Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race:

1
Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race

• How the Presidency Paved the Road to Brown

2
Total Number of Pro- and Anti- Supreme Court
Civil Rights Decisions for Each Five Year,
1896-1955
3
Conventional Explanations

• Current of History
• Advocacy and Support Structure Model
• Political Systems Model
• Judicial Independence Approaches
• Judicial Leadership

4
Three Components of the Argument

• The Court-Packing Plan
• Roosevelts Nine Appointments to the Court
• The Efforts of the Roosevelt Justice Department,
  particularly the newly-created Civil Rights
  Section

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Institutional Mission of the Roosevelt Court

• Deference to the executive (allied in the
  formation of the modern presidency)
  
• Commitment to rights-centered liberalism

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FDRs Appointments to the Supreme Court

• Hugo Black
• Stanley Reed
• Felix Frankfurter
• William O. Douglas
• Frank Murphy
• Jimmy Byrnes
• Harlan F. Stone (elevated to Chief Justice)
• Robert H. Jackson
• Wiley B. Rutledge

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FDRs First Five Justices
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FDRs Justices 6-9
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Justice Department Efforts

• Mainly through the work of the newly-created
  Civil Rights Section formed by order of the
  president in early 1939
  
• An effort to revive dead-letter Reconstruction
  statutes that had been judicially emasculated
  soon after they were enacted (Criminal Law)
  
• Parallel to the NAACPs campaign focusing on
  civil cases

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Four Pillars of Southern White Supremacy

• White Primary (U.S. v. Classic Smith v.
  Allwright)
  
• Poll Tax FDRs Hand is clearest here
• Lynching 60 possibly all without new
  anti-lynching legislation
  
• Police Brutality (Screws v. U.S)
• In addition, the CRS aided the NAACP with civil
  cases and amicus curiae briefs
  
• Ideology of World War II aides these
  prosecutions fight for democracy at home and
  abroad

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Police Brutality Cases Prosecuted by the Justice
Department from 1939-1945
Racial Cases State Race of Victim(s) Result
U.S. v. Sutherland Georgia Black Two
mistrials U.S. v. Culp Arkansas Black White
Convicted U.S. v. Erskine South Carolina Black
Convicted U.S. v. Evans Alabama Black Wh
ite Acquitted U.S. v. Screws Georgia Black
Convicted\acquitted U.S. v. Dailey Georgia B
lack Acquitted U.S. v. Seals Mississippi Bla
ck Pleaded guilty U.S. v. Propst Mississippi
Black Pleaded guilty U.S. v. Wiggins Florid
a Black Dismissed Political Case U.S. v.
Cowan Louisiana White Acquitted
(photographer) Religious Case U.S. v. Catl
ette West Virginia White Convicted (2nd
Trial) (Jehovahs Witness) Labor Case U.
S. v. Buchanan Arkansas White Nolo
contendere (union organizer) (no contest)
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Presidential Motivations Underlying Attempts to
Transform Judicial Doctrine

• Consolidation or expansion of electoral
  coalition
  
• Immediate legislative policy preferences
• Constitutional visionideal institutional order

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Percentage of Potential African American Voters
in Swing States (based on 1940 figures)

• Delaware 13.3
• Illinois 5.1
• Indiana 3.7
• Kansas 3.7
• Kentucky 8.5
• Maryland 15.9
• Michigan 4.4
• Missouri 6.7
• New Jersey 5.5
• New York 4.3
• Ohio 5.0
• Pennsylvania 5.0
• West Virginia 6.7

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Conclusions about the Presidency-Focused Approach
and the Origins of Supreme Court Decisions

• In this specific case, leads to a reconsideration
  of Roosevelt on race
  
• Aids in uncovering the origins of Supreme Court
  decisions at particular historical moments
  
• Illuminates the power of the presidency