All 1 men are created equal. The infamous words from the Declaration of Independence that helped build the cornerstone for the American Constitution. Despite the liberating nature of this promise, United States history has proven that this equality was not given to all; giving all constitutional rights and exceptions to adult white men only. For almost two centuries after the birth of the nation, there was an extensive amount of underrepresentation for many Americans; specifically African-Americans and women. However, contemporary society has proven that since the establishment of the Constitution in 1789 these minority groups made extraordinary efforts to break through the cartel of liberties previously held by white men only. America has seen to distinct periods in which civil rights were at the heart of Constitutional controversy and development. The post-Civil war period known as Reconstruction saw the extension of suffrage to black American through the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments. Nonetheless these gains were stalled to the extreme racial backlash in the south, and exemplified by the numerous anti-black court rulings such as Plessy v. Ferguson, and the Presidential veto against the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Along with this womens efforts were also rejected as demonstrated with the civil rights case, Minor v. Happersett. It wasnt until over a century later that these controversial issues were questioned again with the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. Court cases such as Sweatt v. Painter and the infamous Brown v. Board of Education that finally brought liberation to blacks. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which not only brought equality to blacks but to women as well, enforced these cases; women also sought suffrage through the Equal Rights Amendment. Despite the somewhat arbitrary efforts put forth during Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement of the twentieth century brought liberation to blacks and women, allowing these minorities to shatter the narrow interpretation of all men created equal.
2 The post civil-war period aimed to bring liberation and freedoms to blacks, reinforcing Abraham Lincolns Emancipation of Proclamation of 1863. Between the time of 1865 and 1870 the government moved to extend suffrage to all blacks through a set of amendments, known as the Reconstruction Amendments. The first of these being the Thirteenth Amendment, which aimed to make ex-slaves full Americans by officially abolishing slavery in 1865. Section one reads as follows, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. The Fifteenth Amendment of 1870 removed race as obstruction to vote, claiming that the right to vote could not be denied to a citizen based on race, color, or prior servitude. However the amendment that proved to be the most influential and controversial was the Fourteenth Amendment, passed in 1868, which defined blacks as citizens. The Fourteenth Amendment gave a wide definition of citizenship, requiring states to provide all people with equal protection under the law. The amendment overturned Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), which ruled that slaves and their descendants could not possess the rights granted in the Constitution. Numerous clauses in the Fourteenth Amendment were the points of interest in the Civil Rights cases of both the Reconstruction era and during the twentieth century. The Due Process Clause asserts that the government cannot infringe upon any of the legal rights promised to a person according to the law of life, liberty, and property. The Due Process clause gives the citizen the right to assert rights against all governments, state and federal. Before the Fourteenth Amendment, the Constitution and Bill of Rights only protected individuals from the federal government. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that no citizen of the United States can be denied equal protection under the law. The Equal Protection Clause is a stepping-stone to the eventual full embracing of the term all men are
3 created equal. The Reconstruction are seen as a brief success for blacks during the nineteenth century, however these improvements are quickly abandoned by the federal government with the endorsement of the racist Jim Crow laws and black codes enacted in the South and upheld for almost a century. During Reconstruction the government made impressive moves to extend suffrage to blacks, nonetheless these amendments did not give blacks the equality that was desired. In 1866 Congress drafted the Civil Rights Act of 1866, in response to the racist backlash seen across the South after the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment. Black codes were enacted by many Southern states, in order to preserve racial segregation in light of the abolition of slavery. The Civil Rights Act simply reaffirmed the abolishment of slavery while also making blacks citizens. However when Congress tried to pass the act, President Andrew Johnson vetoed the motion, setting an initial precedent that despite government actions the black codes of the south would indeed be upheld. This standard proved to be a constant, especially in 1896 in the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson, one of the first significant challenges to the Reconstruction Amendments. In 1892 Homer Plessy, a Louisiana citizen, was arrested for riding in a whitesonly train car. Under a 1890 Louisiana Jim Crow law Plessy, who was 7/8 white and 1/8 black, was still classified as an African American. Plessy brought his case to the district court level claiming that the Louisiana Railroad had denied him his rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. After being denied in the inferior courts, Plessy ultimately sought challenge to the United States Supreme Court. In the majority opinion written by Justice Henry Brown, the Supreme Court upheld the state courts decision. The court upheld the constitutionality of the Louisiana Jim Crow Railway regulations, establishing and enforcing the concept of separate but equal. Justice Brown declares that the state has the power to
