The Civil Rights Act of 1875 in essence, gave African Americans the right to access public places. The original idea for the act was largely the brainchild of radical Republican senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. Sumner was a supreme advocate of civil rights for African Americans, and said that the Civil Rights act, if passed, would be the greatest achievement of the Reconstruction Era. He proclaimed that, “Very few measures of equal importance have ever been presented.”
Charles Sumner passed away in 1874, and never got to see the fruits of his efforts. Just one year later Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It essentially granted basic freedoms to African Americans. Specifically, they were no longer restricted from public institutions and areas based on their race. The actual text of part of the act reads, “that all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude.” The law also gave all citizens who were denied of the rights guaranteed by the act the right to sue for personal damages.
However, in 1883, the court ruled that the Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional, and overthrew it. The basis of their argument for unconstitutionality lay in the wording of the fourteenth amendment. Section One of the Amendment reads, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The key part of this resolution was “no state.” The court argued that the amendment prohibits states from discriminating against individual rights, however, it says nothing about private citizens. They argued that private citizens are allowed to legally discriminate if they want to, as there is nothing in the fourteenth amendment that says that an individual such as a conductor has to guarantee a U.S. citizen a spot on his train.
This decision outraged the African American community and many whites as well. Bishop Henry McNeil Turner raged that, “The world has never witnessed such barbarous laws entailed upon a free people as have grown out of the decision of the United States Supreme Court, issued October 15, 1883.” Chief Justice Harlan also issued a dissent against the ruling. He argued that in the past, the court had protected the rights of slave masters, but they are now refusing to protect the rights of former slaves. The court is giving former slaves different treatment than slave masters received under the law, and therefore the law is unjust.
Many people also opposed the bill because they believed it paved the way for segregation. The overturning of the act gave African Americans a status as second class citizens. Justice Henry Brown, during the course of the Plessy v. Ferguson case, stated "one race be inferior to the other socially, the constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane." The overturning of the act paved the way for Plessy v. Ferguson, which said that segregation was lawful under the constitution. It was not till 1964 that another attempt was made by the courts to protect the civil rights of African Americans.
It seems many different factors contributed to eventual “destroying” of African American rights in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. How influential do you think the overturning of the Civil Rights Act was in paving the way for Plessy v. Ferguson?
Sources:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv
Nice Post Sitara. I think it's really interesting that Harlan, the only former slave owner, was the only one who opposed the act on the court. I think if the Civil rights act wasn't overturned, Plessy v. Ferguson may never have even happened.
ReplyDeleteI think that regardless of the Civil Rights Act, Plessy v. Ferguson would happen because as it says citizens are allowed to privately discriminate since freed slaves after the Civil Rights Act were just citizens. Adding the fact that the Louisiana State Legislature 1890, which in itself was a precursor to the separate but equal facilities, the issue of racial segregation would have come up one way or another because of discrimination and racism.
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