government is delegated specific authorities while the states are reserved
other specific powers.
Obstacles:
During Reconstruction, the national government passed a series of laws, including
the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Freedman’s Bureau, and pushed for ratification of
three Amendments, the 13th, 14th, & 15th, to expand and protect the rights of African
Americans in the entire nation.
However, most Southern States utilized their reserved powers to limit the rights of
African Americans. Specifically, states have jurisdiction over elections, thereby allowing
Southern States to create Poll Taxes, a fee that was charged in order to vote, and Literacy
Tests, a reading and writing test that had to be passed in order to vote. Because states
also have the power to regulate intrastate commerce, the state of Louisiana passed the
Louisiana Act of 1890, the Separate Car Act, which required “separate but equal
facilities” for all train cars within its borders. This law was an integral part of the
Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Other Jim Crow laws, segregation laws, of
this time period included requiring separate restaurants, hotels, and movie theaters for
blacks and whites. Lastly, states have the authority to regulate policies concerning
health, safety, morals and public welfare. Because of this, some states outlawed
intermarriage between blacks and whites, didn’t require white nurses to treat black
patients, and segregated water fountains.
One Feature of and explain how that feature might present opportunities to racial
minority groups in their efforts to achieve political goals.
Federalism: Although Southern states sought to limit the rights of African Americans
under Federalism, minority interest groups, like the NAACP, influenced the
federal government to assist in attaining equality for their race. During the 1950’s
and 1960’s Civil Rights Movement, the national government began to expand its
authority over traditionally considered reserved powers.
Opportunities:
NAACP, under the direction of one its most powerful lawyers, Thurgood
Marshall, utilized the federal courts to achieve the equality that was denied by the states.
In Brown v. Board of Education and Brown II, the Supreme Court ruled that public
schools should be desegregated and its should be done with “all deliberate speed.”
Marshall and the NAACP were also influential in the events surrounding the Little Rock
Nine. In this situation, the NAACP was able to assist these nine African American
students in their attempts to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Specifically, Governor Faubus of Arkansas used the National Guard to keep the students
from entering the high school. Eventually, President Eisenhower intervened, placed these
guardsmen under his authority, sent them home, and then ordered in federal troops to
protect the students.
Congress also expanded the interpretation of the commerce clause in the passage
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law guaranteed that employers could not
discriminate employment and hiring practices based upon ones race. It also required that
all “public accommodations” that fall under the realm of interstate commerce end their
policies of racial segregation. This included motels/hotels, eating establishments, gas
stations, theaters, stadiums, and entertainment complexes. The decision handed down in
the Supreme Court case of Heart of Atlanta Motel v. US was greatly affected by this
piece of legislation.
Lastly, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act,
adopted initially in 1965 and extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982, is generally considered
the most successful piece of civil rights legislation ever adopted by the United States
Congress. The Act codifies and effectuates the 15th Amendment's permanent guarantee
that, throughout the nation, no person shall be denied the right to vote on account of race
or color.
Adopted at a time when African Americans were substantially disfranchised in
many Southern states, the Act employed measures to restore the right to vote that
intruded in matters previously reserved to the individual states. Section 4 ended the use of
literacy requirements for voting in six Southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia) and in many counties of North Carolina,
where voter registration or turnout in the 1964 presidential election was less than 50
percent of the voting-age population. Under the terms of Section 5 of the Act, no voting
changes were legally enforceable in these "covered" jurisdictions until approved either by
a three-judge court in the District of Columbia or by the Attorney General of the United
States. Other sections authorized the Attorney General to appoint federal voting
examiners who could be sent into covered jurisdictions to ensure that legally qualified
persons were free to register for federal, state, and local elections, or to assign federal
observers to oversee the conduct of elections.