How far did the Supreme Court hinder rather than help the development of African American civil rights in the period 1865-1980 By James Lawson
Between 1865 and 1980, the Supreme Court had a significant effect on the progress of civil rights. Early on in the period, numerous rulings were made that fundamentally restricted the rights of recently freed African Americans and limited their progress with a harmful legally supported precedence that would be set for years to come. However, the Supreme Court also helped develop the rights of African Americans, by steadily striking down harmful laws, and later in the period, by actively supporting federal intervention and desegregation.
Despite a wave of positive federal legislation to support civil rights, including the abolition of slavery and the 14th and 15th Amendments, the Supreme Court notably hindered the progress of African American rights between 1865 and the early 1900s. The Supreme Court, directly countered progress made through this period and congressional reconstruction, most likely with the intention of hindering progress. The Cruickshank decision ruled that the 14th Amendment protected the rights and privileges of citizens only when they were infringed by the action of the state. As a result, it essentially made the 14th amendment void, when individuals and groups perpetrated racial crimes. This is also meant that these basic rights would not be the target of federal intervention and thus the court had an extremely negative impact.
This obstructing precedence was furthered with the Court essentially recognising the rights of states to exclude blacks from voting. The Grandfather clauses, which excluded all who did not have two generations of voting family, was supported by the ruling on 'USA V. Reece', which allowed states to place voting qualifications. Thus, the Supreme Court prevented Blacks from voting on two grounds, and directly undermined the right to vote with long lasting impacts.
This systematic abuse of African Americans through the legal system, was only worsened by the Courts rejection of the 1875 Civil rights act and the ruling on Plessey V Fergusson. This has terrible short consequences, upholding the 'Jim Crow' laws on a state level, despite their blatant contravention of the rights of black citizens. In the long term is also, established the idea of 'separate but equal' and thus provided the original basis for the lasting period of segregation and reinforcing racist attitudes; the fact that provision was far from equal only strengthened its impact. Therefore, not only ...
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This systematic abuse of African Americans through the legal system, was only worsened by the Courts rejection of the 1875 Civil rights act and the ruling on Plessey V Fergusson. This has terrible short consequences, upholding the 'Jim Crow' laws on a state level, despite their blatant contravention of the rights of black citizens. In the long term is also, established the idea of 'separate but equal' and thus provided the original basis for the lasting period of segregation and reinforcing racist attitudes; the fact that provision was far from equal only strengthened its impact. Therefore, not only did the Supreme Court undermine recently passed legislation, it restricted the rights of African Americans, essentially removed their right to vote, and provided the foundations for segregation. Furthermore, the impact of these rulings was deep, long lasting, and took considerable effort to reverse throughout the period; thus early in the period the Supreme Court acted as one of the key forces against the civil rights cause, and had such a significant negative effect, that the future focus for civil rights would be on undoing its harm.
However, despite this early hindering role, the Supreme Court went on to act as a positive force for change: overruling unfair state decisions, enforcing positive legislation properly, reversing past negative legislation, and near the end of the period positively promoting civil rights when little more could be done politically. In the 1930's Scottsborough case, the Supreme Court rules that past decisions had been unlawful and intervened. This acted as one of the first major positive changes by the Supreme Court, following a period of inaction and a period of hindrance. Between 1944 and 1948, significant rulings were made for the cause of civil rights, against desegregation and unfair voting practices; the first steps towards later reversals. The Democratic Party's use of all white primaries in states such as Texas were overturned in the case of Smith V. Allwright. In two other rulings, Morgan V Virginia and Shell V Kraemer the Supreme court ruled that Virginia state law enforcing segregation was illegal and that racially restrictive covenants were not valid as they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. As a result, it is clear that the role of the Supreme Court had shifted from one of hindrance to positive help for civil rights. Conversely, it must be noted that most progress made was simply undermining the Supreme Court's lasting harmful past rulings. Thus the court only helped to the extent that they were reverting their own past hindrances rather than actively furthering the condition of African American civil rights.
This trend continued, with significant decisions by the Supreme Court, challenging the past set notion of separate but equal. For example, in 1950, the decisions following Sweatt V. Painter and McLaurin V. Oklahoma were that intangibles must be considered in the concept of equal, and that public institutions of higher learning could not provided different treatment. Thus the Court directly challenged the unequal conditions provided by segregated facilities. The most significant progress in the 1950's was seen under Earl Warren, in the multiple Brown education rulings. Brown V Board of Education, which successfully overturned segregation in education altogether and with Brown II, the court called for integration 'with all deliberate speed'. Segregation was also made illegal on Montgomery public buses, further contribution to the trend of desegregation public services. As a result, the court acted a significant vehicle for desegregation. However, looking cynically at this stage, the Supreme Court was still only really undoing past harmful rulings, which had provided the fundamental basis for these years of unequal services, segregation and legal mistreatment.
Following this phase of ruling against segregation, the role of Federal and Supreme Court intervention was expanded. With the landmark decision of Cooper V. Aaron, States were now bound by the Supreme Court's decision and could not simply ignore or delay them. Furthermore, with Baker V. Carr, the Supreme Court could now intervene to ensure fair voting practices. Thus, not only would the court rule for progress for civil rights, but would play an active role in enforcement. This was best shown in 1968 when the court held that New Kent County's plan provided inadequate compliance with their responsibility to determine school admission on a non-racial basis (Green V. New Kent county). The country was then forced to formulate new plans and make significant steps towards real desegregation. As a result, the Supreme Court began to transform from a body that was simply reversing its own past rulings, to one characterized by positive rulings and proper enforcement.
From the 1970's onwards, little more progress could be made from a political point of view, as LBJ had already passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting rights act. However, during this phase, the Supreme Court continued its positive role for civil rights. In the case of Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the court ruled provided an active mechanism against underlying segregation. By busing people to schools, it ensured that integration in public schools could take place. Also, The Supreme Court ruled that school-financing based on local property taxes was not a constitutional violation of the 14th Amendment.
Overall, it is clear that the Supreme Court was not simply a body that hindered progress, especially from 1960 onwards as its role and action expanded. However, the initial laws and ruling made by the court between 1865 and 1900 were so damaging, that it would take over 50 years to revert them truly. They provided the basis for, and legally enforced, a system of segregation, unequal treatment, and limited civil rights. Following this and until the late 1960s, whilst the court no longer directly hindered change, and became a helpful positive force, the overall assessment must remain negative as it was simply undoing its own harmful legislation. Therefore, despite positive transformation, the Supreme Court's impact over the period, was one of hindrance and largely negative.
How far did the Supreme Court hinder rather than help the development of African American civil rights in the period 1865-1980 By James Lawson
