92

Civil Rights

Generally, all rights

rooted in the Fourteenth

Amendment’s guarantee

of equal protection under

the law.

Alabama citizens stand

outside the United

States Supreme Court

in February 2013. The

Court was hearing

arguments in a legal

challenge to provisions

of the Voting Rights

Act of 1965. Does the

federal government still

need to intervene to

protect the voting rights

of African Americans?

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Images)

◾   LO3 Explain the demographic impacts of immigration

and of the interactions between European settlers and

American Indians.

◾   LO4 Define affirmative action, and provide some of the

arguments against it.

◾   LO5 Summarize the recent revolution in the rights

enjoyed by gay men and lesbians.

Check your understanding of the material with the Test Yourself section at

the end of the chapter.

Equality is at the heart of the concept of civil rights.

Generally, the term civil rights refers to the rights of all Americans to equal protec-

tion under the law, as provided for by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Although the terms civil rights and civil liberties are sometimes used interchangeably,

scholars make a distinction between the two. As discussed in Chapter 4, civil liberties are

basically limitations on government. They specify what the government cannot do. Civil

rights, in contrast, specify what the government must do to ensure equal protection and

freedom from discrimination.

The history of civil rights in America is the story of the struggle of various groups to

be free from discriminatory treatment. In this chapter, we first look at two movements

5

Learning OutcOmes

The five Learning Outcomes (LOs) below are designed to help improve your

understanding of this chapter. After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

◾   LO1 Summarize the historical experience of African

Americans, state how the separate-but-equal doctrine was

abolished, and describe the consequences of the civil rights

movement.

◾   LO2 Contrast the goals of the women’s suffrage

movement with the goals of modern feminism.

Civil Rights

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