Transcript Gaining Citizenship/Taking Away Rights: Black Politics

The 14th and 15th
Amendments and Their
Abrogation
Political Science 61 /
Chicano/Latino Studies 64
October 11, 2007
Essay 1
Within a few months Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and
the Immigration and Nationality Amendments of 1965. In an essay,
assess the degree to which these two pieces of legislation created the
foundation for contemporary minority politics. To answer this, you will
need to discuss specific provisions of each of these pieces of legislation
that, in your opinion, established opportunities for racial and ethnic
minorities to increase their influence in politics in the forty years that
followed. Based on evidence from the readings and class discussions,
do these legislative acts establish the foundation for racial and ethnic
populations to create a cohesive “minority” politics in the United States
or do they undercut (or reduce) this opportunity? Your answer may
certainly acknowledge ways in which they both reinforce and undercut
the opportunities for a cohesive minority politics, but I expect you to
assert which you think is more the case and to present evidence to
support your assertion.
Part Two
Citizenship:
Denial, Abrogation, and
Reassertion
Models of Minority
Exclusion
1.
Apartheid

2.
Economic and political disempowerment

3.
An official policy of racial segregation, involving political,
legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites
Taking away what has already been exercised
Two-tiered pluralism


Pluralism—A condition in which numerous distinct ethnic,
religious, or cultural groups compete within a society
Two-tiered pluralism—Ongoing competition, but access
to some opportunities/resources unavailable to certain
groups
Contesting African
American Citizenship

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)


Civil War (1861-1865)


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Initially, no consensus on slavery, let alone citizenship
Jubilee and the righteousness of the Union cause
14th Amendment (ratified 1868)


Blacks could not be citizens
Citizenship based on birth in U.S. or naturalization
15th Amendment (ratified 1870)

Rights of citizens to vote cannot be abridged
14th Amendment
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the
United States and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the
State wherein they reside. No State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.
15th Amendment
Section. 1. 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.
The Exercise of Black Political
Citizenship, 1865-96

Enfranchisement



Election of blacks to local and national office



Black voter registration grows from 0 to 703,000
Five Southern states had Black majorities among voters
Taint of the “carpetbagger”
Black officeholders were the elite of the African
American community
Partisanship


Most Blacks Republicans, but partisanship fluid
National Republican Party not committed to maintaining
black political empowerment
The 14th Amendment –
National not State Citizenship

Nation quickly backed away from 14th Amendment





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Economic crises reinvigorated Northern racism
Southern whites remained majority in most states
Courts interpreted Amendments narrowly – limiting
federal, not state actions
No alliance developed between Northern working class
and Southern blacks
Without the 14th Amendment, states would
determine individual rights
Later crises—the New Deal and the Civil Rights
Movement—ensured implementation of 14th
Amendment guarantees
Diminishing Black
Citizenship, 1865-96


Withdrawal of Northern troops
Exclusion of Black elected officials


Only 5 of 20 Blacks elected to the House and Senate
seated and served full terms
1873-1896 – Disenfranchisement of Black voters




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Violence
Poll tax
Literacy tests
Grandfather clause
White primaries
Note

Emergence of post-war Southern apartheid
was not immediate




Blacks continued to participate electorally until
1890s
Ability to use votes to elect candidates of their
choice steadily diminished
Blacks and poor whites could sometimes build
coalitions
Ideology of racism steadily grew
Structural Denial of African
American Citizenship

Civil Rights Act of 1875




Sought to protect Blacks from discrimination by
private businesses in interstate commerce
Ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court
“Compromise” of 1876
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)


“Separate, but equal” accommodations held
Constitutional by Supreme Court
Court did not believe that Congress could abolish
distinctions based on color
Question for Next Time


How does the Constitution understand the
rights of Native Americans?
What does the concept of tribal sovereignty
mean in Native American politics?