Assess the view that the Supreme Court was the most important branch of the federal government in assisting African Americans achieve their civil rights in the period 1865-1992?

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Assess the view that the Supreme Court was the most important branch of the federal government in assisting African Americans achieve their civil rights in the period 1865-1992?

In terms of African American civil rights include social rights, being treated equal to a White American and integrating with them, and political rights, gaining the vote. The US system of the government has been created so there is a ‘balance of power’ between the branches, executive, legislative and judiciary. Therefore, it is difficult for only one branch to help blacks attain their civil rights. However, this essay will argue that the that the Supreme Court was the most important branch of the federal government in assisting African Americans achieve their civil rights in the period 1865-1992

The Supreme Court acted as the most help in assisting blacks to achieve their social rights. Although they strongly hindered the blacks with their ruling in the Plessy vs Ferguson case in 1896, they ‘redeemed themselves’ in the Linder Brown case 1954. Also during the first half of the period, the policies of the leaders including Booker T Washington and Marcus Garvey appear to support the doctrine ‘separate but equal’. For example, Garvey suggested that the African Americans should go out and live in Africa. Therefore it is questionable whether the Supreme Court’s ruling was a hindrance to the blacks’ social rights at the same time since the popular leaders supported it. This indicates that African Americans’ perceptions of social rights were slightly ‘blurred’ on whether they wanted integration or segregation. However, when it became clear that blacks wanted integration in the 1950s, the Supreme Court did help them in the Linda Brown case where it ruled that admissions of all children to state schools were on equal terms. This destroyed the doctrine ‘separate but equal’ providing the South on less reasons to continue segregation.

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During the period between the Plessy vs Ferguson and the Linda Brown case, the Supreme Court has showed sympathy towards the blacks’ social rights unlike the other branches. To demonstrate in the Bunchana vs Warley in 1917, the Supreme Court sided with the blacks by ruling city regulations in Kentucky concerning residential segregation as unconstitutional. During this time, Congress has not passed any significant legislation and president Woodrow Wilson held racist views and did not associate with any African American leader.

The other branches of the federal government, president and Congress, were not as important as the Supreme Court in ...

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