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The Student Side of the The Challenge of Democracy Site
Updated March 10, 2017

Internet Links for Chapter 16: Equality and Civil Rights

Chapter 15 distinguished between "civil liberties" and "civil rights," and focused on civil liberties: freedoms of action guaranteed to individuals by restraints on government. Chapter focuses on civil rights are powers or privileges guaranteed to people by government. Whereas civil liberties pertain to government actions to maintain order, civil rights apply to government actions to promote equality.


Civil Rights
Civil Rights Timeline since 1948
Offers a quick guide to milestones in the civil rights movement, including laws and executive actions.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Its mission is "To investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of fraudulent practices."
Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1965
"The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak from 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington"
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
This document is from US government archives: "In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 82-352 (78 Stat. 241). The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing. "
Key Supreme Court Cases for Civil Rights
This account comes from the Leadership Conference: "The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States."