1.
Supreme Court of the United States
–
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Chief Justice Marshall
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
–
The Roberts Court, October 2010 Back row (left to right):
Sonia Sotomayor,
Stephen G. Breyer,
Samuel A. Alito, and
Elena Kagan. Front row (left to right):
Clarence Thomas,
Antonin Scalia,
Chief Justice John Roberts,
Anthony Kennedy, and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Roberts, John
John Roberts (
Chief Justice)
2.
United States Reports
–
The United States Reports are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceedings of the Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the court in each case, prepended with a prepared by the Reporter of Decisions. For lawyers, citations to United States Reports are the reference for Supreme Court decisions. Following Bluebook, a commonly accepted citation protocol, the case Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, for example, would be cited as, Brown v. Bd. of Educ. The early volumes of the United States Reports were originally published privately by the individual Supreme Court Reporters, as was the practice in England, the reports were designated by the names of the reporters who compiled them, Dallass Reports, Cranchs Reports, etc. The decisions appearing in the entire first volume and most of the volume of United States Reports are not decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Instead, they are decisions from various Pennsylvania courts, dating from the colonial period, alexander Dallas, a lawyer and journalist, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had been in the business of reporting these cases for newspapers and periodicals. He subsequently began compiling his case reports in a bound volume and this would come to be known as the first volume of Dallas Reports. Dallas continued to collect and publish Pennsylvania decisions in a volume of his Reports. When the Supreme Court began hearing cases, he added those cases to his reports, starting towards the end of the volume,2 Dallas Reports. Dallas went on to publish a total of four volumes of decisions during his tenure as Reporter, when the Supreme Court moved to Washington, D. C. in 1800, Dallas remained in Philadelphia, and William Cranch took over as unofficial reporter of decisions. In 1817, Congress made the Reporter of Decisions an official, salaried position, in 1874, the U. S. government began to fund the reports publication, creating the United States Reports. The earlier, private reports were retroactively numbered volumes 1–90 of the United States Reports, therefore, decisions appearing in these early reports have dual citation forms, one for the volume number of the United States Reports, and one for the set of nominate reports. For example, the citation to McCulloch v. Maryland is 17 U. S.316
United States Reports
–
Volumes of the United States Reports on the shelf at a
law library
3.
Equal Protection Clause
–
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The meaning of the Equal Protection Clause has been the subject of much debate and this clause was the basis for Brown v. The Equal Protection Clause itself applies only to state and local governments, however, the Supreme Court held in Bolling v. Sharpe that equal protection requirements apply to the federal government through the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Before and during the Civil War, the Southern states violated the rights of speech of pro-Union citizens, anti-slavery advocates. During the Civil War, the Southern states stripped many white citizens of their citizenship and banished them from the states. Shortly after the Union victory in the American Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1865, many ex-Confederate states then adopted Black Codes following the war. These laws severely restricted the rights of blacks to hold property, including property and many forms of personal property. These codes also created harsher criminal penalties for blacks than for whites, because of the inequality these Black Codes imposed, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This Act provided that all born in the United States were citizens. Full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, president Andrew Johnson Vetoed the Civil Rights bill of 1866 amid concerns that Congress did not have the constitutional authority to pass such a law. Such doubts were one factor that led Congress to begin to draft, moreover, Congress wanted to protect white Unionists who were under personal and legal attack in the former Confederacy. The effort was led by the Radical Republicans of both houses of Congress, including John Bingham, Charles Sumner, and Thaddeus Stevens, the most important among these, however, was Bingham, a Congressman from Ohio, who drafted the language of the Equal Protection Clause. The Southern states were opposed to the Civil Rights Act, but in 1865 Congress, exercising its power under Article I, section 5, clause 1 of the Constitution, to be the Judge of the. Qualifications of its own Members, had excluded Southerners from Congress, declaring that their states, having rebelled against the Union, could therefore not elect members to Congress. It was this fact that the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted by a rump Congress—that allowed the Equal Protection Clause to be passed by Congress. Its ratification by the former Confederate states was made a condition of their reacceptance into the Union, during the debate in Congress, more than one version of the clause was considered. Here is the first version, The Congress shall have power to all laws which shall be necessary
Equal Protection Clause
–
Congressman
John Bingham of
Ohio was the principal framer of the Equal Protection Clause.
Equal Protection Clause
–
The Court that decided Plessy
Equal Protection Clause
–
The
U.S. Supreme Court Building opened in 1935, inscribed with the words "
Equal Justice Under Law " which were inspired by the Equal Protection Clause.
4.
Melville Fuller
–
Melville Weston Fuller was the eighth Chief Justice of the United States from 1888 to his death in 1910. Fuller was born in Augusta, Maine, the son of Catherine Martin, both his maternal grandfather, Nathan Weston and paternal grandfather, Henry Weld Fuller were judges. His father was a well-known lawyer and his parents divorced shortly after his birth, and he was raised by Nathan Weston. He attended college at Harvard University for one year before graduating from Bowdoin College and he then spent six months at Harvard Law School, leaving without graduating in 1855. Fuller first studied law under the direction of an uncle, in 1855, he went into partnership with another uncle. He also became the editor of The Age, a leading Democratic newspaper in Augusta, soon he got tired of Maine and moved to Chicago. In 1860, he managed Democrat Stephen Douglas campaign for the Presidency of the United States At the time, railroads had just linked it to the east. Fuller built a law practice in Chicago, within two years, he appeared before the Supreme Court of Illinois in the case of Beach v. Derby. He became an attorney in the city. He first appeared before the United States Supreme Court in the case of Traders Bank v. Campbell. He also argued the case of Tappan v. the Merchants National Bank of Chicago, which was the first case heard by Chief Justice Morrison Waite and he was a minor figure in Illinois politics. In 1876, he made the speech for Thomas Hendricks. After his inauguration as President, Grover Cleveland tried to make Fuller chairman of the United States Civil Service Commission, Cleveland then tried to persuade Fuller to accept appointment as Solicitor General of the United States, but Fuller again declined. In 1886, Fuller was president of the Illinois State Bar Association, on April 30,1888, President Grover Cleveland nominated him for the chief justice position following the death of Morrison R. Waite. Fuller was not the first man to be mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee and he had avoided military service during the Civil War, and while serving in the Illinois House of Representatives had attempted to block wartime legislation proposed by Governor Richard Yates. However, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 20,1888, by a vote of 41 to 20. He received his commission the same day, Fuller did not take the oath of office until October 8,1888. On the bench, he oversaw a number of memorable or important opinions, the famous phrase Equal Justice Under Law paraphrases his opinion in Caldwell v. Texas,137 U. S.692 where Fuller discussed equal and impartial justice under the law
Melville Fuller
–
Melville Fuller
Melville Fuller
–
Fuller's Chief Justice nomination
Melville Fuller
–
Chief Justice Fuller administering the oath to
William McKinley as
president in 1897. Outgoing president
Grover Cleveland stands to the right.
5.
