Thursday, October 10, 2013

Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Discussion Questions

1. World War II changed America by being portrayed as defenders of liberty around the world against Nazism, Fascism, and totalitarianism. It also changed its ideas on individual liberties and government power.

2. The major tensions included World War II, McCarthyism, Cold War, national identity, free speech, civil rights struggles, and national security.

3. She meant that the Supreme Court didn't give as much individual rights as they did before World War II.

Background Essay

After World War II, the Supreme Court changed its course when it came to giving more individual liberties to people. The U.S. now saw itself as a preserver of democracy and freedom to the world and wanted to show it to the rest of the world by giving more civil rights to minorities (namely African Americans). It took twenty years after World War II for the Supreme Court to outlaw poll taxes and literacy tests by passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave voting rights to African Americans.

'Rights are relative and not absolute'

Rights are given to people, but to an extent where it doesn't infringe on someone's rights.

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