4: Jim Crow Era (De Jure Segregation)

Black and white soldiers working side by side in WWII
set an important non-judicial precedent. How is that so?

In your writing for Essay 1, you talked about national dialogues and national debates. You saw that how people talk about social issues or political points of contention often entails  speech, literally, such as Frederick Douglass' public appearances in which he denounced slavery. But you also saw that social activists and political actors can "speak" through their actions as well — Congress adopting the Fugitive Slave Act, John Brown staging a revolt, the states ratifying the 14th Amendment, and so on.

Now, think about those events and others we've discussed so far through the lens of two theoretical frameworks: popular constitutionalism and non-judicial precedents. How can you discuss such events in ways that demonstrate those theories in action? How can you borrow terms and concepts from the theories to make the case that events such as these support — or deny — the robustness of these theories? Do the theories help describe these events? Do the theories help predict follow-on events?

Events on the Road to Brown

Two famous Supreme Court cases marked the beginning and end of the Jim Crow Era: Plessy v. Ferguson gave legal cover to "separate but equal" and ushered in de jure segregation, and Brown v. the Board overturned Plessy and outlawed "separate but equal."

In between those two judicial pronouncements, non-judicial actors on both sides of the debate did their best to make their voices heard in the national dialogue surrounding the struggle for black civil rights. Think about the following develops and how you could cast them as creating non-judicial precedents that might have affected the evolution of the debate:

"The Birth of a Nation"

Ku Klux Klan

African-Americans in WWII

Executive Order 9981