American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

|CIVIL RIGHTS

THE CONTEXT OF CIVIL RIGHTS

E Describe the historical struggles groups have faced in winning civil rights. Pages 391–96

SUMMARY

Civil rights are protections from discrimination by both
the government and individuals, and are rooted in laws and
the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The concept of equality has evolved over time, with protec-
tions now for women, African Americans, Native Ameri-
cans, Asians, and Latinos. Despite our attempts to live in a
color-blind society, awareness of race still infl uences many
people’s opinions and behavior.

KEY TERMS

civil rights (p. 391)

Missouri Compromise (p. 392)

disenfranchised (p. 393)

grandfather clause (p. 393)

Jim Crow laws (p. 393)

“separate but equal” (p. 393)

protectionism (p. 396)

PRACTICE QUIZ QUESTIONS

1. The distinction between civil rights and civil liber-
   ties is that civil rights ___ while civil liberties
   __.
   a) protect against discrimination; are guaranteed in
   the Bill of Rights
   b) are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights; protect against
   discrimination
   c) are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights; limit what the
   government can do to you
   d) limit what the government can do to you; protect
   against discrimination
   e) limit what the government can do to you; are guar-
   anteed in the Bill of Rights

STUDY GUIDE

2. The Missouri Compromise __.
   a) ruled that people held as slaves are not protected
   by the Constitution
   b) ruled that three-fi fths of the slaves could count in a
   state’s population
   c) limited the expansion of slavery while maintaining
   the balance of slave states
   d) gave slaves the right to vote
   e) ended slavery in the South


3. Plessy v. Ferguson established ___.
   a) the legitimacy of poll taxes
   b) the “separate but equal” doctrine
   c) that Jim Crow laws were illegal
   d) the process of desegregation in the South
   e) the legality of slavery


4. The principle of __ was used in many court
   cases to deny women equal rights.
   a) matriarchy
   b) “separate but equal”
   c) sectionalism
   d) misandry
   e) protectionism

PRACTICE ONLINE with WWNORTON.COM/STUDYSPACE

Diagnostic Quiz & Key Term Flashcards for This chapter

S PRACTICE ONLINE

“Big Think” video exercise: C. Raj Kumar on the Origin

of Human Rights

420 CHAPTER 13|CIVIL RIGHTS