The United States Supreme Court and the Segregation Issue
| Author | Rayford W. Logan |
| Published date | 01 March 1956 |
| Date | 01 March 1956 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625630400104 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
10
The
United
States
Supreme
Court
and
the
Segregation
Issue
By
RAYFORD
W.
LOGAN
*
*
The
author
gratefully
acknowledges
his
in-
debtedness
to
Professors
Charles
W.
Quick
and
Howard
Jenkins,
Jr.,
of
the
Howard
Univer-
sity
Law
School,
Mr.
A.
Mercer
Daniel,
Li-
brarian
of
the
Law
School,
and
Professor
Harold
O.
Lewis
of
the
Department
of
His-
tory
for
aid
in
locating
the
relevant
cases;
to
Professor
Quick
and
Professor
John
Hope
Franklin
of
the
Department
of
History
for
a
critical
reading
of
the
article.
F ROM
the
1870’s
to
the
beginning
JL
of
this
century
the
status
of
the
Negro
in
the
United
States
steadily
worsened.’
Then
ensued
a
decade
that
has
been
aptly
termed
&dquo;a
low,
rugged
plateau,&dquo;
2 during
which
a
few
Negro
leaders
and
white
supporters
began
to
campaign
militantly
against
what
is
now
called
second-class
citizenship.
World
War
I,
the
Great
Depression,
and
the
New
Deal,
World
War
II
and
the
cold
war,
have
greatly
accelerated
nation-
wide
changes
which
facilitated
gains
for
Negroes
that
few
persons
at
the
begin-
ning
of
the
century
could
have
envi-
sioned.
These
gains
embraced
prac-
tically
every
aspect
of
Negro
life,
and
they
have
greatly
altered
the
climate
of
opinion
with
respect
to
the
status
of
the
Negro
in
the
American
democracy.
An
increasing
number
of
Negro
leaders
and
their
supporters,
keeping
pace
with
and
sometimes
moving
ahead
of
these
gains,
have
recently
renounced
the
goal
of
equality
within
a
segregated
society
and
have
urgently
advocated
desegregation
and
integration.
ERA
OF
ADVERSE
DECISIONS
(1873-1910)
The
decisions
of
the
Supreme
Court
have
both
reflected
and
helped
to
de-
termine
the
changing
status
and
goals.
From
shortly
after
the
Civil
War
to
the
end
of
the
first
decade
of
this
century,
most
decisions
furthered
the
declining
status
of
the
Negro.
The
Court
virtu-
ally
nullified
the
privileges
and
immuni-
ties
clause
of
the
Fourteenth
Amend-
ment
by
declaring
that
it
protected
only
rights
that
inhere
in
United
States
citizenship
and
that
most
rights
inhere
in
state
citizenship.
It
held
unconsti-
tutional
most
of
the
important
provi-
sions
of
the
Civil
Rights
Act
of
May
31,
1870, the
Ku
Klux
Klan
Act
of
April
20,
1871,
and
the
Civil
Rights
Act
of
March
1,
1875.
These
decisions
declared
that
the
Fourteenth
Amend-
ment
was
prohibitory
upon
states
and
not
upon
individuals
and
that
the
Fif-
teenth
Amendment
was
applicable
only
when
the
denial
of
the
right
to
vote
was
based
upon
race,
color,
or
previous
condition
of
servitude.3
The
Court
held
unconstitutional
a
Louisiana
law
forbidding
discrimination
in
interstate
commerce
on
the
ground
1
See
Logan,
The
Negro
in
American
Life
and
Thought:
The
Nadir,
1877-1901
(New
York,
1954).
2
Henry
Arthur
Callis,
M.D.,
Washington,
D.
C.,
a
student
at
Cornell
University
at
the
time,
suggested
this
phrase.
3
The
relevant
decisions
are
Slaughterhouse
Cases,
16
Wallace
36
(1873) ;
United
States
v.
Cruikshank,
92
U.
S.
542
(1875);
United
States
v.
Reese,
92
U.
S.
214
(1876);
United
States
v.
Harris,
106
U.
S.
629
(1883) ;
Civil
Rights
Cases,
109
U.
S.
3
(1883).
They
may
be
conveniently
consulted
in
Thomas
I.
Emer-
son
and
David Haber
(Eds.),
Political
and
Civil
Rights
in
the
United
States:
A
Collec-
tion
of
Legal
and
Related
Materials
(Buffalo,
1952).
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