Stephen Johnson Field
–
Stephen Johnson Field was an American jurist. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from March 10,1863, prior to this appointment, he was the fifth Chief Justice of California. Born in Haddam, Connecticut, he was the sixth of the nine children of David Dudley Field I, a Congregationalist minister, henry Martyn Field a prominent clergyman and travel writer. He grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and went to Turkey at thirteen with his sister Emilia and her missionary husband and he received a BA from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1837. While attending Williams College he was one of the original Founders of Delta Upsilon Fraternity, in California, Fields legal practice boomed and he was elected alcalde, a form of mayor and justice of the peace under the old Mexican rule of law, of Marysville. The voters sent him to the California State Assembly in 1850 to represent Yuba County and his successful legal practice led to his election to the California Supreme Court in 1857, serving six years. During his time on the Supreme Court of California, Field had a coat made with pockets large enough to hold two pistols so that he could shoot at his various enemies through the pockets. In 1858 he was challenged to a duel by a fellow Judge but at the dueling ground, neither man fired his gun. In 1859 Field replaced the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, David S. Terry because Judge Terry killed a United States Senator from California in a duel. Oddly, Field and Terrys paths crossed again 30 years later when Field, acting in his capacity as a judge of the 9th Federal Circuit Court, ruled against Terry in a convoluted divorce case. Seeking revenge, Terry attempted to kill Field in 1889 near Stockton, California but was shot dead by Justice Fields bodyguard. Ironically, legal issues arising from the killing of Mr. Terry came before the Supreme Court in the 1890 habeas corpus case of In re Neagle. On March 6,1863, Abraham Lincoln appointed Field to the newly created tenth Supreme Court seat, the appointment would also give the Court someone familiar with real estate and mining issues. Field was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 10,1863, Fields vocal advocacy of substantive due process was illustrated in his dissents to the Slaughterhouse Cases and Munn v. Illinois. In the Slaughter-House Cases, Justice Fields dissent focused on the Privileges or Immunities clause, in both Munn v Illinois and Mugler v Kansas, Justice Field based his dissent on the protection of property interests by the Due Process clause. One of Fields most notable opinions was his majority opinion in Pennoyer v. Neff and his views on due process were eventually adopted by the courts majority after he left the Supreme Court. In other cases he helped end the tax, limited antitrust law. On racial issues, Justice Field is regarded to have had a poor record
Stephen Johnson Field
–
Stephen Johnson Field
Stephen Johnson Field
6.
John Marshall Harlan
–
John Marshall Harlan was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky who served as an associate justice on the U. S. Supreme Court. Harlan was born at Harlans Station,5 miles west of Danville, Kentucky on Salt River Road and he attended school in Frankfort and then graduated from Centre College. Harlan entered Kentucky politics in 1851, and served a variety of positions, most notably Attorney General of Kentucky, when the American Civil War broke out, Harlan strongly supported the Union, although he opposed the Emancipation Proclamation and supported slavery. However, after the election of Ulysses S. Grant as President in 1868, he reversed his views, in 1877, Harlan was appointed a member of the Supreme Court. A Christian fundamentalist, Harlans Christian beliefs strongly shaped his views during his tenure as Supreme Court justice and these dissents, among others, led to his nickname of The Great Dissenter. Harlan died in 1911, at the age of 78, John had several older brothers, possibly including a mulatto half-brother, Robert James Harlan, born in 1816 into slavery. His father raised him in his own household and had the boy tutored by Richard and James Harlan, According to historian Allyson Hobbs, Robert became highly successful, making a fortune in the California Gold Rush before returning east and settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. He remained close to the other Harlans, she suggests this might have influenced his half-brother John Marshall Harlan, after attending school in Frankfort, John Harlan enrolled at Centre College. He was a member of Beta Theta Pi and graduated with honors, though his mother wanted Harlan to become a merchant, James insisted that his son follow him into the legal profession, and Harlan joined his fathers law practice in 1852. Harlan finished his education in his fathers law office. A member of the Whig Party like his father, Harlan got a start in politics. He served in the post for the eight years, which gave him a statewide presence. With the Whig Partys dissolution in the early 1850s, Harlan shifted his affiliation to the Know Nothings, during the 1860 presidential election, Harlan supported the Constitutional Union candidate, John Bell. In the secession crisis that followed Abraham Lincolns victory, Harlan sought to prevent Kentucky from seceding. When the state voted to create a new militia, Harlan organized and led a company of zouaves before recruiting a company that was mustered into the service as the 10th Kentucky Infantry. Harlan served in the Western Theater of the American Civil War until the death of his father James in February 1863, at that time, Harlan resigned his commission as colonel and returned to Frankfort to support his family. Three weeks after leaving the army, Harlan was nominated by the Union Party as their nominee to become the Attorney General of Kentucky, campaigning on a platform of vigorous prosecution of the war, he won the election by a considerable margin. As attorney general for the state, Harlan issued legal opinions, after losing a bid for re-election as attorney general, Harlan joined the Republican Party in 1868
John Marshall Harlan
–
John Marshall Harlan, Supreme Court collection, photograph by Handy Studios.
John Marshall Harlan
–
Signature
John Marshall Harlan
–
The Supreme Court, headed by Melville Fuller, 1889; with Harlan in the front row, 2nd from left.
John Marshall Harlan
–
John Marshall Harlan
7.
Horace Gray
–
Horace Gray was an American jurist who ultimately served on the United States Supreme Court. He was active in service and a great philanthropist to the City of Boston. Gray was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to the prominent Boston Brahmin merchant family of William Gray. He enrolled at Harvard College at the age of 13, graduated four years later and he studied law at Harvard, although he did not receive a degree. Gray entered the bar in 1851, Grays home later became the site of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist Horace Grays half-brother, John Chipman Gray went on to become a lawyer and long-time professor at Harvard Law School. This reputation made him a choice when a vacancy opened up on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1864. At age 36, Gray was youngest appointee in that courts history, while serving as chief justice, Gray hired Louis D. Brandeis as a clerk, becoming the first justice of that court to hire a clerk. In 1881, President Chester A. Arthur nominated Gray to a vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States, he was confirmed the following day, replacing Nathan Clifford. In 1889, Gray married Jane Matthews, who was the daughter of his colleague on the court. As he had been in Massachusetts, Gray was the first Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court to hire a law clerk and he used his own funds to pay the clerks salary, as no government money was appropriated for this purpose at the time. Gray served on the US Supreme Court for over 20 years, resigning in July,1902 and he was succeeded by a fellow Massachusetts native, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. who, like Gray, previously served on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. His opinions, both concurring and dissenting, were very long and weighted with legal history. Gray is well known for his decision in Pollock v. Farmers Loan & Trust Co, after the first hearing, Gray wrote that he sided with the defendant, arguing that the tax was indeed constitutional. He was in the minority, however, after the second hearing, Gray changed his stance, joining with the majority in favor of the plaintiff. He chose not to write a dissenting or concurring opinion, in either hearing, probably the most famous of Justice Grays opinions is Mut. This holding gained wide acceptance and is now codfied in Rule 803 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, Horace Gray was also the author of the 1898 case United States v.169 U. S.649,705. Horace Gray sided with the majority in the infamous case Plessy v. Ferguson that upheld racial segregation, samuel Williston who worked as Justice Grays private secretary Data drawn in part from the Supreme Court Historical Society and Oyez. Legal Historian on the United States Supreme Court, Justice Horace Gray, Jr. koslosky, Daniel Ryan, Ghosts of Horace Gray, Customary International Law as Expectation in Human Rights Litigation 97 Kentucky Law Journal 615
Horace Gray
–
Horace Gray
Horace Gray
–
Horace Gray circa 1850
8.
