Walsh power point_chapter 13
- 1. Law, Justice, and Societ y: A Sociolegal Introduction Chapter 13 Racial Minorities and the Law
- 2. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans Slavery Not in Constitution • Constitution and Declaration of Independence contain language that appears to outlaw slavery • Somerset v. Stewart • Constitution has language supportive of slavery • Article I, sections 9 and 2; Article IV, section 2
- 3. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) • Amistad case--United States, Appellants v. The Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad, 1841 • Dred Scott case--Scott v. Sandford, 1857 – USSC approved the continuation and the expansion of slavery
- 4. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) Emancipation and the Reconstruction Period • after the Emancipation Proclamation, Congress passed Thirteenth Amendment • Freedman’s Bureau supplied former slaves with food, clothing, schools, and land • African Americans served on juries and held office • desegregation was normal
- 5. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) Emancipation and the Reconstruction Period (cont.) • South passed Black Codes • passed under the assumption that freed slaves would not work unless forced to • struck down by Fourteenth Amendment • Fifteenth Amendment granted suffrage to African American males
- 6. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) Jim Crow laws • segregation laws • underpinned by racism: different from xenophobia and ethnocentrism in that the disliked group is in close contact with the racist group • Congress passed Civil Rights Act of 1875 • resulted in the Civil Rights Cases (1883) – private entities and individuals can discriminate
- 7. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) Jim Crow laws • resulted in stripping away of integration • Plessy v. Ferguson, 1898 – separate but equal doctrine • William v. Mississippi, 1898 – upheld disenfranchisement
- 8. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) Lynching and Protest • 1892-1968, over 4,743 persons were lynched – 70 percent were African American • after World War I, returning African American soldiers, along with power of the NAACP, fought against this • resulted in backlash and revival of the KKK – lynching increased from 36 in 1917 to 60 in 1918 to 76 in 1919
- 9. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) Lynching and Protest (cont.) • states had (unenforced) anti-lynching laws • no such federal law • struck down in Congress in 1918 and 1940; passed one in 1968 as part of the Civil Rights Act • in 1981, two white men were convicted for lynching of an African American – one was the first white man since 1913 to be executed for murdering an African American – signaled the decline of the KKK
- 10. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) “We Shall Overcome” • World War II was the end of Jim Crow • Fair Employment Practices Committee • Commission on Higher Education • Smith v. Allwright, 1944 • paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
- 11. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) Congressional Activity • desegregation did not really happen until Congress passed Civil Rights Act of 1964 – power over the purse • voting rights did not happen right away after Smith until Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Civil Rights Act was upheld in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964) • Voting Rights Act was upheld in South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966)
- 12. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) Cold War and International Pressure • U.S./USSR and the battle over minds • the “Negro problem” in the United States • government filed briefs in civil rights cases supporting civil rights due to the image of the United States in the international community
- 13. Racial Minorities and the Law African Americans (cont.) How Far Have We Come? • either a “rousing success” or a “long way to go”
- 14. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians Early Years • practiced physical and cultural genocide as official policy • hostilities increased as European settlers migrated more westerly • British government "protected" Indians under the Proclamation Act of 1763 • Continental Congress "protected" them under the Northwest Ordinance
- 15. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians (cont.) Early Years (cont.) • Constitution granted quasi-independence to Indians • Treaty of Fort Pit recognized their sovereignty
- 16. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians (cont.) Marshall Trilogy • Johnson v. McIntosh, 1823 – Discovery Doctrine • Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 1831 – domestic dependent nation • Worcester v. Georgia, 1832 – federal government (not the states) had authority over Indian affairs
- 17. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians (cont.) Period of Removal • Indian Removal Act • Dakota Sioux and Oklahoma • Standing Bear v. Crook, 1879 – Indians are people
- 18. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians (cont.) Assimilation and Cultural Genocide • government encouraged destruction of buffalo • 1871-- treaties could no longer be made; rather, Congress would unilaterally deal with Indians – however, treaties previously entered into with Indians should still be upheld – breaking treaties was nevertheless supported by USSC in Cherokee Tobacco case of 1871
- 19. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians (cont.) Assimilation and Cultural Genocide (cont.) • termination of treaty making and treaties rendered Indians as wards of the state-- assimilation period lasted until 1934 – civilized and Christianized – Bureau of Indian Affairs • Ex Parte Crow Dog (1883) • Major Crimes Act of 1885 – upheld in United States v. Kagama (1886)
- 20. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians (cont.) Assimilation and Cultural Genocide (cont.) • General Allotment Act of 1887 • division of reservation lands • sellable to Anglo Americans • from the time of the Dawes Act to 1934, Indians lost about two-thirds of their land to white Americans • Jim Crow laws existed to segregate Indians – upheld in Elk v. Wilkins, 1884 – Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 1903
- 21. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians (cont.) The Beginning of the End • Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 • Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 • termination policy in 1953 – devastated tribal welfare and independence • Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975
- 22. Racial Minorities and the Law American Indians (cont.) How Far Have We Come? • recompense and United States v. Sioux Nations, 1980 • Oliphant v. Suquamish, 1978 • Nevada v. Hicks, 2001
- 23. Racial Minorities and the Law Asian Americans • Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 – passed despite unconstitutionality of similar legislation passed in regards to Europeans • In Re Ah Yup, 1878, versus United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 1898, versus Ozawa v. United States, 1922 • Executive Order 9066 – Korematsu v. United States, 1944 – Ex Parte Endo, 1944 • from "yellow peril" to "model minority"
- 24. Racial Minorities and the Law Today’s CJ System • African Americans are arrested more often and sentenced to harsher sanctions than whites • Asians are arrested less often than whites • what accounts for this disparity--racism or criminal activity?