Student's Guide to Landmark Congressional Laws on Civil Rights

by Marcus D. Pohlmann, Linda Vallar Whisenhunt

Overview

The Declaration of Independence stated that all men are created equal, yet the long and continuing struggle for civil rights in the United States seems to indicate otherwise. This reference guide details the most critical civil rights laws in U.S. history, moving from the period of slavery, to the Civil War, to the Reconstruction, to the civil rights era of the mid- to late-20th century. An overview essay introduces each period, and 36 individual laws are examined in essays placing the bills in their historical contexts. Each law is then presented in an edited and, when appropriate, annotated form, so students can read and understand the actual words of the law.

Many of the notable and notorious laws in U.S. legislative history have come in the area of civil rights. Among these are the Fugitive Slave Act, the Missouri Compromise, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Acts of 1965. This uncommonly helpful guide to U.S. civil rights legislation also includes timelines, a bibliography, and an index.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313313851
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/30/2002
Series:	Student's Guide to Landmark Congressional Laws
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

MARCUS D.POHLMANN is currently the chairman of the Department of Political Science at Rhodes College. He has published widely in the field of African-American Politics, including Black Politics in Conservative America and Racial Politics at the Crossroads.

LINDA VALLAR WHISENHUNT is Legal Fellow in the Richard W. Riley Institute of Government Politics and Public Leadership at Furman University where she instructs students in trial advocacy. She is also of counsel to the law frim of Douglas A. Churdar, P.C., and has practiced in the area of labor and employment law.

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Slavery Period
Introduction
1776 Articles of Confederation
1776 Declaration of Independence
1787 Northwest Ordinance
1787 United States Constitution
1793 Fugitive Slave Act
1807 Slave Importation Act
1819 Missouri Compromise
1850 Compromise of 1850
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
1861 Constitution of the Confederate States of America
1861 Confiscation Act
1863 Emancipation Proclamation
Postwar Reconstruction
1865 Freedmen's Bureau
1865 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution
1866 Civil Rights Act
1867 Reconstruction Act
1868 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution
1870 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution
1870 Enforcement Act
1871 Klan Act
1875 Civil Rights Act
Civil Rights Era
Introduction
1941 Executive Order 8802
1946 Executive Order 9808
1948 Executive Order 9980
1948 Executive Order 9981
1957 Executive Order 10730
1957 Civil Rights Act
1960 Civil Rights Act
1961 Executive Order 10925
1962 Executive Order 11053
1962 Executive Order 11063
1964 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution
1964 Civil Rights Act
1965 Voting Rights Act
1965 Executive Order 11246
1968 Fair Housing Act
Bibliography
Index