David Josiah Brewer
–
David Josiah Brewer was an American jurist and an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court for 20 years. Brewer was born to Emilia Field Brewer and Rev and his parents returned to the United States in 1838 and settled in Connecticut. Brewer attended college at Wesleyan University, where he was a member of the Mystical 7 Society, while at Yale, Brewer was a classmate of Henry Billings Brown and was greatly influenced by the political scientist-protestant minister Theodore Dwight Woolsey. After graduation, Brewer read law for one year in the office of his uncle David Dudley Field, then enrolled at Albany Law School in Albany, New York and he was named Commissioner of the Federal Circuit Court in Leavenworth in 1861. He left that court to become a judge to the Probate and Criminal Courts in Leavenworth in 1862 and he left that position in 1869 and became city attorney of Leavenworth. He was then elected to the Kansas Supreme Court in 1870, on March 25,1884, Brewer was nominated by President Chester A. Arthur to the United States circuit court for the Eighth Circuit, to a seat vacated by George Washington McCrary. This court later became the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Brewer was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 31, and received commission the same day. After 28 years on the bench, Brewer was nominated by Benjamin Harrison to the United States Supreme Court on December 4,1889, to a seat vacated by Stanley Matthews. Brewer was confirmed by the Senate on December 18, and received commission the same day, joining a court that included S. J. Field and he served on the court for 20 years, until his death in 1910. In this regard, University of Texas professor and Supreme Court historian Lucas Powe has noted and he was a vigorous defender of minority rights. In one case, he argued for stronger protections for women. Brewer was an member of the Supreme Court, writing often in both concurring and dissenting opinions. He was a contributor to the doctrine of substantive due process. In his time he frequently sided with the Courts majorities that struck down property rights restrictions, indeed, Justice Brewers book, The United States, A Christian Nation, published in 1905, contained the following passage, But in what sense can be called a Christian nation. Not in the sense that Christianity is the religion or the people are compelled in any manner to support it. On the contrary, the Constitution specifically provides that congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or in name Christians. On the contrary, all religions have free scope within its borders, numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all. In fact, the government as an organization is independent of all religions
David Josiah Brewer
–
David Brewer
David Josiah Brewer
–
Brewer's Supreme Court nomination
9.
Henry Billings Brown
–
Henry Billings Brown was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from December 29,1890 to May 28,1906. Brown was born in South Lee, Massachusetts, and grew up in Massachusetts and his was a New England merchant family. Brown entered Yale College at 16, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1856. Among his undergraduate classmates were Chauncey Depew, later a U. S, senator from New York, and David Josiah Brewer, who became Browns colleague on the Supreme Court. He completed his studies with a year at Yale Law School. Admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1860, Browns early law practice was in Detroit, Michigan, in 1864, Brown married Caroline Pitts, the daughter of a wealthy Michigan lumber merchant. He did not serve in the Union Army during the Civil War, Brown kept diaries from his college days until his appointment as a federal judge in 1875. Now held in the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library, the death of Browns father-in-law left Brown and his wife financially independent, he was willing to accept the relatively low salary of a federal judge. On March 17,1875, Brown was nominated by President Ulysses Grant to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan left vacant by the death of John Wesley Longyear. Brown was confirmed by the United States Senate two days later and immediately received his commission, Brown edited a collection of rulings and orders in important admiralty cases from inland waters, and later compiled a case book on admiralty law for lectures at Georgetown University. He also taught admiralty law classes at the University of Michigan Law School from 1860 to 1875, Brown was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on December 29,1890, and received his commission the same day. In an autobiographical essay, Brown commented While I had been attached to Detroit and its people. As a jurist, Brown was generally against government intervention in business, and concurred with the majority opinion in Lochner v. New York striking down a limitation on maximum working hours. He did, however, support the federal income tax in Pollock v. Farmers Loan & Trust Co. and wrote for the Court in Holden v. Hardy, in his opinion, Brown argued that the recognition of racial difference did not necessarily violate Constitutional principle. As long as equal facilities and services were available to all citizens, Plessy, which provided legal support for the system of Jim Crow Laws, was overruled by the Court in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. When issued, Plessy attracted relatively little attention, but in the late 20th century it came to be vilified, and Brown along with it. Justice Brown authored the Courts 1901 opinion in DeLima v. Bidwell, one of the Insular Cases and this judgement, which can be considered his valedictory address, was rendered 12 March 1906, a scant 10 weeks prior to his retirement. In 1891, he paid $25,000 to the Riggs family for land at 1720 16th Street, NW, in Washington, D. C. hired architect William Henry Miller and he would live in this house, later known as the Toutorsky Mansion, until his death
Henry Billings Brown
–
Henry Billings Brown
Henry Billings Brown
–
Henry Billings Brown at age 19 or 20, Yale College Graduation Picture, 1856
Henry Billings Brown
–
Political Cartoon Showing Justice Brown (standing, left-center) and the Court
Henry Billings Brown
–
US Supreme Court Justices in 1896
10.
George Shiras, Jr.
–
George Shiras Jr. was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who was nominated to the Court by Republican President Benjamin Harrison. At that time, he had 37 years of legal practice. Shirass only public service before he became a justice was as an elector in 1888. Shiras was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania January 26,1832 and he attended Ohio University and graduated from Yale College, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1853. He was recommended for the post by his cousin, Secretary of State James G. Blaine, Shiras was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 26,1892, and received his commission the same day. He sided with the majority in the 5–4 decision in Pollock to strike down the Income Tax Act of 1894 as unconstitutional, some historians believe Shiras was the pivotal Justice who switched his vote, while other historians suspect that it was either Justice Horace Gray or Justice David Brewer. Regardless, the ruling in Pollock led to the need for an amendment to impose a federal income tax, and in 1913. Shiras retired from the bench on February 23,1903, and remained in retirement until his death, in Pittsburgh and his son, George Shiras III, served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Pennsylvania. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 1789–1969, Their Lives, George Shiras Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center. George Shiras Jr. at Find a Grave
George Shiras, Jr.
–
George Shiras, Jr.
11.
