The Push for
Equality
Lecture 7F
Oyez, Oyez, Oyez!
Topics
1. What major events happened
during the Progressive Era?
2. What role did the NAACP’s LDF
play in litigating for equality?
3. What major events took place
during the Civil Rights
Movement?
The Progressive Era
Progressive Era
1890-1920. An effort to reform political,
economic, and social affairs for many
groups of people, particularly African
Americans.
• Aggravated by Plessy v. Ferguson
The Progressive Era
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Plessy was 7/8 Caucasian and 1/8 African
American. He was picked to challenge a
Louisiana law that required railroads to
provide separate accommodations for
blacks and whites.
The Progressive Era
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Court found that separate but equal
accommodations did not violate the equal
protection clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
• Created the separate-but-equal doctrine,
which soon meant only separate and led
to Jim Crow South with rigid social code
The Progressive Era
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Lone dissenter wrote: “The constitution is
colorblind.”
Supreme Court ruled against many of the
protections that were created in the
aftermath of the Civil War and Southern
states readily followed along.
The Progressive Era
Founding of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
In 1909, progressive reformers were
concerned about outbreaks of violence.
Oswald Garrison Villard called for a
conference to discuss the problem.
• Publisher of New York Evening Post
• Grandson of William Lloyd Garrison
• Group evolved into NAACP
• Also included W.E.B. DuBois
The Progressive Era
Also, the Progressive Era brought a
revitalization in women’s rights fight.
• Susan B. Anthony led the National
American Woman Suffrage Association
• National Consumer’s League
In a lawsuit about a limit to a woman’s
workday, a NCL lawyer (and future Court
justice) named Louis Brandeis urged
members to put together materials for the
trial.
The Progressive Era
Brandeis Brief
Over 100 pages of legal arguments and
more non-legal, sociological data to
convince the Court. Court relied heavily on
these data to document women’s unique
status as mothers to justify their differential
legal treatment.
• Use of sociological data in a legal brief
would become popular in many social
justice movements.
The Progressive Era
Suffrage Movement
The drive for voting rights for women that
took place in the United States from 18901920.
• Took on racist overtones in some places
“the enfranchisement of women would
ensure immediate and durable white
supremacy,” according to some members
of NAWSA.
The Progressive Era
Nineteenth Amendment
Guaranteed women the right to vote. After
passage, the unity of women’s groups
largely disintegrated and would not emerge
again until the 1960s.
Litigating for Equality
In 1930s, NAACP felt the time was right to
challenge constitutionality of Plessy.
Traditional legislative channels were
unlikely to work, given blacks’ limited or
nonexistent political power. So, federal
courts were used with a long-range
litigation strategy.
Litigating for Equality
Test Cases
Part of NAACP litigation strategy. Use of
strategic litigation to test the
constitutionality of discriminatory policy and
establish precedent.
NAACP first challenged constitutionality of
Jim Crow law schools because:
• Something judges would relate to
• Integration seen as less threatening to
whites than grade school
Litigating for Equality
•
Lloyd Gaines at University of Missouri Law
School in 1936
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
After Gaines, NAACP set up LDF to carefully
craft cases based on education. Felt that Court
would be amenable to NAACP’s broader goals
if challenges first encompassed nonthreatening issues of educational opportunity.
• First NAACP LDF head was Thurgood
Marshall.
Litigating for Equality
• H.M. Sweatt at U. of Texas Law School
• George McLaurin at U of OK Doctoral
Program
Supreme Court heard both cases together.
Lots of amicus briefs submitted. Ruling:
Court did not overturn Plessy, but did rule
that both cases failed to live up to separate
but equal doctrine.
Litigating for Equality
After these test cases, LDF felt time was
right to launch a full-scale attack on
separate but equal.
• Decisions of Court had been favorable
• Position of U.S. government
• Population in general seemed more
receptive
Challenge came in form of Brown.
Litigating for Equality
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Landmark Court decision holding that
school segregation is inherently
unconstitutional because it violates the
Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of
equal protection.
• Most important civil rights case in the
20th century.
Litigating for Equality
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Equal Protection Clause
Section of the Fourteenth Amendment that
guarantees that all citizens receive “equal
protection under the law.”
Litigating for Equality
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Consisted of four cases
• Argued by Thurgood Marshall and LDF
lawyers
• LDF proved intellectual, psychological,
and financial damage of segregation
• Lots of amicus briefs
• Big backlash in the South
• Implementation?
Civil Rights Movement
Brown v. Board of Education II (1955)
One year after Brown, Court ruled that
segregated schools systems must
dismantle “with all deliberate speed.”
• Court placed enforcement in hands of
federal district judges because of
immunity from politics
• NAACP LDF continued to use courts to
make sure Brown was implemented.
Civil Rights Movement
South entered into near conspiracy to avoid
rulings and mandates
• Faubus in Arkansas, for example
Cooper v. Aaron (1958)
“No state legislator or executive or judicial
officer can war against the Constitution
without violating his undertaking to support
it.”
• “Evasive schemes” were illegal
Civil Rights Movement
New Move for Rights
• Rosa Parks
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Federal court ruled that segregated
buses violated the equal protection
clause.
• SCLC
• SNCC
Civil Rights Movement
King targeted massive nonviolent
demonstrations in Birmingham, AL.
• Triggered violent response from
Birmingham police commissioner.
• Shocked the nation
• Events led to proposal of civil rights
legislation
Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
JFK requested a law banning
discrimination in public accommodations.
King seized on momentum and organized
March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom in August of 1963. Bill was
passed during LBJ’s administration.
• Passage was not smooth.
Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Outlawed segregation in public facilities
and racial discrimination in employment,
education, and voting. Created the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC).
• Many challenged the constitutionality of
the law, saying Congress did not have
that type of power.
Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. US (1964)
Did Congress, in passing Title II of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 exceed its Commerce
Clause powers by depriving motels, such
as the Hear of Atlanta, of the right to
choose their own customers? NO.
Civil Rights Movement
Legacy of C.R.A of 1964 in Education
Even 10 years after Brown, in 1964, fewer
than 1% of African American children in
South attended integrated schools.
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg S.D.
(1971)
All vestiges of de jure discrimination must
be eliminated at once. Also, lower courts
had authority to fashion a wide range of
remedies (busing, racial quotas, etc.)
Civil Rights Movement
Legacy of C.R.A of 1964 in Education
De Jure
Racial segregation that is a direct result of
law or official policy
De Facto
Racial discrimination that results from
practice (like housing patterns or other
social factors) rather than the law
• Segregation in North?
Civil Rights Movement
Legacy of C.R.A of 1964 in Employment
Title VII of the C.R.A. of 1964 prohibits
employers from discrimination against
employees for a variety of reasons (race,
sex, age, national origin, pregnancy).
Court ruled that an employer could be
found liable for discrimination if the effects
of employment practices exclude minorities
from certain positions.
Civil Rights Movement
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Put in place federal authority to protect the
right of African Americans to vote.
• Eliminated literacy tests.