Instructions
Complete the following timeline with entries that demonstrate the development of civil liberties and rights over time. In part two, write a brief essay of at least 350 words which discusses specific social movements and how they relate to the development of civil liberties and rights.
Part One: Civil Liberties and Rights Timeline
Complete the second column with brief descriptions of key decisions on civil liberties. Include which amendment from the Bill of Rights was used to support the decision and why. In the third column, complete the timeline with entries describing the historical development of civil rights in the United States.
Time Period
Key Decisions on Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights
Key Decisions on Civil Rights and the Bill of Rights
1790s
The Bill of Rights
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1790s
The eleventh amendment forbids the federal government from taking jurisdiction over lawsuits filed against states by citizens You do not need to fill out this textbox.
19th century
The Tenth Amendment clarified that the federal government’s power was limited to what was specifically mentioned in the Constitution, thereby preventing the government from interfering in a case where a free former slave was abducted from Pennsylvania and returned to her former “owners” in Maryland. 1842 Prigg v. Pennsylvania ruled states do not have to aid in returning fugitive slaves 19th century
The Essay on Civil Liberties And Rights
Civil Liberties and Rights We live in time when many people in Western countries began to think that protection of their civil rights could not be considered as their existential priority, especially after events of 9/11. By doing this, they commit transgression against the metaphysical essence of democracy, as socio-political system, which enabled cultural and scientific progress, up until now. ...
The Thirteenth Amendment was not included with the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights, but the Thirteenth Amendment is the amendment that applied in this case. A Supreme Court Justice, recognizing that the Thirteenth Amendment would never be fully realized and slavery would never be truly abolished unless the Civil Rights Act was enforced, reversed an earlier decision barring an African-American woman from testifying against a white person who had robbed her. 1866 U.S. v. Rhodes ruled that an African-American citizen could not testify against a white person who robbed her, but a Supreme Court Justice later overturned this ruling. 20th century
The Fourteenth Amendment was not included with the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights, but the Fourteenth Amendment is the amendment that applied in this case. This amendment states that no U.S. citizen should be denied equal protection of laws, nor should any person be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process. Brown v. Board of Education ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and that students should be segregated. This decision was intended to allow an African-American student to attend a previously all-white school that was nearer to her home than the school she had been attending. 20th century
The Fourteenth Amendment applied in this case as well. At this time, African-Americans were forced to sit at the rear of public transportation so that Caucasians could sit up near the front. 1956 Browder v. Gayle ruled that racial segregation on buses was illegal. 20th century
Miranda Warnings reaffirmed the rights afforded by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments: all U.S. citizens have the right to remain silent so as not to incriminate themselves, as well as the right to due process in a court of law before a jury of their peers.
1966 Miranda v. Arizona ruled that anything said to police by a defendant could not be used against the defendant unless said defendant had been read the Miranda Warnings and had acknowledged that he or she understood and waived these rights. 20th century
An African-American woman and a Caucasian man married in the District of Columbia in 1958. They were later arrested twice in the state of Virginia. The Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment were invoked in this case, allowing the couple to remain married and overruling the state’s objections. 1958 Loving v. Virginia involved an interracial couple sentenced to a year each in prison for violating Virginia’s laws against interracial marriage. The judge in the case agreed to suspend the sentence if the couple agreed to leave Virginia for 25 years. 20th century
The Essay on African Americans In The Civil
In the history of the United States, African Americans have always been discriminated against. When Africans first came to America, they were taken against their will and forced to work as laborers. They became slaves to the rich, greedy, lazy Americans. They were given no pay and often badly whipped and beaten. African Americans fought for their freedom, and up until the Civil War it was never ...
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1967 Loving v. Virginia ruled that banning interracial marriages was unconstitutional after an interracial couple returned to the state of Virginia for a visit and were subsequently arrested.
Part Two: Social Movements and Civil Rights and Liberties
Write a brief 350-word synopsis in the following space that discusses at least two social movements and their relationship to civil rights and liberties. Include discussion on how your selected movements began, what motivated their creation, and their outcomes. Additionally, include discussion regarding how public policies influenced the development of civil liberties and civil rights.
In Colonial times, many Americans still owned black slaves, but slave ownership often conflicted with some people’s ideas of Christian behavior. Consequently, some slave owners began freeing their slaves, but African-American’s limited rights in the Colonial United States prevented them from achieving the same level of independence as Caucasian citizens. The Abolitionist Movement took hold during Abraham Lincoln’s time as President of the United States, and slavery became outlawed. The Abolitionist Movement divided the country and triggered the Civil War. The situation came to a head when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into effect, freeing all slaves within the ten rebel states. The Civil Rights Movement could be considered a continuation of the Abolitionist Movement, because although African-Americans were freed from slavery, segregation was still rampant, and African-Americans were still denied the right to live as equals with Caucasians.
The Supreme Court played a large role in establishing equal rights for African-Americans, making several crucial rulings in the 1950s and 1960s that turned the tide for racism in the United States. Among these rulings was Brown v. Board of Education, in which an African-American student was challenging racial segregation in the hopes of attending an all-white school closer to her home, and Browder v. Gayle, in which four African-American women sought to end racial segregation on public buses. In both cases, the Supreme Court ruled that this racial segregation was illegal, setting a standard that marked the beginning of equal rights for African-Americans. A Supreme Court ruling in 1967, Loving v. Virginia, also allowed for interracial couples to marry.
The Review on Civil Rights Movement african americans 20th Century
Civil rights movement (African-Americans) 20th century The number of books, films, and other media that recount the Civil Rights Movement uniquely demonstrates Americas insatiable quest for knowledge about this unparalleled moment in our countrys recent past. In Partners to History: Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and the Civil Rights Movement, Donzaleigh Abernathy, the youngest ...
These cases set the precedent for the current Gay Rights Movement, where gay and lesbian Americans are fighting for the right to marry. The conflict over gay marriage rights is similar to the conflict over interracial marriage in the 1960s. As of October 2013, although interracial marriage is legal in all fifty states, only fourteen stated have legalized gay marriage: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, and Vermont. This shows the far-reaching effect of social movements and the power that American citizens hold in changing their future.
