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| A doctrine requiring salaries to be determined by the "worth" of a job, not by the pay it commands in the market. Each job is ranked by an expert in terms of its difficulty, with points assigned based on the skill, training, and responsibility of the job. This form of "economic equity" has been adopted by the states of Minnesota and Washington. |
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| A position favored by a majority of Americans that supports helping disadvantaged people catch up, usually by giving them extra education, training, or services. |
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| A form of segregation which exists "in fact." Such segregation occurs through housing patterns and informal social pressures, not through law. |
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| Segregation produced by law. This form of segregation was outlawed by the Brown decision in 1954. |
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| A constitutional amendment proposed by Congress to the states for ratification in 1972 which would have required that rights could not be abridged or denied on account of gender. The amendment failed to be ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the states, falling short by three states even after Congress extended the ratification periaod. Recent efforts to revive the amendment have not been successful. |
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| A goal opposed to that of affirmative action holding that people should compete in the marketplace equally and bre judged by their worth; the Constitution and application of laws should be color-blind and sex-neutral; and preferential treatment on the basis of either race or sex is reverse discrimination. |
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| The goal favored by most civil rights and feminist organizations, who advocate affirmative action as a realistic necessity since the burdens of racism and sexism can be overcome only by taking race and sex into account in designing remedies. People cannot compete on an equal footing unless the government intervenes to bring everyone to a comparable starting position. |
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| A constitutional amendment ratified in 1868 that forbids states from (1) denying the "privileges and immunities" of citizenship, (2) depriving any person of due process of law, or (3) denying any person equal protection of the laws. |
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| A congressional restriction barring the use of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions except when the life of the mother is at stake. The Supreme Court upheld this restriction in 1980. |
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| A phrase from a song by Thomas Rice that came to be a slang expression for blacks and was later applied to laws and practices that segregated blacks from whites. |
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| National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People |
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| An organization formed in 1909 to further the civil rights of blacks. Its major emphasis has been the litigation of cases in courts. The organization has achieved notable successes, most significantly in overturning the doctrine of "separate but equal." |
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| nonviolent civil disobedience |
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| A tactic employed in the early demonstrations of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s that involved peaceful violation of the law. |
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| A Supreme Court decision in 1896 that upheld the separate but equal doctrine, by which different races could be assigned to separate facilities so long as the facilities were of equal condition. The doctrine was overturned in 1954. |
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| A position opposed by a majority of Americans that supports giving minorities preference in hiring, promotions, college admissions, and contracts. |
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| A position advocated by those favoring an equality of opportunity that opposes giving preferential treatment on blacks and women on the ground that the Constitution should be color-blind and sex-neutral. |
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| A form of speech not given automatic constitutional protection, involving an illegal act meant to convey a political message. |
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| wall-of-separation principle |
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| An interpretation of the establishment clause embraced by the Supreme Court that allows no government involvement with religion, even on a nonpreferential basis. |
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