A LEGAL HISTORY OF NEGRO PROGRESS

The Negro revolution is presently characterized by acts--at lunch counters, on the streets, behind prison bars. But these acts would be far less effective were it not for words--the words of the U.S. Constitution, of constitutional amendments, of judges, and acts of Congress, words given the force of law by presidential fiat. In the beginning, such words held Negroes in enslavement. From time to time, they slowed the Negro's march toward legal equality. Today, they are the license for action. Some key words in the long progression:

1787 U.S. Constitution, Art. IV, Sec. 2.

No person held to service or labour in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due.

1857 Supreme Court's Dred Scott Decision

The question is simply this: Can a Negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guaranteed by that instrument to the citizen? We think not. On the contrary, [Negroes] were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings . . . altogether unfit to associate with the white race.

1863 Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free.

1865 13th Amendment to the Constitution

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

1866 Act of Congress

All persons born in the United States are hereby declared to be citizens; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery, shall have the same right as is enjoyed by white citizens.

1868 14th Amendment to the Constitution

All persons born or naturalized are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens; 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.

1870 15th Amendment to the Constitution

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

1896 Supreme Court's Separate-But-Equal Doctrine

We cannot say that a law [in Louisiana, establishing separate-but-equal railway accommodations] which authorizes or even requires the separation of the two races in public conveyances is unreasonable.

1954-55 Supreme Court's Desegregation Decisions

In the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. The effect of this separation was well stated by a Kansas court: "Segregation with the sanction of law has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of Negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racially integrated school system." The lower courts should require "a prompt and reasonable start toward full compliance," and solutions to local problems should be worked out "with all deliberate speed."

1963 Supreme Court's Redefinition of "Speed"

It was never contemplated that the concept of "deliberate speed" would countenance indefinite delay in elimination of racial barriers in schools . . . The basic guarantees of our Constitution are warrants for the here and now, and unless there is an overwhelmingly compelling reason, they are to be promptly fulfilled.

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