Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Landmark Decisions A CENTURY OF CHANGE (1856-1955) Supreme Error In 1856, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Scott v. Sandford. That case involved Dred Scott, a slave, who sued in federal court for his and his family's freedom. Scott contended, in part, that his family became free when they were taken into the free portion of the Louisiana territory where Congress had prohibited slavery. The Supreme Court dismissed the suit on jurisdictional grounds. Chief Justice Taney explained that the parties were not citizens of different states because the Constitution did not consider blacks to be citizens. The Chief Justice also added that the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude in certain parts of the Louisiana Territory, violated the Fifth Amendment because it deprived slaveowners of their property without the due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) finally set aside this decision. Free at Last The Union triumph sparked a brief expansion in civil rights. The three amendments added to the Constitution during this time abolished slavery in the United States once and for all, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and prohibited States from denying persons the equal protection of the laws and the right to vote on account of race. Civil War Amendments 13th Amendment (1865). 14th Amendment (1868). 15th Amendment (1870). An Early Triumph In 1879, the Supreme Court handed down a pair of decisions that offered some hope. In Strauder v. West Virginia and Ex Parte Virginia, the Court held that states violated the 14th Amendment when they excluded persons from serving on juries on account of their race. From Slavery to Segregation In 1883, the Supreme Court, once again, obstructed the path to equality. In the Civil Rights Cases, the Court struck down those provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which entitled all persons to the full and equal enjoyment of public accomodations. The Court ruled that Congress did not have the authority under the 14th Amendment to enact such a law, explaining that the 14th Amendment was intended to right wrongful acts by states, not private individuals. Justice Harlan was the lone dissenter. A decade later, the Supreme Court took another step backwards. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court found that a Louisiana statute requiring separate intrastate railcars for the white and colored races neither abridged the privileges or immunities of the colored man, nor deprived him of the equal protection of the laws under the 14th Amendment. This decision legitimized the segregation of American society under the "Separate but Equal" doctrine. Justice Harlan, again the lone dissenter, argued that the Constitution was color-blind. He regretted the Court's conclusion that states may regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights based solely on race. He also predicted, "In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott Case." Separate But Not Equal In 1938, the Supreme Court faced another challenge to a state's segregation law when Lloyd Gaines, a black student, sought admission to the white-only State University of Missouri Law School. Pending development of a black-only law school, state law provided that the university could pay for black students to attend school in a neighboring state. Although the Court affirmed the Plessy decision, it found Missouri's separate out-of-state facilities to not be equal. Chief Justice Hughes explained that the law permitted white law students to attend school in-state, but compelled black law students to seek education outof-state. Leading Man Thurgood Marshall played a key role in the civil rights movement long before he was appointed to the US Supreme Court. As Counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Education Fund, Marshall coordinated the NAACP effort to end racial segregation. His Supreme Court victories include Smith v. Allwright, Morgan v. Virginia, Shelley v. Kraemer, Sweatt v. Painter, McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents and, of course, Brown v. Board of Education. Beyond Bricks and Mortar A decade later, the Supreme Court reviewed two more challenges to segregated graduate education programs. In Sweatt v. Painter, the Court struck down a Texas statute which restricted the University of Texas Law School to white students, even though, the state made available an in-state law school for black students. That same day, in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, the Court also struck down an Oklahoma statute which permitted black students to use the same classroom, library and cafeteria as white students, but required the black students to sit in designated areas reserved for colored people within those facilities. In both decisions, Chief Justice Vinson noted importance of student interaction to the educational experience. Because both statutes limited the opportunities of black students to study, engage in discussions, and exchange views with white students, the Court found that the black students were not offered a substantially equal educational opportunity. While the Court declined to re-examine the Plessy decision, their rulings cast serious doubt on the continuing viability of the "separate but equal" doctrine. More importantly, these decisions were issued without dissent. Other Triumphs In 1946, the Supreme Court heard a challenge to a Virginia law that required all passenger motor vehicle carriers to separate their white and colored passengers. Finding that the promotion and protection of national travel required a single, uniform rule for the seating of different races in interstate motor travel, the Court struck down the state law because it placed an undue burden on interstate commerce, an area of regulation that the Constitution reserved for Congress. The Court did not mention the Plessy decision. Two years later, the wall of segregation crumbled further. In Shelley v. Kramer, the Shelleys, a black family, purchased a home that was subject to a racially restrictive covenant. This covenant barred persons of African and Asian descent from occupying the property. A neighbor sued to enforce the covenant against the Shelleys. The Supreme Court ruled that racially restrictive agreements alone are not unconstitutional because there has been no discriminatory state action. However, state action will be found if a court orders the enforcement of such an agreement. Under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, such a court order is unconstitutional. These two decisions opened the nation's highways and homes to a race once enslaved. Within a decade, the high court would further repel the forces of segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, another landmark decision. Inherently Unequal On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision on segregation in public elementary schools. That case, which consolidated a number of matters on appeal from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware, was titled Brown v. Board of Education. Like in Sweatt and McLaurin, the Court here considered criteria beyond the physical facilities and other tangible assets of black and white schools. So, even if the black schools and white schools had substantially equal buildings, curricula, classroom materials, teacher qualifications and salaries, the separate schools still possibly did not offer equal educational opportunities. Turning to the effect of segregation on school children, the Court noted that to separate black children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. This sense of inferiority affects their motivation to learn and, thus, has a tendency to retard their educational and mental development and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system. The Court then held that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and rejected any language in Plessy that ran contrary to this. In the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. So, in this century of change, people once enslaved were unshackled and set free. People once isolated were integrated into society. People once looked down upon returned to lead. And, these leaders guided not just themselves but the entire nation to a better place. A place where people have never been freer. A place where justice has never been fairer. And, a place where the promise of America has never been finer.