The Spirit of Brown
The Spirit of Brown
This chapter lays the foundation for an understanding of the socio-legal race problem and possible solutions. It begins with the Supreme Court’s inglorious racial history in which the Court, from DredScott up to Brownv.BoardofEducation, engaged in a pattern and practice of sabotaging black equality granted by Congress. Racial oppression, including the torture and murder of blacks without trial, was part of a national narrative largely written by the Supreme Court. Brown was a conscious attempt by the Court to reverse its inglorious racial past. Brown had a profound effect on racial progress, changing the legal status of blacks which in turn greatly improved their socioeconomic and socio-cultural position in our society. But the Court, in the years following this landmark decision, did not remain faithful to the spirit of Brown. It began to impede black progress through its civil rights rulings by suppressing the black equality interest litigated in those cases. This is juridical subordination, which can be resolved if the Supreme Court remains faithful to the spirit of Brown. This is good social policy.
Keywords: Brown v. Board of Education, Civil rights statutes, Cold War, Dred Scott v. Sanford, Amendments to the Constitution—Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Judge Louis Pollack, Judge Robert Carter, NAACP, Plessy v. Ferguson, Sweatt v. Painter
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