Edward Douglass White
–
American politician and jurist, was a United States senator, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and the ninth Chief Justice of the United States, from 1910 to his death in 1921. He was best known for formulating the Rule of Reason standard of antitrust law and he sided with the Supreme Court majority in Plessy v. White was born in 1845 in his parents house, now known as the Edward Douglass White House. He was the son of Edward Douglass White, Sr. a former governor of Louisiana and he was a grandson of Dr. James White, a U. S. representative, physician, and judge. On his mothers side, he was the grandson of Tench Ringgold, appointed as a U. S. marshal of the District of Columbia under the James Monroe and he was also related on his maternal side to the Lee family of Virginia. The White familys large plantation in Louisiana was based on cultivating and processing for market sugar cane, Whites paternal ancestors were of Irish Catholic descent, and he was reared in that religion. He was a devout Roman Catholic his entire life and he studied first at the Jesuit College in New Orleans, then at Mount St. Mary’s College near Emmitsburg, Maryland. Last, he attended Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. where he was a member of the Philodemic Society, after the American Civil War, he returned to academic work and studied law at the University of Louisiana. Whites studies at Georgetown were interrupted by the American Civil War and this is questionable, as his widowed mother had remarried and was living with the rest of the family in New Orleans at the time. When he returned to Louisiana, it was probably to his home in New Orleans. It is possible that White enlisted in the Lafourche militia, as its muster rolls are not complete, there is no documentation, however, that White served in any Confederate volunteer unit or militia unit engaged in campaigns in the Lafourche area. Another account suggests that he was assigned as an aide to Confederate General W. N. R. Beall, Port Hudson had a garrison of 18,000 Confederate soldiers, but a numerically superior Union force surrounded it. After a siege lasting from May 21 to July 8,1863, but, Whites name does not appear on any list of prisoners captured at Port Hudson. According to another account of questionable reliability, White was supposedly sent to a Mississippi prisoner of war camp, when White was paroled, he supposedly returned to the family plantation, to find it abandoned, the canefields barren, and the place nearly empty of most former slaves. These records confirm his service as a lieutenant in Captain W. B, Barrows company of a Louisiana cavalry regiment, for all practical purposes a loosely organized band of irregulars or scouts. One organizing officer of regiment, which was sometimes called Barrows Regiment or the 9th Louisiana Cavalry Regiment, was Major Robert Pruyn. Pruyn served as courier relaying messages from Port Hudsons commander, General Franklin Gardner, to General Joseph E. Johnston, Pruyn escaped from Port Hudson prior to its surrender in the same manner. White was one of three soldiers to serve on the Supreme Court
Edward Douglass White
–
Edward White
Edward Douglass White
–
Edward White as a U.S. Senator
12.
Rufus Wheeler Peckham
–
Rufus Wheeler Peckham was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1895 until 1909. He was known for his use of substantive due process to invalidate regulations of business. Peckhams namesake father was also a lawyer and judge, and a representative and his older brother, Wheeler Hazard Peckham, was one of the lawyers who prosecuted Boss Tweed and a failed nominee to the Supreme Court. His other brother, Joseph Henry, died at 17, Peckham was born in Albany, New York, to Rufus Wheeler Peckham and Isabella Adeline, his mother died when he was only nine. After a decade of practice, Peckham served as the Albany district attorney from 1869 from 1872. Peckham then returned to legal practice and served as counsel to the City of Albany. In 1886, Peckham was elected to the New York Court of Appeals, while sitting as an associate judge on the New York Court of Appeals, Peckham also served as a member of the Albany Law School Board of Trustees. Peckham was active in local Democratic politics, and served as a New York delegate to the 1876 Democratic National Convention and he was also a confidant to such tycoons as J. Pierpont Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and John D. Rockefeller. Many believed these relationships predisposed Peckham to favor business interests while on the Supreme Court, Rufus Peckhams brother Wheeler was a nominee to the U. S. Supreme Court by President Grover Cleveland, in 1894. Peckham remains the last Supreme Court Justice nominated by a Democratic President when the Senate had a Republican majority, Peckhams most famous opinion was in Lochner v. In the same opinion, Peckham upheld other workplace regulations relating to facilities that he did believe justified limitations on the freedom of contract. Beyond Lochner, Peckham is perhaps best known for his interpretation of the Sherman antitrust law. On the other hand, he and Justice David Brewer were far more likely than any of their colleagues to vote in favor of Chinese litigants in the many cases that came before the Court. Justice Peckham authored the decision in Ex parte Young, which held that a federal court may issue an injunction against a State officer to prevent the enforcement of an invalid State law. Peckham served on the Court until his death on October 24,1909, at age 70, writing 303 opinions and he was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York, later to be joined by his wife, Harriette Maria Arnold. They both outlived both of their sons, Henry Arnold and Rufus Wheeler Jr. Ely, James W. Jr. Rufus W. Peckham and Economic Liberty
Rufus Wheeler Peckham
–
Rufus Wheeler Peckham
Rufus Wheeler Peckham
–
Peckham's Supreme Court nomination
Rufus Wheeler Peckham
–
Peckham's grave at
Albany Rural Cemetery
13.
Brown v. Board of Education
–
The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. Handed down on May 17,1954, the Warren Courts unanimous decision stated that educational facilities are inherently unequal. As a result, de jure segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and was a victory of the Civil Rights Movement. For much of the sixty years preceding the Brown case, race relations in the United States had been dominated by racial segregation, racial segregation in education varied widely from the 17 states that required racial segregation to the 16 in which it was prohibited. Brown was influenced by UNESCOs 1950 Statement, signed by a variety of internationally renowned scholars. This declaration denounced previous attempts at scientifically justifying racism as well as morally condemning racism, another work that the Supreme Court cited was Gunnar Myrdals An American Dilemma, The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Myrdal had been a signatory of the UNESCO declaration, the research performed by the educational psychologists Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark also influenced the Courts decision. The Clarks doll test studies presented substantial arguments to the Supreme Court about how segregation affected black schoolchildrens mental status, the plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their 20 children. The suit called for the district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. The plaintiffs had been recruited by the leadership of the Topeka NAACP, notable among the Topeka NAACP leaders were the chairman McKinley Burnett, Charles Scott, one of three serving as legal counsel for the chapter, and Lucinda Todd. The named plaintiff, Oliver L. Brown, was a parent, a welder in the shops of the Santa Fe Railroad, an assistant pastor at his church. He was convinced to join the lawsuit by Scott, a childhood friend, as directed by the NAACP leadership, the parents each attempted to enroll their children in the closest neighborhood school in the fall of 1951. They were each refused enrollment and directed to the segregated schools, linda Brown Thompson later recalled the experience in a 2004 PBS documentary. Like I say, we lived in a neighborhood and I had all of these playmates of different nationalities. And so when I found out that day that I might be able to go to their school, I was just thrilled, you know. And I remember walking over to Sumner school with my dad that day and going up the steps of the school, and I remember going inside and my dad spoke with someone and then he went into the inner office with the principal and they left me out. To sit outside with the secretary, and while he was in the inner office, I could hear voices and hear his voice raised, you know, as the conversation went on
Brown v. Board of Education
–
On May 17, 1954, these men, members of the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
Brown v. Board of Education
–
Educational segregation in the US prior to Brown
Brown v. Board of Education
–
U.S. circuit judges Robert A. Katzmann,
Damon J. Keith, and
Sonia Sotomayor at a 2004 exhibit on the
Fourteenth Amendment,
Thurgood Marshall, and Brown v. Board of Education
14.
