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 helping blacks attain social rights. Congress and the president are more ‘connected’ to each other than they are with the Supreme Court. This is because Congress and the president cooperate with each other in the process of law making. Therefore, when the two branches were in conflict during 1865 to 1992, they acted as a barrier to the blacks’ advancement in social rights. For example, President Andrew Johnson vetoed the major pieces of the congressional legislation which stated that blacks, legally, had equal rights to whites. Congress overturned him but his veto legitimised the South’s stance against black civil rights. Another example is the conflict between President Roosevelt and Congress in the 1930s. Congress made Roosevelt limited to help advance the blacks’ social rights because he needed to gain the South’s support in order for the New Deal to pass. Furthermore the two branches have to cooperate with each other, in order for effective legislation to be passed. To illustrate, President Lyndon Johnson used his Southern background to convince Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act 1964 which outlawed racial, sexist and religious discrimination. These examples demonstrates an advantage of the Supreme Court which is that the judges serve for life meaning they would not base their decisions on public opinion unlike the president who would do this to gain votes. Therefore, the white southerners will have less influence on the Supreme Court unlike the president and Congress. This may explain why they provided a ruling which was favourable to the African Americans, in the Buchanan vs Warley where racism was still clearly present. The Supreme Court does not have to rely on the other branches’ support to help the blacks attain social rights.
Once the African Americans gained social rights, in de jure terms, achieving political rights was a natural follow up. Congress and the president were the most helpful branches in assisting African Americans in gaining political rights during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. President Lyndon Johnson introduced the idea of a Voting Rights Act to Congress. Due to high pressure in helping blacks from the public, Congress passed the act. This act outlawed voting requirements. This demonstrates that the two branches have learnt from their mistakes made in the 1870s with the 15th Amendment. The mistake was that the amendment did not consider the ‘loopholes’ that could be made. This was exploited by the South who created the voting requirements including literacy tests. The Voting Rights Act 1965 destroyed any reason for the South to deny blacks the vote. As a result, by the end of the 1960s only 4 out of the 13 Southern states had less than 50% of African Americans registered for the vote. This was significant when considering that during the first half of the period; very few blacks were even allowed to vote in the South.
However, Congress and the president, overall, was the least helpful in the attainment of African Americans’ political rights during the first half of the period. At the very start of the period, Congress was helpful since it passed the 15th Amendment which provided blacks the vote. However, when Reconstruction ended, the federal troops left the Southern states which provided them with more power. This enabled them to systematically take away the blacks’ political rights that they gained form the 15th Amendment. Congress and the president were inactive in solving this problem. Only the Supreme Court helped the blacks in challenging the South’s voting conditions during the first half of the period. To demonstrate, in the 1938 Guinn vs Canada case, the Supreme Court ruled that ‘separate but equal’ must really be equal. Furthermore, in the Guinn vs US case, the grandfather clause was ruled as unconstitutional. The grandfather clause was where people were only granted the vote if their fathers or grandfathers had voted before the 15th Amendment. These examples further demonstrate that the Supreme Court have displayed their support towards African Americans’ political rights, unlike the other two branches who have a long period of inactivity.
In conclusion, although Congress and the president acted as a significant help to the African Americans during the 1950s and 1960s, both branches were too inactive for long period of time to be classed as the most important. Congress was heavily dominated by the Southern Democrats which constrained the president from assisting the blacks due to fears of losing support. In contrast, the Supreme Court was less influenced by the other two branches, meaning they were able provide favourable verdicts towards the blacks from as early as 1900. The conflicts between the other branches prevented them from passing significant legislation during the first half of the period. Hence 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.