Describe the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Why were they necessary, given that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were enacted decades before?
Answer:
An ideal response will:
1. Describe the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations involving interstate commerce.
2. Describe the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as protecting the right to vote of all Americans regardless of their race or ethnicity.
3. Explain how the South had successfully avoided the promises of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments through various mechanisms including Jim Crow laws and literacy tests. Since it appeared that the South would never rescind these laws itself, Congress stepped in to pass these two landmark pieces of legislation.
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According to the text, the U.S. media often plays a role as which of the following?
a. analyst b. social critic c. watchdog d. voice of conscience e. dissenter
According to Machiavelli, rulers need to do which of these to provide stability and prosperity for their people?
a. Give their personal wealth to the state b. Act according to their moral intuitions c. Excise power without moral constraints d. Listen to a diversity of well-educated advisors