Week Five: The Civil Rights Cases
The latest Our American Values series focuses on the US Supreme Court and the role it has played in the struggle for civil rights. This new series has three parts. First, we look at two cases that established the principle of judicial review of actions by federal (1803) and state (1817) government. Second, we look at a series of Supreme Court cases decided between 1857 and 1944. These cases made it easier for governments to deny individuals their rights and so each made the moral arc of the universe a little longer. Finally, we look at a series of cases decided between 1886 and 1983 that moved America forward toward justice. For this new series, we draw on some very short (thirty seconds to four-minute videos) from C-SPAN Classroom.
In 1883, the Court consolidated five cases touching on different civil rights questions into what we today know as “the Civil Rights Cases.” In an 8-1 decision, the Court held that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was not constitutional. The decision even more firmly established a legal basis for the Jim Crow era of segregation for African Americans and, effectively, gave license to those who would oppress them through both legal and extralegal means. Eight brief videos from C-SPAN Classroom at the link below explore the background of the cases, Constitutional questions relating to them, and the impact of the ruling in the Civil Rights Cases on how later civil rights cases — both unsuccessful and successful — were ultimately argued and decided. This week, play all eight brief videos.