US constitutional law
–
United States constitutional law is the body of law governing the interpretation and implementation of the United States Constitution. United States constitutional law defines the scope and application of the terms of the Constitution and it is a field of law that is broad and complex. Some constitutional scholars maintain that the authors of the Constitution intended that it be vague, others maintain that the provisions of the Constitution should be strictly construed and their provisions applied in a very literal manner. Early in its history, in Marbury v. Madison,5 U. S.137, according to this jurisprudence, when the Court measures a law against the Constitution and finds the law wanting, the Court is empowered and indeed obligated to strike down that law. This system of binding interpretations or precedents evolved from the law system. Before deciding a constitutional question, the Supreme Court may consider whether the court can avoid the question by basing its decision on a non-constitutional issue at dispute. Or, when reviewing a decision of a states highest court, Federal courts consider other doctrines before allowing a lawsuit to go forward, Actual dispute - the lawsuit concerns a case or controversy under the meaning of Article III, Section 2 of the U. S. Consistent with these doctrines, the Court considers itself prohibited from issuing advisory opinions where there is no case or controversy before them. These doctrines, because they apply to all federal cases whether of constitutional dimension or not, are discussed separately in the article on federal jurisdiction, other Justices have taken a more instrumentalist approach, believing it is the role of the Supreme Court to reflect societal changes. They often see the Constitution as a living, changing and adaptable document, compare, for example, the differing opinions of Justices Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is a more instrumentalist justice. Finally, there are some Justices who do not have a judicial philosophy. Debate continues over which, if any, of these strategies is better. Complicating the analysis is the lack of correspondence between the various interpretive strategies and contemporary notions of conservatism or liberalism. The balance reached was the model of federalism, a structure of management composed of divided powers between the governments of each of the states and a centralized federal government. The framers felt the states were in the best position to such movements. Accordingly, the Constitution explicitly enumerates the powers given to the federal government, in order to create a cohesive government, the framers felt certain powers must have belonged to a centralized authority. Conducting foreign affairs, for example, would be curtailed if not embarked upon in a nationally uniform manner. Similarly, a currency was of prime importance for a robust
US constitutional law
–
Constitutional Law of the United States
15.
US Supreme Court
–
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
US Supreme Court
–
Chief Justice Marshall
US Supreme Court
–
Supreme Court of the United States
US Supreme Court
–
The Roberts Court, October 2010 Back row (left to right):
Sonia Sotomayor,
Stephen G. Breyer,
Samuel A. Alito, and
Elena Kagan. Front row (left to right):
Clarence Thomas,
Antonin Scalia,
Chief Justice John Roberts,
Anthony Kennedy, and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
US Supreme Court
–
Roberts, John
John Roberts (
Chief Justice)
16.
Racial segregation
–
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. As a result, the act of separating oneself from other people on the basis of one of the enumerated grounds does not constitute segregation. Segregation may be maintained by means ranging from discrimination in hiring and in the rental, in the United States, segregation was mandated by law in some states and came with anti-miscegenation laws. Segregation, however, often allowed close contact in hierarchical situations, Segregation can involve spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, such as schools and hospitals by people of different races. Wherever there have been multiracial communities, there has been racial segregation, only areas with extensive miscegenation, or mixing, such as Hawaii and Brazil, despite some social stratification, seem to be exempt. Following its conquest of Ottoman controlled Algeria in 1830, for well over a century France maintained colonial rule in the territory which has described as quasi-apartheid. Camille Bonora-Waisman writes that, n contrast with the Moroccan and Tunisian protectorates and this internal system of apartheid met with considerable resistance from the Muslims affected by it, and is cited as one of the causes of the 1954 insurrection and ensuing independence war. In fifteenth-century north-east Germany, people of Wendish, i. e. Slavic, according to Wilhelm Raabe, down into the eighteenth century no German guild accepted a Wend. The ban on marriage was a part of the Nuremberg Laws. At first the laws were aimed primarily at Jews but were extended to Gypsies, Negroes. Aryans found guilty could face incarceration in a camp, while non-Aryans could face the death penalty. To preserve the purity of the German blood, after the war began. In an effort to split Polish identity they attempted to establish ethnic divisions of Kashubians and Gorals, based on these groups alleged Germanic component. During the 1930s and 1940s, Jews in Nazi-controlled states were made to wear yellow ribbons or stars of David, Jewish doctors were not allowed to treat Aryan patients nor were Jewish professors permitted to teach Aryan pupils. In addition, Jews were not allowed to use any public transportation, besides the ferry, after Kristallnacht, the Jews were fined 1,000,000 marks for damages done by the Nazi troops and SS members. Jews and Roma were subjected to genocide as undesirable racial groups in the Holocaust, the Nazis established ghettos to confine Jews and sometimes Romas into tightly packed areas of the cities of Eastern Europe, turning them into de facto concentration camps. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of these ghettos, with 400,000 people, the Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000. Between 1939 and 1945, at least 1.5 million Polish citizens were transported to the Reich for forced labour, although Nazi Germany also used forced laborers from Western Europe, Poles, along with other Eastern Europeans viewed as racially inferior, were subject to deeper discriminatory measures
Racial segregation
–
Nur für Deutsche ("Only for Germans") on the tram number 8 in German-occupied
Kraków, Poland.
Racial segregation
–
German warning in occupied Poland 1939 – "No entrance for Poles!"
Racial segregation
–
Young Polish girl wearing Letter "P" patch.
17.
Separate but equal
–
The phrase was derived from a Louisiana law of 1890, although the law actually used the phrase equal but separate. The doctrine was confirmed in the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896, in practice the separate facilities provided to African Americans were rarely equal, usually they were not even close to equal, or they did not exist at all. The doctrine was overturned by a series of Supreme Court decisions, however, the overturning of segregation laws in the United States was a long process that lasted through much of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, involving federal legislation, and many court cases. However Southern states contended that the requirement of equality could be met in a manner that kept the races separate and this rejection is evident in the Slaughter-House Cases and Civil Rights Cases. After the end of Reconstruction, the government adopted a general policy of leaving racial segregation up to the individual states. One example of policy was the second Morrill Act. Before the end of the war, the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act had provided funding for higher education by each state with the details left to the state legislatures. The 1890 Act which implicitly accepted the concept of separate. Prior to the Second Morrill Act,17 states excluded blacks from access to the land grant colleges without providing similar educational opportunities. In response to the Second Morrill Act,17 states established separate land grant colleges for blacks which are now referred to as public historically black colleges and universities. In fact, some states adopted laws prohibiting schools from educating blacks and whites together, the legitimacy of such laws under the 14th Amendment was upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson,163 U. S.537. The Plessy doctrine was extended to the schools in Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education,175 U. S.528. In Texas, the established a state-funded law school for white students without any law school for black students. In 1892, Homer Plessy, who was of mixed ancestry and appeared to be white, the conductor of the train collected passenger tickets at their seats. When Plessy told the conductor he was 7/8ths white and 1/8th black, Plessy said he resented sitting in a coloreds-only car and was arrested immediately. One month after his arrest, Plessy appeared in court before Judge John Howard Ferguson, plessys lawyer, Albion Tourgee, claimed Plessy’s 13th and 14th amendment rights were violated. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, and the 14th amendment granted equal protection to all under the law, the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson established the phrase separate but equal. The ruling railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in that State to provide equal, accommodations provided on each railroad car were required to be the same as those provided on the others
Separate but equal
–
A restaurant in
Lancaster, Ohio, in 1938.
18.
