PvF
- 14th Amendment was originally used to keep states from interfering with big businesses
- 13th Amendment interpretation is restricted in “the Slaughter House Cases” when Justice Miller argued that the 13th Amendment was created only to abolish slavery
- 14th Amendment interpretation is restricted in “United States v. Cruikshank” where Justice Field argued that it provided no federal protection against actions committed by one person against another
- did the 13th Amendment abolish slavery or was it intended to eliminate all discrimination that threatened to perpetuate what Justice Taney called “deep and enduring marks of inferiority and degradation”
- Court opted for the more narrow view
- 14th Amendment protected only civil rights
- 1875 Civil Rights Act guaranteed full and equal enjoyment by all people within the jurisdiction of the United States of accommodations, public transportation on land and water, theaters, and other places of public amusement
- “Civil Rights Cases” ruled most of the provisions unconstitutional
- New South: the South that had emerged from the Civil War and looked to the future
- Henry W. Grady thought of Radical Reconstruction as a revolution in 3 steps imposed on the South
- 1. establish equal economic rights for African Americans by abolishing slavery
- 2. eliminate race as a barrier to suffrage
- 3. guarantee equal social and civil rights through the Civil Rights Act on 1875
- In the “Civil Rights Cases” the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had authority to pass laws prohibiting only discriminatory actions by states, not by private citizens
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- Louisiana argued that its law was a constitutionally mandated use of set power to secure the public good by preserving the peace and health of the community
- Plessy argued that his protection under the 14th Amendment was being violated and that there could be no health reasons keeping blacks and whites separated because nurses tended to children of both races
- Tourgee argued that the real evil lies not in the color of the skin but in the relationship the colored person has with whites and that the real intention of the law was to promote happiness for whites at the expense of blacks
- Tourgee also argued that racial mixing has made it impossible to tell who is black and who is white, and such a difficult decision should not be left up to a train conductor
- Tourgee argued that the reputation of being white is a piece of property
- Tourgee tried to establish that the 13th and 14th Amendments created affirmative rights and that the assortment of people according to race violated the 13th Amendment by perpetuating the essential features of slavery
- Plessy v. Ferguson ruling
- 13th Amendment argument thrown out by citing the strict interpretation from the “Slaughter House Cases”
- 14th Amendment argument was thrown out based on logic relied on the distinction between political and social equality and the assumption that the social difference between races had a foundation in the “nature of things”
- used “Roberts v. City of Boston to argue that if Massachusetts could justify segregated schools, the Louisiana law looked less like an unreasonable product of southern racial prejudice
- cited antimiscegenation laws as proof of the universally recognized power of states to enact ordinances separating the races
- evoked “Civil Rights Cases” to justify “separate but equal” train cars
- it was not denied that reputation could be property but Plessy was not considered white under Louisiana law, so this argument was invalid
- it was concluded that the definition of race was a state issue and not a federal government issue
- an equal but separate law did not violate standards
- argued that a fallacy of Tourgee’s argument was that it was assumed that blacks and whites were not treated equally, but since whites could not ride in the train car designated for blacks, the separate but equal standard was upheld
- argued that a second fallacy was the assumption that legislation was needed to overcome social prejudices, but Brown argued that if two races were to meet on terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities
- in conclusion Brown argued that if one race be inferior to another, the Constitution cannot out them on the same plane
- Harlan’s Dissent
- argued that the purpose of the Louisiana law was to regulate the use of a public highway (railroads were considered highways in this period) by citizens of the United States based solely on race
- he set out to prove that the Louisiana law was unconstitutional
- argued that everyone knew that the purpose of this law was to exclude colored people from coaches designed for whites
- he worried that if the Court condoned these laws then it would allow states to pass laws separating people by religion and other criteria
- argued that the Constitution is color-blind and neither knows or tolerates classes among citizens
- “the guarantee of equality proved but a thin disguise for instituting a regime of repressive racial segregation”
TMM
- appeals to reason have been used throughout history to enshrine existing hierarchies as proper and inevitable
- biological determinism: the notion that people at the bottom are constructed of inferior material
- hard-liners: believed blacks were inferior and held that their biological status justified enslavement and colonization
- soft-liners: agreed blacks were inferior but held that people’s right to freedom did not depend on their intelligence level
- monogenism (degenerationism): origin from a single source (Adam + Eve)
- polygenists: races are separate biological species (from different Adams)
- recapitulation: the idea that higher creatures repeat the adult stages of lower animals during their own growth
- polygeny was one of the first theories of largely American origin that won the attention and respect of European scientists
- Agassiz was the leading spokesperson for polygeny
- Agassiz’s predisposition to polygeny arose from 2 aspects of his personal theories and methods
- Agassiz developed a theory about “centers of creation” where species were crated in their proper places and did not generally migrate far from these centers
- Agassiz was a splitter in his taxonomic practice who was probably tempted to view human races as separate creations
- Agassiz believed the tale of Adam and Eve referred only to the creation of caucasians
- Agassiz urged politicians to refuse social equality to African-Americans because “no man has a right to what he is unfit to use”
- Agassiz was terrified of amalgamation but could not explain why “interbreeding” among races was common
- Agassiz’s paper is typical of it’s genre at this time because it advocated for social policy while being disguised as a scientific inquiry
English 2089 