The Hughes Court and the Beginning of the End of the Separate but Equal Doctrine (original) (raw)

Abstract

This Article was co-authored by Mr. Smith in his private capacity. No official support or endorsement by the EPA or any other agency of the federal government is intended or should be inferred.

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References (6)

  1. Thus, grossly inequitable practices such as the closing of a county's only black high school, Cumming v. Richmond County Bd. of Educ., 175 U.S. 528 (1899), a state's prohibition of integrated private schools, Berea College v. Kentucky, 211 U.S. 45 (1908), and the exclusion of all non-whites from white schools in a dual school system, Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927), were found to satisfy the state's obligation to provide equal protection to its citizens. [Vol. 76:1099 les; Troops Enforce Surreal Calm, N.Y. TIMES, May 3, 1992, at Al; Richard W. Stevenson, Toll is 38 in Los Angeles Riots But Violence Seems to Abate; Bush Dispatches Force of 5,000, N.Y. TIMES, May 2, 1992, at Al.
  2. John E. Jacob, Black America, 1991: An Overview, in 1992 STATE OF BLACK AMERICA, supra note 137, at 1, 1.
  3. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Racism in American and South African Courts: Similarities and Differences, 65 N.Y.U. L. REV. 479, 587 (1990).
  4. Three years ago, Justice Blackmun, speaking about a seemingly con- sistent majority of five Supreme Court justices on key civil rights and race re- lations cases, observech "Sadly ... [o]ne wonders whether the majority [of Supreme Court Justices] still believes that . .. race discrimination-or more accurately, race discrimination against nonwhites-is a problem in our society, or even remembers that it ever was." Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio, 109
  5. S. Ct. 2115, 2136 (1989) (Blackmun, J., dissenting) (citation omitted). If there is a retreat in the Supreme Court's traditional role in the protection of human rights, such a demise becomes even more tragic because of other events that are taking place in the United States. As Dr. Bernard C. Watson has so aptly observed- Ominous currents are swirling across the nation's landscape, and they presage profound and disturbing questions about the future of these United States. David Duke's recent emergence as a political force in Louisiana represents only the most visible sign of widespread discon- tent. Recent polls, focus groups, and annual surveys provide evidence of deteriorating racial and ethnic relations in this country.
  6. Bernard C. Watson, The Demographic Revolution: Diversity in the 21st Cen- tury America, in NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE, INC., THE STATE OF BLACK AMERICA: 1991, at 13, 13 (Billy J. Tidwell ed., 1991).