The chapter, which focuses on equal (or civil) rights, begins by citing examples of persistent discrimination against African Americans. The concept of equal rights refers to the right of every person to equal protection under the laws and equal access to society’s opportunities and public facilities. Because the history of civil rights has been largely one of group claims to equality, the chapter concentrates on various groups. It ends with a discussion of equality of result. These are the chapter’s main points:

During the past few decades, the United States has undergone a revolution in the legal status of its traditionally disadvantaged groups, including African Americans, women, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. Such groups are now provided equal protection under the law in such areas as education, employment, and voting. Discrimination by race, sex, and ethnicity has not been eliminated from American life but is no longer substantially backed by the force of law.

Traditionally disadvantaged Americans have achieved fuller equality primarily as a result of their struggle for greater rights. The Supreme Court has been an important instrument of change for these groups. Its ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared racial segregation in public schools to be an unconstitutional violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection clause, was a major breakthrough in equal rights. This decision overturned the 1896 Supreme Court ruling of "separate but equal" contained in Plessy v. Ferguson. Through its busing, affirmative action, and other rulings, the Court has also mandated the active promotion of integration and equal opportunities. However, African Americans still lag behind white Americans in such areas as employment, education, and income. Conversely, progress has been made in gaining public office. In 1998, there were more than twenty black members of Congress and two hundred black mayors. These political gains were due to the success of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, which permitted federal agents to oversee elections and register voters.

Other groups have also suffered discrimination. For example, women have made legal and political gains, but the Equal Rights Amendment failed to pass. Women still lack earning power comparable to men’s (see doctrine of comparable worth). Asian Americans have confronted a history of discrimination. However, in recent years they have achieved academic success and many are upwardly mobile economically. Native Americans remain mired in poverty. Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group. Hispanics are becoming politically active and are concerned with such issues as illegal immigration (Proposition 187 in California and the Simpson-Mazzoli Act).

However, because civil rights policy questions involve large issues concerned with social values and the distribution of society’s resources, these questions are politically potent. For this reason, legislatures and executives as well as the courts have been deeply involved in such issues, sometimes siding with established groups and sometimes backing the claims of underprivileged groups. Thus Congress, with the backing of President Lyndon Johnson, enacted the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964; but Congress and recent presidents have been ambivalent about or hostile to busing for the purpose of integrating public schools.

In recent years, affirmative action programs, designed to achieve equality of result for African Americans, women, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and others, have been a civil rights battleground. Affirmative action has had the strong support of civil rights groups and has won the qualified endorsement of the Supreme Court but has been opposed by those who claim that it unfairly discriminates against white males. Forced busing to achieve racial integration of schools has also provoked deep divisions within American society; such busing is opposed by over 80 percent of whites.

In summary, deep racial and ethnic divisions persist in America. Americans have no choice but to resolve these divisions. To do otherwise is to deny the moral imperative inherent in the value of equal opportunity. America cannot afford to create two different national societies, one for whites and one for minorities.