Louisiana Creole people
–
Louisiana Creole people, are persons descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana during the period of both French and Spanish rule. The term creole was originally used by French settlers to distinguish persons born in Louisiana from those born in the country or elsewhere. As in many other societies around the world, creole was a term used to mean those who were native-born. It also came to be applied to African-descended slaves and Native Americans who were born in Louisiana, Louisiana Creoles share cultural ties, such as the traditional use of the French language and a predominance of practice of Catholicism. As more refugees were allowed in Louisiana, Haitian émigrés who had first gone to Cuba also arrived and these groups had strong influences on the city and its culture. Later immigrants to New Orleans, such as Irish, Germans and Italians, Louisiana Creoles are mostly Catholic in religion. Through the 19th century, most spoke French and were connected to French colonial culture. Only the small Spanish Creole communities of Saint Bernard Parish and Galveztown spoke Spanish and they have maintained cultural traditions from the Canary Islands, where their ancestors came from, to the present. The varieties of Louisiana Creoles shaped the culture, particularly in the southern areas around New Orleans. Louisiana is known as the Creole State, other enclaves of Creole culture have been located in south Louisiana, Frilot Cove, Bois Mallet, Grand Marais, Palmetto, Lawtell, Soileau and others. These communities have had a history of cultural independence. Another area where many creoles can be found is within the River Parishes, St. Charles, St. John, and St. James. Through both the French and Spanish regimes, parochial and colonial governments used the term Creole for ethnic French, parisian French was the predominant language among colonists in early New Orleans. Later the regional French evolved to contain local phrases and slang terms, the French Creoles spoke what became known as Colonial French. Because of isolation, the language in the colony developed differently from that in France and it was spoken by the ethnic French and Spanish and their Creole descendants. The commonly accepted definition of Louisiana Creole today is a person descended from ancestors in Louisiana before the Louisiana Purchase by the United States in 1803. An estimated 7,000 European immigrants settled in Louisiana during the 18th century, Louisiana attracted considerably fewer French colonists than did its West Indian colonies. After the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, which lasted more than two months, the colonists had numerous challenges ahead of them in the Louisiana frontier
Louisiana Creole people
–
Delphine LaLaurie
Louisiana Creole people
–
Map of
North America in 1750, before the
French and Indian War (part of the international
Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763). Possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange)
Louisiana Creole people
–
Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, better known as "Madame X", was a Creole from New Orleans
Louisiana Creole people
–
Adah Isaacs Menken, Creole actress, painter and poet
19.
Homer Plessy
–
Homer Adolph Plessy was a Louisiana French speaking Creole plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Arrested, tried and convicted in New Orleans of a violation of one of Louisianas racial segregation laws, he appealed through Louisiana state courts to the U. S. Supreme Court and lost. The resulting separate but equal decision against him had wide consequences for civil rights in the United States, the decision legalized state-mandated segregation anywhere in the United States so long as the facilities provided for both blacks and whites were putatively equal. The son of French-speaking Creoles, Homer Plessy was born on St. Creole and Blacks could then marry whomever they chose, sit in any seat and, briefly. As an adult, Plessy experienced the reversal of the gains achieved under the federal occupation, due to Plessys phenotype being white, Plessy could have ridden in a railroad car restricted to people classified as white. However, under the racist policies then in force, he was classified as 1/8 black or, according to the language of the time, hoping to strike down segregation laws, the Citizens Committee of New Orleans recruited Plessy to deliberately violate Louisianas 1890 separate-car law. To pose a clear test, the Citizens Committee gave notice of Plessys intent to the railroad, on June 7,1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket on a train from New Orleans and sat in the car for white riders only. Everything that the committee had organized occurred as planned, except for the decision of the Supreme Court in 1896, by then the composition of the U. S. Supreme Court had gained a more segregationist tilt, and the committee knew it would likely lose. But it chose to press the cause anyway, Medley said and it was a matter of honor for them, that they fight this to the very end. Homer Plessy was born on March 17,1862, in New Orleans to Joseph Adolphe Plessy and Rosa Debergue, another in this Creole society was Plessys compatriot, Walter L. Cohen, who obtained an appointment as customs inspector from U. S. President William McKinley. Homer Plessys paternal grandfather was Germain Plessy, a white Frenchman born in Bordeaux c, Germain Plessy married Catherine Mathieu, a free woman of color, and they had eight children, including Homer Plessys father, Joseph Adolphe Plessy. Homer Plessys middle name would appear as Adolphe after his father. Plessy belonged to Louisianas French-speaking Creole class, which American society did not understand or accept, Adolphe Plessy died when Homer was seven years old. In 1871, his mother Rosa Debergue Plessy, a seamstress, married Victor M. Dupart, post Office who supplemented his income by working as a shoemaker. During the 1880s, he worked at Patricio Brito’s shoe-making business on Dumaine Street near North Rampart, New Orleans city directories from 1886 to 1924 list his occupations as shoemaker, laborer, clerk, and insurance agent. By 1887, Plessy had become vice-president of the Justice, Protective, Educational, and Social Club, plessy’s employer Brito served as a witness. In 1889, the Plessys moved to Faubourg Tremé at 1108 North Claiborne Avenue and he registered to vote in the Sixth Ward’s Third Precinct. At age thirty, shoemaker Homer Plessy was younger than most members of the Comité des Citoyens and he did not have their stellar political histories, literary prowess, business acumen, or law degrees
Homer Plessy
–
Bronze plaque on the side of the Plessy tomb in
New Orleans,
Louisiana
Homer Plessy
–
Front of the marker placed Feb. 12, 2009, commemorating the planned arrest of Homer Plessy June 17, 1892, for violating the Louisiana 1890 Separate Car Act. He was sitting in the whites' coach when he was asked to move and refused, which led to his arrest
Homer Plessy
–
Back of the marker placed Feb. 12, 2009, recalling the arrest of Homer Plessy for violating segregationist state law.
20.
Mixed race
–
Multiracial is defined as made up of or relating to people of many races. Many terms exist for people of multiracial backgrounds. While some of the used in the past are considered insulting and offensive. Individuals of multiracial backgrounds make up a significant portion of the population in parts of the world. In North America, studies have found that the population is continuing to grow. Because of a decline in racism, multiracial people no longer feel the need to hide their heritage, in many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, mixed-race people make up the majority of the population. While defining race is controversial, race remains a commonly used term for categorization, insofar as race is defined differently in different cultures, perceptions of multiraciality will naturally be subjective. Some percentage of people who look black will possess genetic markers indicating the majority of their recent ancestors were European. The revised OMB standards identify a minimum of five categories, White, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian. Perhaps the most significant change for Census 2000 was that respondents were given the option to one or more races on the questionnaire to indicate their racial identity. Census 2000 race data are shown for people who reported a race either alone or in combination with one or more other races, in the English-speaking world, many terms for people of various multiracial backgrounds exist, some of which are pejorative or are no longer used. Mulato, zambo and mestizo are used in Spanish, mulato, caboclo, cafuzo, ainoko and mestiço in Portuguese and mulâtre and these terms are also in certain contexts used in the English-speaking world. In Canada, the Métis are an ethnic group of mixed European and First Nation descent. Half-breed is a term that referred to people of partial Native American ancestry, it is now considered pejorative. Mestee, once used, is now used mostly for members of historically mixed-race groups, such as Louisiana Creoles, Melungeons, Redbones. In South Africa, and much of English-speaking southern Africa, the term Coloured was used to describe a mixed-race person, while the term is socially accepted, it is becoming an outdated due to its association with the apartheid era. Charts and diagrams intended to explain the classifications were common, the well-known Casta paintings in Mexico and, to some extent, Peru, were illustrations of the different classifications. Most Brazilians of all groups are to some extent mixed-race according to genetic research
Mixed race
–
Barack Obama, the
President of the United States. Obama's mother's ancestors were European, Obama's father's ancestors were African.
