THE CONTEXT OF CIVIL RIGHTS| 391The Context of Civil Rights
We begin by examining the context of civil rights: we defi ne civil rights and then
provide a historical overview of the struggle for civil rights.
In general, civil rights involve the right to be free from discrimination. The
terms civil rights and civil liberties are often used interchangeably, but there are
important diff erences. Civil liberties are the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of
Rights, such as freedom of speech, religious expression, and the press, as well
as the “due process” protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. In contrast, civil
rights protect all persons from discrimination and are rooted in laws and the equal
protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Moreover, civil liberties pri-
marily limit what the government can do to you (“Congress shall make no law...
abridging the freedom of speech”), whereas civil rights protect you from discrimi-
nation both by the government and by individuals. To oversimplify, civil liberties
are about freedom, and civil rights are about equality.
Neither civil liberties nor civil rights fi gured prominently at the Constitutional
Convention. Equality is not even mentioned in the Constitution or the Bill of
Rights. The Bill of Rights is centrally concerned with freedom, but it was not added
to the Constitution until the Antifederalists made it a condition for ratifi cation, as
discussed in Chapter 2. However, equality was very much on the Founders’ minds,
as is evident in this ringing passage from the Declaration of Independence: “We
hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Despite the broad language, this was a lim-
ited conception of equality because women had no political or economic rights at
that time. Similarly, equality did not apply to slaves or to Native Americans. Even
propertyless white men did not have full political rights until several decades after
A GROUP OF TEENAGERS IS DETAINED
and questioned by police. When is
a police stop legitimate? How do
we know if it might be
a violation of civil rights?civil rights Rights that guarantee
individuals freedom from discrimi-
nation. These rights are generally
grounded in the equal protection
clause of the Fourteenth Amend-
ment and more specifi cally laid out
in laws passed by Congress, such as
the 1964 Civil Rights Act.DESCRIBE THE HISTORICAL
STRUGGLES GROUPS HAVE
FACED IN WINNING CIVIL
RIGHTS