Race Legislation in The United States - The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement

Legislation enacting racial segregation was finally overturned in the 1950s-1960s, after the nation was morally challenged and educated by activists of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" was inherently discriminatory and directed integration of public schools. An executive order of 1961, by President Kennedy, created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to oversee workplace affirmative action. Executive Order 11246 of 1965, signed by President Johnson, enforced this policy. In the 1970s and 1980s, the policy included court-supervised desegregation busing plans.

Over the next twenty years, a succession of court decisions and federal laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 1972 Gates v. Collier Supreme Court ruling that ended racial segregation in prisons, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (1975) and measures to end mortgage discrimination, prohibited de jure racial segregation and discrimination in the U.S.

The Immigration Act of 1965 discontinued some quotas based on national origin, with preference given to those who have U.S. relatives. For the first time Mexican immigration was restricted.

Residential segregation took various forms. Some state constitutions (for example, that of California) had clauses giving local jurisdictions the right to regulate where members of certain "races" could live. Restrictive covenants in deeds had prevented minorities from purchasing properties from any subsequent owner. In the 1948 case of Shelley v. Kraemer, the US Supreme Court ruled that such covenants were unenforceable in a court of law. Residential segregation patterns had already become established in most American cities, but they have taken new forms in areas of increased immigration. New immigrant populations have typically moved into older areas to become established, a pattern of population succession seen in many areas. It appears that many ethnic populations prefer to live in areas of concentration, with their own foods, stores, religious institutions and other familiar services. People from a village or region often resettle close together in new areas, even as they move into suburban areas.

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978 was to preserve the rights of American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, and Native Hawaiians to traditional religious practices. Before the AIRFA was passed, certain U.S. federal laws interfered with the traditional religious practices of many American Indians.

Redistricting of voting districts has always been a political process, manipulated by parties or power groups to try to gain advantage. In an effort to prevent African-American populations from being divided to dilute their voting strength and representation, federal courts oversaw certain redistricting decisions in the South for decades to overturn the injustice of the previous century's disfranchisement.

Interpretations continue to change. In the 1999 Hunt v. Cromartie case, the US Supreme Court ruled that the 12th electoral district of North Carolina as drawn was unconstitutional. Determining that it was created to place African Americans in one district (which would have enabled them to elect a representative), the Court ruled that it constituted illegal racial gerrymandering. The Court ordered the state of North Carolina to redraw the boundaries of the district.