Civil Rights
| Author | Jeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps |
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Personal liberties that belong to an individual, owing to his or her status as a citizen or resident of a particular country or community.
The most common legal application of the term civil rights involves the rights guaranteed to U.S. citizens and residents by legislation and by the Constitution. Civil rights protected by the
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Constitution include FREEDOM OF SPEECH and freedom from certain types of discrimination.
Not all types of discrimination are unlawful, and most of an individual's personal choices are protected by the freedoms to choose personal associates; to express himself or herself; and to preserve personal privacy. Civil rights legislation comes into play when the practice of personal preferences and prejudices of an individual, a business entity, or a government interferes with the protected rights of others. The various civil rights laws have made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, handicap, or national origin. Discrimination that interferes with VOTING RIGHTS and equality of opportunity in education, employment, and housing is unlawful.
The term PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES is related to civil rights. Privileges and immunities encompass all rights of individuals that relate to people, places, and real and PERSONAL PROPERTY. Privileges include all of the legal benefits of living in the United States, such as the freedom to sell land, draft a will, or obtain a DIVORCE. Immunities are the protections afforded by law that prevent the government or other people from hindering another's enjoyment of his or her life, such as the right to be free from illegal SEARCHES AND SEIZURES and the freedom to practice religion without government persecution. The Privileges and Immunities Clause in Article IV of the U.S. Constitution states, "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." The clause is designed to prevent each state from discriminating against
One effect of legislation and judicial decisions concerning civil rights has been an increase in the number of women in what were traditionally male jobs.
the people in other states in favor of its own citizens.
The BILL OF RIGHTS, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, delineates specific rights that are reserved for U.S. citizens and residents. No state can remove or abridge rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution.
In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in DRED SCOTT V. SANDFORD, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393, 15 L. Ed. 691, that the Constitution did not apply to African Americans because they were not citizens when the Constitution was written. After the Civil War, therefore, new laws were necessary for the purpose of extending civil liberties to the former slaves.
In 1865, the THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT to the Constitution was enacted to make SLAVERY and other forms of INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE unlawful. In addition, Congress was given the power to enact laws that were necessary to enforce this new amendment.
The FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, ratified in 1868, provides that every individual who is born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen and ensures that a state may not deprive a citizen or resident of his or her civil rights, including DUE PROCESS OF LAW and EQUAL PROTECTION of the laws. Congress is also empowered to enact laws for the enforcement of these rights.
During the period immediately following the Civil War, civil rights legislation was originally enacted by Congress, based upon its power under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to pass laws to enforce these rights. The first two of these laws were based upon the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT of 1866 (42 U.S.C.A. § 1982), which had preceded the Fourteenth Amendment.
The first civil rights law guaranteed equal rights under the law for all people who lived within the jurisdiction of the United States. The second guaranteed each citizen an equal right to own, inherit, rent, purchase, and sell real property as well as personal property. The third original civil rights law, the KU KLUX KLAN ACT of 1871 (17 Stat. 13), provided citizens with the right to bring a civil action for a violation of protected rights. The fourth law made violation of such rights a criminal offense.
Although these initial laws purported to guarantee the civil rights of all citizens, including African Americans and other minorities,
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In 1956 the Dallas Transit Company removed all segregated seating signs from its buses to comply with the Supreme Court ruling banning racial segregation on public transportation.
they were effectively negated for most African-Americans in the late nineteenth century by the passage of JIM CROW LAWS, or BLACK CODES, in the South. These laws made it illegal for African-Americans to use the same public facilities as whites, restricted their travel, impeded their ability to vote, forbade interracial marriage, and generally relegated them to a legally inferior position.
In the 1896 landmark case PLESSY V. FERGUSON, 163 U.S. 537, 16 S. Ct. 1138, 41 L. Ed. 256, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a Jim Crow law that required the SEGREGATION, or separation, of the races on railroad cars. The Court held that the Louisiana law in question was not a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as long as the facilities that were provided for each race were "separate but equal." This SEPARATE-BUT-EQUAL doctrine was used to support other segregation laws applying to public schools and public facilities.
No significant civil rights legislation was enacted until many decades later, when the COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS was established by Congress in the Civil...
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