As a legal progeny, the Brown case was the last of three cases in which the Supreme Court interpreted the status of black Americans as citizens.
In the 1857 Dred Scott case, the Court ruled that blacks as slaves were not citizens of the United States and “are so far inferior that they have no rights which the white man is bound to respect.” Although the Civil War and the enactment of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution invalidated the Dred Scott case, the opinion written by Chief Justice Roger Taney clearly presents the beliefs of the contemporary Brown case bashers.
The second case in the trilogy was Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision in which the Supreme Court authored the “separate but equal” interpretation of the 13th and 14th Amendments. Had the southern states obeyed the mandate of the court in the Plessy case, black Americans would have had no complaints. Instead, the holding in the Plessy case was ignored by the South altogether, and the dicta in the opinion was perverted, in order to resurrect the long dead Dred Scott ruling, that black Americans had no rights whatsoever as United States citizens.
After the Plessy case, every right that all Americans are guaranteed under our Constitution was denied black Americans in the South. The right to vote, due process in criminal and civil cases, and the right to profitably participate in the free enterprise system were all abridged by southern state legislation.
During the years between the Plessy and Brown cases, 3,441 black Americans were lynched. The practice of murdering blacks for alleged crimes without a trial, for attempting to vote or for simply demanding respect were cherished southern customs. “Separate but equal” also meant that for every dollar spent on a black child’s education, five dollars would be spent for a white child.
Critics of the Brown decision contend that the Supreme Court abused its power by respecting neither the sovereign laws of the southern states, nor their customs and social codes. This faulty reasoning developed because the South had ignored federal law for so long, it forgot that it had lost the Civil War. Since Nixon v. Herndon, the 1927 case that outlawed the all-white primary, the South had ignored many Supreme Court cases, all less socially intrusive than Brown. And hypocritically, the South did not even respect its own state laws where there was the potential danger of a black American receiving justice.
The Brown decision acknowledged that the Civil War removed race as a condition of U.S. citizenship, and established federal supremacy over the states. Legally, politically and emotionally, we define ourselves as U.S. citizens and upon it place far greater importance than state citizenship. This is why we pledge allegiance to the United States of America and sing our National Anthem.
Young Americans should be taught that the Brown case is the foundation upon which all legal claims to full citizenship for black Americans has been built. This case was the first step in ending apartheid in all areas of American life. But for the Brown case, there would be no Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Braves or Charlotte Hornets. Michael Jordan could not have played for North Carolina because it violated both written and unwritten laws, for blacks and whites to play with or against each other in the South. The Cosby Show would have never been aired.
The inspiration that the Brown case gives young Americans is that our Constitution is a living document, and that Americans evolve ideologically and improve themselves. A relevant example of this evolution was Justice Hugo Black, a member of the Supreme Court who participated in the Brown decision.
Although a Southerner and a former Ku Klux Klan member, Black realized that constitutionally, regional customs cannot prevail over the rights of any American. Justice Black found the strength and character to change his racist views and help his country take a giant step forward.
Unfortunately, 40 years after Brown v. The Board of Education, there are some who still believe that a black American has “no rights which the white man is bound to respect.”
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