Civil Liberties

The assignment is for the student to write a 3-5 page assignment, in APA formatting, researched and cited, and turn it in through the “turn-it-in” upload within CANVAS. In this assignment the student must identify several Items:

ASSIGNMENT CONTEXT:

A suggested list of topics are as follows: Suggested Topics include: Capital Punishment, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Political Participation and Texas Public Policy. 

COMPLETING THE ASSIGNMENT:

These are the instructions for completing the assignment:

1. The assignment needs to be at least three full pages long but no more than five full pages long, not including cover-page, and work cited page.
2. The assignment needs to be double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 font, have one-inch margins on the top, bottom, left, and right.
3. Make sure to check your spelling and grammar.
4. The assignment needs to be written in 3rd No you or I!
5. The assignment MUST BE A RESEARCHED, AND HAVE AT LEAST 4 ACADEMIC SOURCES! YOU CANNOT USE WIKIPEDIA, IF A STUDENT USES WIKIPEDIA THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES FOR DOING SO!
6. THE GRADE:
   1. THE GRADE WILL BE DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS.
      1. THE STUDENT WILL BE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT A TOPIC, AND A LIST OF RESOURCES FOR 20% OF THE GRADE
      2. THE STUDENT WILL PRESENT A ROUGH DRAFT, AT LEAST 50% OF THE WAY DONE FOR 30% OF THE GRADE.

• THE STUDENT WILL SUBMIT THE FINAL PAPER, BY THE DEADLINE, FOR THE REMAINING 50%

ASSIGNMENT OUTLINE:

When completing this assignment, divide the essay into three parts: the introduction, the body of the essay, and a conclusion.  Remember, this is a 3-5 page research paper, and it should be a critical analysis of the subject matter. Never use 1st or 2nd person in academic writing. The research paper should be structured as followed:

STEP ONE (INTRODUCTION) ½ – 1 page

Introduce the topic, general context and information, history, and relevance of this topic matter.

STEP TWO (BODY OF YOUR PAPER) 1-2 pages

This portion should be building an empirical and historical account.  Students should compare and contrast both sides of the issue or topic.  Identify context, data, facts, history, importance, necessity, and purpose as it relates to your subject. 

STEP THREE (BODY OF YOUR PAPER) 1-2 pages

This is where the student will determine which policy preference/s is/are the best approach.  Students are expected to present factual evidence, a genuine, original, and independent thought and idea, and support it with facts, data, and sound judgment. (REMEMBER NO 1ST OR 2ND PERSON IN ACADEMIC WRITING)

STEP FOUR (CONCLUSION) ½ – 1 page

This should be a wrap up of everything said about the assignment topic. Conclude with a summation, outcomes, new questions that were uncovered, etc. 

SECOND 30% OF THE GRADE (ROUGH DRAFT)!

Introduction

The analysis of Federal Judge William H Atwell is an academic assessment of the Judicial Jurisprudence of the day, the decision of Judge William Atwell himself, and the law behind the decisions in the cases of Battle, et al v. Wichita Falls Junior College District, et al. and Bell, et al. v. Rippy, et al. Simply, I argue that Atwell as a federal Judge does not use the jurisprudence of the day, but is simply a Judge of Strict Constructionist intentions, and merely a man of the law. There is no question about Judge William Atwell’s personal opinions in the area of African American equality and universal sufferance, however, Judge Atwell ruled by letter of the law and not personal or the racial Jurisprudence of the day.

To truly understand the importance of the decision in the Battle v. Wichita Falls Junior College Dist. case one must first understand the jurisprudence of Judge William H. Atwell.  In the civil suit case of Battle v. Wichita Falls Junior College Dist.., Judge Atwell, the Federal Judge for the Northern District of the State of Texas, decided it was necessary to desegregate Midwestern University even before the events of Brown v. Board. However, just a few years later, Judge Atwell would try to prevent the integration of the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) in the case Bell, et al v. Rippy, et al.   Judge Atwell was not a champion of civil rights or universal suffrage for African Americans, but was a staunch supporter of the strict interpretations of the Constitution of the United States of America, its Bill of Rights, and the laws of the State of Texas.

Chapter 01: Segregation of the New South

            After the emancipation in the 1860s of the slaves and the end of the Civil War, many southern states enacted “Black Codes” to try to keep former slaves from enjoying lives with equal rights to whites.  African Americans were not allowed to hold office or vote, and stringent vagrancy laws were put in place to keep these new citizens in check.  The Radical Republican controlled Congress would try to battle these “Black Codes” by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, as well as using portions of this act as the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.  Along with this, Congress passed the Freedman’s Bureau Act, which in turn created some 4,200 schools with an enrollment of close to a quarter of a million African American students.  These schools were segregated, however, a practice upheld by the Ohio and Indiana State Supreme Courts in 1871 (Stephan, 1980).

            African Americans received enfranchisement with the passage of the Reconstruction Act in 1867, as well as a right to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment in 1868.  However, in 1877, as a result of the Hayes-Tilden compromise which placed Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House, all the gains that the African Americans had made were about to be taken back.  By the end of the 1890’s, African Americans would suffer major disenfranchisement through evasion of the Fifteenth Amendment by the introduction of poll taxes and literacy tests for voting.  The nail in the coffin for the rights of African Americans came with the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson.   In regards to education, segregation would be upheld in the 1908 case Berea College v. Kentucky.