TOPIC #19 — EXERCISE OF JUDICIAL REVIEW: RACE AND CIVIL RIGHTS

Q1.     What provisions in the Constitution as ratified in 1788 took specific account of the institution of slavery?

Q2.     What were the defining characteristics of the “Jim Crow” system in the South. When was it established and how was it ended?

Q3.     The most important Supreme Court decision undermining the “Jim Crow” system was Brown v. Board of Education (1954), declaring that school segregation violates the equal protection clause of the 14^th Amendment. Yet by purposeful design, this case came from Topeka, Kansas, not the deep South. Why was this so?

U.S. Constitution

          apportionment clause (3/5 compromise)

          commerce compromise/amending power

          Article IV (inter-state relations)

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

Amendments 13-15: the “second founding”

"Jim Crow" regime in South (1890-1965)

          racial segregation (de jure)

                     Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): "separate but equal" doctrine

          racial disenfranchisement (de facto)

                     Smith v. Allwright (1944): the "white primary"

                     Voting Rights Act (1965)

Desegregation

          taking “separate but equal” seriously: Sweatt v. Painter (1950)

          “inherent inequality”: Brown v. Board of Education (1954, 1955)

          Civil Rights Act (1964)

          Federal Aid to Education Act (1965)