Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement, a decades-long effort to win equitable treatment for African Americans and other groups underrepresented in American society, is described chronologically in this entry. Two themes are evident. First, federal protection of civil rights has a paradoxical relationship with states' rights. All civil rights legislation has been opposed or limited in response to the argument that pursuant to the Tenth Amendment, the federal government should not involve itself in areas of state responsibility. The Supreme Court repeatedly voiced this concern and, in [Page 173]the past, invalidated civil rights legislation partly on this ground.

Deference to state law enforcement prerogatives always has been a centerpiece of Justice Department civil rights enforcement policy. For decades, Congress repeatedly rebuffed so basic a measure as antilynching legislation in the name of states' rights. Yet, the original federal civil rights statutes, and their underlying constitutional amendments, were responses to outrages by states or to private outrages that states failed to ameliorate. Given the origins of the need for federal protection of civil rights, states' interests often received undue weight in shaping federal civil rights policy.

Second, for many years, the federal government was more involved in denying the rights of Blacks and other minorities than in protecting their interests. The quest for equal education emerged as early as 1787 in an unsuccessful petition by Reverend Prince Hall and Black citizens to the Massachusetts state legislature for equal educational facilities. Well into the 20th century, federal employment policy included racial segregation and exclusion. De jure segregation in politics, the armed forces, public housing services, and, of course, education demonstrate the depth of federal involvement in discrimination.