Mixed race
–
Canadian film actor
Keanu Reeves is of
English,
Irish,
Portuguese, Native
Hawaiian, and
Chinese descent.
Mixed race
–
Jamaican dancehall artist
Sean Paul 's paternal grandfather was a
Sephardic Jew from
Portugal, and his paternal grandmother was
Afro-Caribbean; his mother is of
English and
Chinese Jamaican descent.
21.
Octoroon
–
Historically in the context of slave societies of the Americas, a quadroon or quarteron was a mixed-race person with one quarter African and three quarters European ancestry. Similar classifications were octoroon for one black and hexadecaroon for one sixteenth black. Governments incorporated the terms in law defining rights and restrictions, the word quadroon was borrowed from the French quarteron and the Spanish cuarterón, both of which have their root in the Latin quartus, meaning one quarter, i. e. one-fourth. The Spanish cognate cuarterón is sometimes used to someone whose racial origin is three-quarters White and one-quarter Indian. The word octoroon is derived from the Latin root octo-, meaning eight, in Latin America, which had a variety of terms for racial groups, some terms for quadroons were morisco or chino. In Latin America, the terms griffe or sambo were sometimes used for an individual of three-quarters African heritage, or the child of a biracial parent and a fully black parent. The term mulatto was used to designate a person who was biracial, with one black parent and one pure white parent. In some cases, it became a term to refer to all persons of mixed race. As with the use of quadroon, this word was applied to an extent in Australia for those of one-eighth Aboriginal ancestry. Terceron was a term synonymous with octoroon, derived from being three generations of descent from an African ancestor, the term mustee was also used to refer to a person with one-eighth African ancestry. The term mustefino refers to a person with one-sixteenth African ancestry, the terms quintroon or hexadecaroon were also used. Stereotypically, a woman is raised as a white woman in her fathers household. In some cases, she may be unaware of her full ancestry before being reduced to victimization, as in Lydia Maria Childs short story and this stock character allowed abolitionists to reveal the sexual exploitation prevalent in slavery. The topic continues to be a means to race in society. Authors in the 21st century are writing novels set in the 19th century that explore racial permutations. The heroine of James Fenimore Coopers 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans, Cora, is the daughter of a quadroon or octoroon woman who married Coras father, Lt. Colonel Munro. Col. Munro describes Coras mother as descended, remotely, from that class who are so basely enslaved to administer to the wants of a luxurious people. When Col. Munro believes that a suitor, Duncan Heyward, has rejected Cora because of her heritage, he chastises the young man
Octoroon
–
Alexandre Dumas, père: quadroon
Octoroon
–
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas: mulatto
Octoroon
–
Alexandre Dumas, fils: octoroon
Octoroon
–
The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, 1899, by Charles W. Chesnutt
22.
New Orleans
–
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music, and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St. Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779. New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue
New Orleans
–
From top left: A typical New Orleans mansion off
St. Charles Avenue, a streetcar passing by
Loyola University and
Tulane University, the skyline of the
Central Business District,
Jackson Square, and a view of Royal Street in the
French Quarter
New Orleans
–
The
Battle of New Orleans (1815)
New Orleans
–
Mississippi River
steamboats at New Orleans, 1853.
New Orleans
–
The starving people of New Orleans under Union occupation during the Civil War, 1862
23.
Covington, Louisiana
–
Covington is a city in and the parish seat of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,765 at the 2010 census and it is located at a fork of the Bogue Falaya and the Tchefuncte River. Covington is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area, the earliest known settlement by Europeans in the area was in 1800 by Jacques Drieux. In 1813, John Wharton Collins established a town there with the name of Wharton and he is buried on the corner of the city cemetery directly across from the Covington Police Department. There are conflicting stories about how the city came to be named Covington, many historians believe the city was renamed after General Leonard Covington, a hero of the War of 1812. In any case, Leonard Covington is the namesake of both towns, initially, commerce was brought to Covington via boat up the Bogue Falaya River, which used the Tchefuncte River as a means of passage to and from Lake Pontchartrain. Then in 1888, the railroad came to town, much of those rails are now occupied by the Tammany Trace, a thirty-one mile bike trail running through multiple cities north of Lake Pontchartrain. In the late 20th century, with the expansion of Louisianas road system, many people who worked in New Orleans started living in Covington, commuting to work via the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. This is considered to be associated with white out of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Slidell, but Covington was sufficiently elevated to escape the storm surge, however. The towns population continues to grow, Covington is located at 30°28′44″N 90°6′15″W and has an elevation of 26 feet. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 8.2 square miles, of which 8.0 square miles is land and 0.23 square miles. As of the census of 2000, there were 8,483 people,3,258 households, the population density was 1,248.0 people per square mile. There were 3,565 housing units at a density of 524.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 77. 45% White,20. 17% African American,0. 33% Native American,0. 34% Asian,0. 04% Pacific Islander,0. 25% from other races, and 1. 43% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 56% of the population,27. 5% of all households were made up of individuals and 9. 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the family size was 3.10. In the city, the population was out with 26. 8% under the age of 18,8. 5% from 18 to 24,26. 1% from 25 to 44,24. 1% from 45 to 64
Covington, Louisiana
–
St. Tammany Parish Justice Center
Covington, Louisiana
–
St. Peter Catholic Church
Covington, Louisiana
–
A train at Covington in 1907
24.
Race (human categorization)
–
Race is the classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, ancestry, genetics, or social relations, or the relations between them. First used to refer to speakers of a language and then to denote national affiliations. The term was used in a general biological taxonomic sense, starting from the 19th century. Social conceptions and groupings of races vary over time, involving folk taxonomies that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits, scientists consider biological essentialism obsolete, and generally discourage racial explanations for collective differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits. Although still used in contexts, race has often been replaced by less ambiguous and emotionally charged synonyms, populations, people, ethnic groups, or communities. A popular view in American sociology is that the categories that are common in everyday usage are socially constructed. For this reason, there is no current consensus about whether racial categories can be considered to have significance for understanding human genetic variation, when people define and talk about a particular conception of race, they create a social reality through which social categorization is achieved. In this sense, races are said to be social constructs and these constructs develop within various legal, economic, and sociopolitical contexts, and may be the effect, rather than the cause, of major social situations. Socioeconomic factors, in combination with early but enduring views of race, have led to considerable suffering within disadvantaged racial groups, as a result, racial groups possessing relatively little power often find themselves excluded or oppressed, while hegemonic individuals and institutions are charged with holding racist attitudes. Racism has led to instances of tragedy, including slavery. In some countries, law enforcement uses race to profile suspects and this use of racial categories is frequently criticized for perpetuating an outmoded understanding of human biological variation, and promoting stereotypes. Because in some societies racial groupings correspond closely with patterns of stratification, for social scientists studying social inequality. As sociological factors, racial categories may in part reflect subjective attributions, self-identities, accordingly, the racial paradigms employed in different disciplines vary in their emphasis on biological reduction as contrasted with societal construction. Groups of humans have identified themselves as distinct from neighboring groups. These features are the features of how the concept of race is used today. As Europeans encountered people from different parts of the world, they speculated about the physical, social, a set of folk beliefs took hold that linked inherited physical differences between groups to inherited intellectual, behavioral, and moral qualities. Brutal conflicts between groups have existed throughout history and across the world. In the 18th century the differences among human groups became a focus of scientific investigation, Homo sapiens europaeus was described as active, acute, and adventurous, whereas Homo sapiens afer was said to be crafty, lazy, and careless
Race (human categorization)
Race (human categorization)
–
The racial diversity of
Asia 's peoples,
Nordisk familjebok (1904)
Race (human categorization)
–
Portrait "Redenção do Can" (1895), showing a Brazilian family each generation becoming "whiter".
