Civil Rights and the Court System

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Civil Rights and the Court System
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14th Amendment

• Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the
  United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
  thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
  the State wherein they reside.
• No State shall make or enforce any law which
  shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
  citizens of the United States
  
• nor shall any State deprive any person of life,
  liberty, or property, without due process of law
  nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
  the equal protection of the laws.

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Civil Rights Cases (1883)

• At issue was the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which
  stated (in part)
  
• "all persons within the jurisdiction of the
  United States shall be entitled to the full and
  equal enjoyment of the accommodations,
  advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns,
  public conveyances on land or water, theaters,
  and other places of public amusement subject
  only to the conditions and limitations
  established by law, and applicable alike to
  citizens of every race and color, regardless of
  any previous condition of servitude"

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Civil Rights Cases (1883)

• Court holding
• The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is unconstitutional
• The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
  restricts the action of state governments,
  
• it does not restrict segregation or
  discrimination by privately owned businesses.

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Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)Held for Ferguson, 8-1
Homer Plessy
Justice Henry Billings Brown,Wrote for the
Majority
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Homer Plessy rests in a New Orleans cemetery
that includes whites and blacks
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Sweatt v. Painter (1950)Held for Sweatt, 9-0
H.M. Sweatt
Chief Justice Fred Vinson
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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
(1954)Court Held for Brown, 9-0
Mother Linda Brown
George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, James M.
Nabrit
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The Warren Court (1954)
Seated Frankfurter, Black, Warren, Reed,
DouglasStanding Clark, Jackson, Burton, Minton
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Reaction to BrownThe Southern Manifesto

• We regard the decisions of the Supreme Court in
  the school cases as a clear abuse of judicial
  power.
  
• It climaxes a trend in the Federal Judiciary
  undertaking to legislate, in derogation of the
  authority of Congress, and to encroach upon the
  reserved rights of the States and the people.

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Reaction to BrownThe Southern Manifesto

• This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court,
  contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos
  and confusion in the States principally
  affected.
• It is destroying the amicable relations between
  the white and Negro races that have been created
  through 90 years of patient effort by the good
  people of both races. It has planted hatred and
  suspicion where there has been heretofore
  friendship and understanding.

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Reaction to BrownThe Southern Manifesto

• We commend the motives of those States which
  have declared the intention to resist forced
  integration by any lawful means.
  
• We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to
  bring about a reversal of this decision which is
  contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the
  use of force in its implementation.

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Reaction to BrownLittle Rock Central High
School, 1957
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Governor Orval Faubus
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The Little Rock Nine
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Confrontation
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Eisenhower Sends Federal Troops to Little Rock
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The 1950s Network News Comes of Age
David Brinkley Chet Huntley, Co-Anchors, NBC
Correspondent Later Anchor, John Chancellor,
NBC
Walter Cronkite, Anchor, CBS
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Federal Troops Enforce Court OrderMinniejean
Bates For the first time in my life, I felt
like an American (Halberstam, p. 688)
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