4.04 Civil Rights

15th Amendment

The 15^th amendment says “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” This amendment protected the rights of former slaves to vote, expanding suffrage to millions of African American males at the age of 21 & older. During the Reconstruction period, the amendment was enforced & many former slaves partook in elections. Voters elected African Americans to positions in state legislatures. But, once Reconstruction was over, the states in the south gave many former Confederates their power back & created new ways to alienate African Americans around this amendment. Some people in the women's rights movement had mixed emotions about the amendment because it didn't include "gender”.  It would've expanded the right to vote to all adult women. 

26th Amendment

The 26^th Amendment says “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.” Before 1972, most states made it mandatory for voters to be at least 21 years old. In 1972, the 26th Amendment was ratified; the voting age was dropped to 18 years old. People thought If you were old enough to marry, fight in a war, & own a business then if you met that criteria you were able to vote for leaders & public policies. Not many between the ages or 18 through 24 vote now that they do have the opportunity, but many do vote.

Brown v. Board of Education

Almost 13 years after the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson, African Americans formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) trying to protect their civil rights. It started off little with a few white supporters. The NAACP provided lawyers to take cases concerning civil rights restrictions to court. Linda Browns father tried to enroll her in a neighborhood school but was denied. Schools were "separate but equal" facilities, obeying the Plessy ruling. Therefore, it had the power to say where students went to school.  Mr. Brown felt that their 14^th amendment was violated. The case was filed as a class-action suit, so any ruling would apply not only to Brown but to everyone else in a similar situation. The Supreme Court agreed that "separate but equal" was not acceptable in public schools, that segregated facilities weren’t equal. Many people in the South resisted the ruling. School districts created school zone maps that broke up neighborhoods to provide more balance of students by race. Buses had to be provided to take students to far schools to make it seem balanced. The Brown decision gave the Civil Rights Movement some juice to really explode. It was seen that you could push Congress to fix & alter laws. 

Gideon v. Wainwright

The Sixth Amendment says that suspects in crimes have the right to counsel for their defense. In 1963, the Supreme Court incorporated this right in Gideon v. Wainwright. Someone burglarized & robbed a poolroom business in Florida. A witness said Clarence Gideon was on the property, which lead the police to arrest & charge him for the crimes. Gideon asked that the court give him a lawyer but the court denied his request because the crime wasn't a capital offense. That means he couldn't be penalized by death. The jury convicted Gideon & sentenced him to 5 years in prison. He requested an appeal from the U.S. Supreme Court because he was denied legal counsel in violation of his 6th Amendment. The conviction was reversed by the Supreme Court making mandatory that the states must provide legal counsel in all cases where the defendant can’t afford counsel on their own. Gideon was acquitted of the charges.