4 discriminate as a function of its constitutionally given police powers, stating that separate accommodations for blacks was social custom. Stating that Jim Crow laws and Black Codes were widespread and promoted public good and racial harmony. Along with this, Justice Brown nullified Plessys claim that his Thirteenth Amendment rights were violated; Brown writes, Slavery implies involuntary servitude-a state of bondage; the ownership of mankind as a chattel, or at least the control of the labor and services of man for the benefit of another (Brown, 78). Therefore Brown claims that refusing certain accommodations to blacks is in no way imposing servitude, but merely recognizing the laws of the state; separation does not imply inferiority. Most importantly, Brown established that providing both equal provisions for blacks and whites, despite the segregation, was consistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court emphasized that the cause was not intended to extend suffrage to social arrangements, but merely civil rights; Plessys argument did not fall into this criteria. Plessys case was part of an integral move towards civil-rights in southern states that upheld Jim Crows state endorsed racial caste, despite its immediate disappointment. Unfortunately the case set the judicial precedent for the legality of Jim Crow, encouraging the concept of American racial discrimination. Along with the efforts made by blacks to gain freedoms during Reconstruction, women also made a push to gain full advantage of their Constitutional rights. In 1872 Mrs. Virginia Minor, a leader of the womens suffrage movement in Missouri, attempted to register to vote but was denied to by Reese Happersett, a Missouri state registrar. Minor took the case to the Missouri Supreme Court challenging the Missouri law that decreed, Every male citizen of the United States shall be entitled to vote (Hall, 572). Minor claimed that limitations placed on women in voting were an infringement of her rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The
5 State Court upheld the State law causing the case to be brought to the United States Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court affirmed the State Courts ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment did not extend suffrage to women in terms of voting. Chief Justice Waite wrote the opinion for the court claiming that the courts decision did not have to do with whether women were considered citizens or not under the Fourteenth Amendment, but rather whether the Constitution extended suffrage to women. He writes, There is no doubt that women may be citizens. They are persons, and by the fourteenth amendment all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are expressly declared to be citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside (Waite, 573). Waite confirms that women are absolutely citizens even without the Fourteenth Amendment, without these citizens there would be no nation of the United States. Nonetheless Waite and the Court declared that the question of citizenship is null, the question is whether the Constitution has added the right of suffrage in the Amendments. The Court unanimously agreed that it did not, Waite writes, It is clear, therefore, we think, that the Constitution has not added the right of suffrage to the privileges and immunities of citizenship as they existed at the time it was adopted (Waite, 576). The Court was not denying the possible need give to women the immunities granted on the Constitution, yet decreed that this was not the issue at hand. The Reconstruction Era saw great demand for extended representation for the minorities of the nation, recognized by the government with the addition of the Reconstruction Amendments. However, it is evident through cases such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Minor v. Happersett that although Civil Rights were brought under the microscope during this period, they were not granted. It wasnt until the twentieth century that these underrepresented peoples of the nation saw victory.
6 During the 1950s and 60s minorities such as blacks and women sought to challenge the court decisions and precedents of the nineteenth century in a massive effort to shatter the adult white male domination of America. 1950 brought the first challenge the concept of separate but equal, since its establishment in Plessy v. Ferguson. Herman Marion Sweatt, a black man, was refused admission to the University of Texas Law School due to the Texas limitations on integrated education. The Texas trial court granted a writ of mandamus in order to continue the case for six months, giving the state enough time to create law school for blacks, following the guidelines of separate but equal. Sweatt appealed to the United States Supreme Court, Sweatt v. Painter, which in turn reversed the lower courts decision; successfully challenging separate but equal for the first time since Plessy. Chief Justice Fred Vinson wrote the opinion of the court, claiming that there was proven differences between the two schools, making them inherently unequal. Vinson writes, we cannot find substantial equality in the educational opportunities offered white and Negro law students by the State. In terms of number of the faculty, variety of courses and opportunity for specialization, size of the student body, scope of the library, availability of law review and similar activities (Vinson, 116). Even though the court reversed the state courts decision, it did not strike down or reverse Plessy. Nevertheless, the decision in Sweatt implied that a future ruling to do just that might very well happen. In 1954 the United States Supreme Court faced the challenge of tackling once and for the concept of could separate actually be equal? And in turn should all prior precedent set with Plessy v. Ferguson be struck down once and for all? Brown v. Board of Education is one of the most influential cases in bringing Constitutional rights to black Americans. In 1951 the parents of twenty black children in Topeka, Kansas filed a suit in the district court against the Board of Education calling the school district to transpose its policy of racial segregation in public
