What are Civil Liberties? What are Civil Rights? Discuss the importance of each under the United States Constitution.
Civil liberties are essentially just the fundamental rights of every citizen of the United States, all stated in the Bill of Rights. The major importance of this is that it sets up a safety net, preventing said rights from being violated under the rules of the law. When said rights are violated, strict punishments are the result. These amendments under the Constitution are the gift we are given for being in the United States. Civil rights, also simply known as equal rights, is the idea that every person, no matter their race, color, or religion are protected and are given equal opportunities as every other citizen. Civil …show more content…
the Board of Education (1954) was responsible for overturning “the doctrine of separate but equal.” (Patterson) By this doctrine being overturned, students were able to receive the same education regardless of their skin color. This finally gave an equal footing for education opportunities for kids in the same area. Without this being overturned, it would be likely that the poor education given to African Americans in these “separate but equal” facilities would have kept leading them down the path of horrid poverty. The Dred Scott vs Sandford (1857) was one of the most damaging Supreme Court cases for African Americans living in the United States at the time. This case not only said that slaves were not citizens, but it ruled the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional, and that moving to a free state does not free a slave. This set a dangerous precedent that then allowed for people to capture slaves in free states, and take them back to a slave state. The Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case was the case that had ruled that “separate public facilities for black citizens did not violate the Constitution as long as the facilities were equal.” This allowed for restaurants, trains, restrooms, etc. to be separated by color. Most, if not all the time, these facilities were not equal. Typically instead the black public facilities would be in much worse condition compared to what white citizens had. This was of course overturned later because it was decided that these facilities were rarely ever
Civil liberties are essentially just the fundamental rights of every citizen of the United States, all stated in the Bill of Rights. The major importance of this is that it sets up a safety net, preventing said rights from being violated under the rules of the law. When said rights are violated, strict punishments are the result. These amendments under the Constitution are the gift we are given for being in the United States. Civil rights, also simply known as equal rights, is the idea that every person, no matter their race, color, or religion are protected and are given equal opportunities as every other citizen. Civil …show more content…
the Board of Education (1954) was responsible for overturning “the doctrine of separate but equal.” (Patterson) By this doctrine being overturned, students were able to receive the same education regardless of their skin color. This finally gave an equal footing for education opportunities for kids in the same area. Without this being overturned, it would be likely that the poor education given to African Americans in these “separate but equal” facilities would have kept leading them down the path of horrid poverty. The Dred Scott vs Sandford (1857) was one of the most damaging Supreme Court cases for African Americans living in the United States at the time. This case not only said that slaves were not citizens, but it ruled the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional, and that moving to a free state does not free a slave. This set a dangerous precedent that then allowed for people to capture slaves in free states, and take them back to a slave state. The Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case was the case that had ruled that “separate public facilities for black citizens did not violate the Constitution as long as the facilities were equal.” This allowed for restaurants, trains, restrooms, etc. to be separated by color. Most, if not all the time, these facilities were not equal. Typically instead the black public facilities would be in much worse condition compared to what white citizens had. This was of course overturned later because it was decided that these facilities were rarely ever