162 PART TWO INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS CHAPTER 7 EQUAL RIGHTS:STRUGGLING TOWARD FAIRNESS 163 proclaimed itself to be the epitome of an equal society.Since then,legal obstacles to the mixing of the races have been nearly eliminated.Public opinion DISCRIMINATION BY PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS has also changed significantly in the past half century.In the early 1940s a majority of white Americans believed that black children should not be allowed to go to school with white children;today only 5 percent of white Americans After decades of progress toward equal rights for all,it is organizations,such as the Jaycees,the Rotary,and the express this belief.There are also visible signs of black progress.In the past two surprising to realize that private organizations are often Elks,have used discriminatory tactics to remain nearly decades,many black Americans have attended college,received undergraduate within their constitutional rights in discriminating against all-white,all-gentile,and all-male,particularly at the and graduate degrees,obtained jobs as professionals and managers,and moved women and members of racial or religious minorities.The leadership level. into suburban neighborhoods. Fifth and Fourteenth amendments prohibit only discrimi- Many important business connections are made as a However,the majority of black people still live largely apart from white nation by goverment badies.Howerer one tactic the result of membership in such organizatians,so excluded people.The reality of modem American life is racial segregation.More than goverment can use to discourage private organizations groups are put at a competitive disadvantage.According- two-thirds of blacks live in neighborhoods that are all or mostly black;more from is to deny theut tax benents.Thus in y,a number of successful lawsuits have been filed on the than two-thirds of black children go to schools that are mostly black;two-fifths 1971 the Internal Revenue Service revoked the tax-exempt grounds of restraint of trade.And in one noteworthy case attend schools that are more than 90 percent black. status of private schools that practice racial discrimination. the Minneapolis and St.Paul chapters of the Jaycees voted In 1983 the Supreme Court upheld the IRS's decision to to admit women,whereupon the national Jaycees revoked Racial separation in a country dominated by white people means a continu withdraw the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University,a their charters.In Roberts v.United States Jaycees(1984)the ance of black subordination.Recognition of this fact is the justification for one of private religious college that prohibits interracial dating Supreme Court ruled that the Jaycees must admit women the few public policies that forces whites into close,regular contact with blacks: and marnage among its students. in states,including Minnesota,that have statutes barring the busing of schoolchildren to achieve racial balance in the schools. Laws and statutes also give the courts some opportuni- sex discrimination in any "place of public accom- ties to limit the discriminatory practices of private organi- modation"-such as the restaurants and halls in which The Swann Decision zations.Many country clubs and other private social the Jaycees hold their meetings. In 1971 the Supreme Court took the controversial step of requiring the busing of children in some circumstances.Affirming a lower-court decision,the Supreme Court held in Stonn v.Charlotte-Mecklenburg Couoty Board of Education that the These cases helped to clarify the legal status of affirmative action.Preferential busing of children from one neighborhood to another was a permissible way for treatment of women and minorities can be justifed in cases where discrimina- courts to compel the integration of public schools where past years of official tion has been severe,whether or not the minority-group members or women segregation had created residential patterns that had the effect of keeping the who benefit from this treatment were personally victimized by the past pattern races in separate schools.Busing,the Court said,was allowed as a tool"in the of discrimination.However,preferential treatment cannot be applied in a way interim period when remedial adjustments are being made to eliminate the dual that infringes on the rights of white employees to keep their jobs school system."After Swnn,lower-court judges involved themselves deeply In a series of 1989 cases,the Supreme Court limited substantially the job in busing decisions,even specifying in some cases the exact proportions of black protections available to minorities.The Court coneluded that affirmative action and white children who had to attend each of a district's schools. programs may be approved only after close scrutiny by a court and that such programs are not free of challenge at a later time by white workers.Then in a decision of potentially far-reaching consequence,the Court held that,in some Reactions to Forced Busing circumstances,minority employees must prove that racial imbalances in em- Few issues of recent times have provoked so much controversy as forced ployment have no valid business purpose.Previously,the Court had held that busing.Angry demonstrations lasting weeks took place in Charlotte.When the burden of proof in these situations rested on the employer.Perhaps the most busing was ordered in Detroit and Boston,the protests turned violent.Unlike significant of the 1989 rulings was one that excluded racial harassment on the Brown,which affected mainly the South,Srovn also applied to northern job from statutory protection.A credit union employee in North Carolina had communities in which blacks and whites lived apart as a result of economic and claimed that she was required to do menial tasks because of her race.The Court cultural differences as well as discriminatory real estate practices.A 1972 concluded that the federal law in question protected her at the point of hiring University of Michigan survey indicated that more than 80 percent of white but not on the job. SOCIAL INTEGRATION:BUSING "Gunnar Myrdal,Ax American Dilemma:The Negro Preblew sud Madenn Democrscy (New York: Harper,1944) In 1944 the Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal gained fame for his book An Swann v.Charlotte-Mecklenburg Cowuty Basnd of Educution,402 U.S.1 (1971). American Dilemma,whose title referred to deep-rooted racism in a country that "See Jennifer L.Hochschild,The Nes Americau Dilewma (Ne n:Yale University Pr 5 Michael W.Giles and Thomas G.Walker."udial Policy-Making and "Time,June 26,1989,p.63. Segregation,"Joumal of Politics 37(1975):936