7 schools. The District Courts ruling followed the model set by Plessy, causing the case to be brought to the Supreme Court in the form of cases all calling to end segregation in public schools. In the brief written on behalf of the black children who attended these schools, the appellants claimed that the Fourteenth Amendment was meant to complete the emancipation started in the Thirteenth Amendment. It declares, The debates in the 39th Congress and succeeding Congresses clearly reveal the intention that the Fourteenth Amendment would work a revolutionary change in our state-federal relationship by denying to the states the power to distinguish on the basis of race (Martin, 160). Contrary to this the brief written on the behalf of the schools emphasizes that the Fourteenth Amendment focuses on the pursuit of life, liberty, and property, and the African American equal enjoyment of these rights. It was never the intention of the Fourteenth Amendment to abolish segregation. The majority opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, he notes that these five cases are brought together to answer one critical question: does segregation in public schools violate the equal protection laws given to blacks in the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court ruled that segregation in schools did indeed infringe on the black students rights given to them in the Constitution. When making the determination the Court could not look at cases such as Sweatt v. Painter or Plessy v. Ferguson to come to a decision. Warren writes, Does the segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other tangible factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group educational opportunities? We believe that it does (Warren, 173). The Court could not look to the tangible factors like they did with Sweatt, for both school were equal. In turn the Court had to look at the effect segregation had on public schools and those who attend. When approaching this issue, the court concluded that Plessy could not be referenced due to the fact that modern education and knowledge has
8 advanced greatly since that time. The court specifically references the psychological knowledge that was not known at the time of the Plessy decision. Warren notes that ultimately segregation gives black students a sense of inferiority, and this awareness of lowliness directly affects the motivation of a child to learn. Therefore concluding that separate but equal is not proper in schools. Warren asserts, We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequalThis disposition makes unnecessary any discussion whether such segregation also violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Warren, 174). The Courts ruling started the process that would significantly change Americans forever. The decision set the precedent that serious change was about to come; by simply acknowledging the error in Plessy, the court therefore recognized the extent of representation that was Constitutional warranted to blacks across America. Simply put, Brown v. Board of Education established that segregation is wrong, and has deprived many people of their rights. In 1964 Congress sought to end racial and sexual discrimination on all fronts. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended prejudice in education, employment, and private accommodations. Title IV of the Bill focuses on the desegregation of education across the nation. Title gives the states two years after the Bill is passed to have completely desegregated schools. From this point on the federal government will have routine checks by committee on schools, to ensure their accordance to the law. Along with this the federal government threatens to cut federal funds if states do not oblige to the law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act concentrates on Equal Employment Opportunity; this title also extends suffrage to women. It reads, It shall be unlawful employment practice for an employerto fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation,
9 terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individuals race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (Hall, 371). Sex was originally added into the Bill to defeat it, to prove that if America was going to make change if would have to make entire changes. Consequently, America was prepared for this significant change as Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 all Jim Crow and Black Codes were invalidated, and finally extended Constitutional suffrage to women. Modern society has proven that America does not run under the literal narrow interpretation that all men are created equal. For the underrepresented peoples of America it has been a long struggle to finally shatter the monopoly over Civil Rights held by white men. However despite the substantial Constitutional evidence supporting this fact, should the nation still be questioning equality today? The majority of United States history has deep roots of inequality, but cases like Brown v. Board of Education and Congressional Acts such as the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 have proven that America was and embraces this change. Men, women, blacks, and all are able to live harmoniously; the government assuring that all are given equal opportunity and protection under the law. The United States Constitution is now sexually and racially neutral.
10 Works Cited
Brown, Henry. Majority Opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896. In Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. Waldo E. Martin Jr.. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998. Hall,Kermit, L.. Major Problems in American Constitutional History. 1, The Colonial Era Through Reconstruction. Kermit L. Hall. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1992. Hall,Kermit, L.. Major Problems in American Constitutional History. 2, From 1870 to the Present. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1992. Martin Jr.,Waldo E.. Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. Waldo E. Martin Jr.. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998.
Vinson, Fred. Opinion of the Court in Sweatt v. Painter, 1950. In Brown v. Board of
Education: A Brief History with Documents. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. Waldo E. Martin Jr.. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998.
Waite, Morrison. Minor v. Happersett, 1875. In Major Problems in American
Constitutional History. 1, The Colonial Era Through Reconstruction. Kermit L. Hall. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1992.
Warren, Earl. Opinion of the Court in Brown v. Board of Education, May 17, 1954. In
Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. Waldo E. Martin Jr.. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998.