The Least Dangerous Branch? · Episode 5 of 13 · 42 min
How the Supreme Court Legalized Jim Crow
Two rulings turned the Reconstruction Constitution into cover for segregation. The Civil Rights Cases of 1883 held that the 14th Amendment could not reach private discrimination, and Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 enshrined 'separate but equal.' Justice Harlan's lone dissent that the Constitution is color-blind was the road not taken for 58 years, until Brown v. Board.
Who's who
- Joseph P. BradleyWrote the majority in the Civil Rights Cases
- Henry Billings BrownWrote the majority in Plessy v. Ferguson
- John Marshall Harlan+2 more episodesLone dissenter in both cases; 'color-blind' Constitution
- Homer PlessyNew Orleans shoemaker recruited as a test case
- Albion W. TourgeeLawyer who argued Plessy's case
- John Howard FergusonNew Orleans judge who upheld the Separate Car Act
Where it happens
- New Orleans, Louisiana+3 more episodesSite of the Plessy test case and the Citizens' Committee
Timeline
- 1875Congress bars discrimination in inns, transit and theaters.
- October 15, 1883Civil Rights Cases strike down the public-accommodations sections, 8-1.
- 1890Louisiana enacts the Separate Car Act.
- June 7, 1892Homer Plessy is arrested after sitting in the whites-only car.
- May 18, 1896Plessy v. Ferguson upholds separate but equal, 7-1.
- May 17, 1954Brown v. Board of Education overturns Plessy in public schooling.
Still debated
Scholars split on whether Plessy was a defensible reading of the 14th Amendment as originally understood. They also ask whether the rulings created Jim Crow or merely licensed a segregation order already hardening across the South.
← PreviousDred Scott: The Ruling That Helped Cause the Civil WarNext →The Lochner Era: When the Court Struck Down Child-Labor Laws
Connected episodes in other series
Three GenerationsThe Payor of Last Resort · Episode 4Also features John Marshall Harlan
The Second Great Migration: The South to the CoastLiberty Ships, Closed Doors · Episode 3
The Panama Canal Opens: World War One and the Gold vs. Silver Color LinePanama: Crossroads of Empires · Episode 10
The CCC's Jim Crow: 250,000 Black Men, Segregated by OrderRoosevelt's Forest Army · Episode 9