Authors: Bogdanor
Summary: In less than 1000 words, this entry defines civil rights, distinguishes them from civil liberties, and discusses the history and development of civil rights in the United States.
The entry defines civil rights quite simply as "the rights guaranteed to citizens by the state." There are two significant distinctions between civil rights and civil liberties. First, civil rights are in many ways synonymous with minority rights because they apply to ethnic, racial and religious groups rather than individuals. Second, the idea of civil rights includes a notion about historical evolution induced by direct political action, particularly in the American context. As a result of such action, the conception of civil rights expanded from its limited, classical role to a much more active, contemporary one.
Civil rights are historically most closely associated with American political-legal action movements, which began during the 1940s. These movements shared a goal of achieving full racial integration as guaranteed by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution of the United States. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Vietnam protesters joined with civil rights activists and broadened movement goals to include limiting executive power to conduct military operations abroad without prior Congressional approval. Also at the top of the activist agenda was affirmative action as a way of assisting minority groups historically disadvantaged. Although emphatically embraced at first, affirmative action raises some significant constitutional issues and has increasingly come under attack both politically and through legal conflicts.