25.
Supreme Court of Louisiana
–
The Supreme Court of Louisiana is the highest court and court of last resort in the U. S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the Supreme Court, and Louisiana state law, are historically based in the colonial governments of France and Spain during the 18th century. The current Supreme Court traces its roots back to these beginnings, under the colonial governments of France and Spain, the courts of Louisiana existed in several different forms. In 1712, a charter granted by France created a Superior Council with executive, in 1769, Spain gained control over the Louisiana territory, and the Superior Council was replaced with the Cabildo. The Governor of the held the power of having final authority in cases. In 1803, Louisiana became a territory of the United States, in 1804, Congress created a three judge Superior Court for the territory and gave the Legislative Council the power to create other courts. In 1807, the newly elected Legislative Council created courts in each of the territorys nineteen parishes and these courts were courts of general jurisdiction with an appeal lying to the Superior Court. In the first Constitution for the state of Louisiana, one Supreme Court was created, the number of judges was fixed to be not less than three and not more than five who were to be appointed by the Governor. The Court was required to sit in New Orleans and Opelousas, the 1845 Constitution created a Supreme Court composed of one Chief Justice and three Associate Justices appointed by the Governor to eight-year terms. The Court sat in New Orleans, the 1852 Constitution increased the number of Justices on the Court to five, and all became elected by the people. The Chief Justice was elected at-large by the state and the Associate Justices were elected from four districts throughout the state. In 1864, the Justices again became appointed, and their length was decreased to eight years. The 1868 Constitution did not change the makeup or terms of the Supreme Court, however, it did change, the post-Reconstruction Constitution of 1879 substantially modified the organization of the Louisiana judiciary. The Constitution created the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, District Courts, the Supreme Court retained five justices, but they were now appointed by the Governor and served twelve-year terms. For the first time, the Supreme Court was given power over the inferior courts. It also gave more limitations to the opportunity to vote by people of color, in 1898, the Supreme Courts jurisdiction was further expanded. The Court was given jurisdiction over the bar. New Orleans was fixed as the seat of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice was determined by the senior justice in point of service
Supreme Court of Louisiana
–
Seal of the Louisiana Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Louisiana
–
After a 20-year renovation, the Court returned to the Louisiana Supreme Court Building in New Orleans'
French Quarter in 2004.
26.
Samuel F. Phillips
–
Samuel Field Phillips was a civil rights pioneer, lawyer, politician, and the second U. S. He took part in the civil rights case, Plessy v. Ferguson. Samuel Phillips was born in New York City and his father, James Phillips, was a British mathematician. Samuel Phillips graduated from UNC with highest honors in 1841, earning a masters degree three years later, Phillips served on North Carolinas state court of claims in 1861, and as state auditor from 1862-1864. In 1864, Phillips was re-elected to the General Assembly, serving as Speaker of the House in 1866 and he was a member of the first Reconstruction Convention, and joined the Republican Party, which earned him much condemnation as a scalawag. He fought for the expansion of rights for African-Americans, triumphing in granting freedmen the right to testify in cases in which they were parties. In 1866 Phillips left politics to return to the practice of law. In the Fall of 1867 he moved his family to Raleigh, North Carolina and he returned to politics in 1870. In 1871, Phillips served another term in the North Carolina House of Representatives, in 1872, Phillips was appointed the second U. S. Solicitor General by President Ulysses S. Grant, serving in this position from November 1872 to May 1885, during Phillips’s twelve and one-half years as solicitor general, he served under four presidents, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur. Citing Article I of the U. S. Constitution, he set a precedent used in the 1960s to validate the expansion of control over the election process. He also argued Reynolds v. United States,98 U. S.145, Phillips was part of the team who argued the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, using both the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and the 13th and 14th Amendments as a defense. After serving as Solicitor General, he went on to become a member of the U. S. Phillips returned to private law practice in Washington, D. C. until 1901. Phillips married Frances R. Lucas, on December 3,1849, in 1889 Phillips married Sarah Maury, she died in 1902. Samuel Phillips died on November 18,1903, aged 79, in Washington and his body was later moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Www. usdoj. gov This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Office of the Solicitor General
Samuel F. Phillips
–
Samuel F. Phillips portrait.
27.
Milton Joseph Cunningham
–
From 1880 to 1884, Cunningham, a Democrat, was a member of the Louisiana State Senate from both Natchitoches Parish and his native DeSoto Parish in northwestern Louisiana. From 1878 to 1880, Cunningham was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, born in DeSoto Parish, Cunningham was the son of John Hamilton Cunningham, a native of South Carolina, and the former Ann Buie, originally from Mississippi. He was the fourth of John Cunninghams twelve children by three wives, John Cunningham was a man of many occupations, a physician, merchant, planter, lawyer, and Christian minister, possibly Baptist. The family moved in the 1840s to Homer in Claiborne Parish, where John practiced medicine, in his later years, John Cunningham was briefly a newspaperman, the editor of the Robeline Reporter, a weekly paper published in the 1880s in rural Robeline in western Natchitoches Parish. Ann Buie Cunningham died of asthma when Joe was seven years of age, John then married the former Martha Elvia Shields, who became Joes stepmother. When he was sixteen, Joe Cunningham left home to school from 1858 to 1860 in Cloutierville in south Natchitoches Parish. His family moved to Natchitoches, as he prepared to enter the Confederate Army in the American Civil War and he served in the Second Louisiana Infantry from 1861 to 1865. Cunningham privately studied law and in 1868 was admitted to the bar and he was in the days of Reconstruction the chairman of the Natchitoches Parish Democratic Executive Committee. He served for ten months in 1868 as the attorney of the 17th Judicial District. Thereafter, he was elected chief of police in Natchitoches, in which capacity he worked successfully to restore white supremacy to the community and he was one of fifty-two former Confederates or Confederate sympathizers who were arrested and tried by federal officials during Reconstruction. He was elected attorney general in 1884 in the administration of Governor Samuel Douglas McEnery, after a four-year hiatus, he returned as attorney general under Governor Murphy J. Foster, Sr. grandfather of the last 20th century and first 21st century governor, Republican Mike Foster. In 1896, Cunningham prepared the legal brief of Plessy v. Ferguson, as attorney general, Cunningham rarely employed outside counsel and handled even complicated cases himself. In the process he saved taxpayers a considerable amount of money, in the 1890s, as attorney general, he worked successfully against the lottery companies. When the state was sued regarding a contract for work on the Red River and he proved that the contract was illegal and had not been implemented. He hence secured a victory which saved the state $250,000. He was living on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans in 1904, on Coliseum Street, Cunninghams first two wives, Thalia Tharp and Annie Peyton, died after short marriages. He was left to rear five children, one of whom. In 1880, at the age of thirty-eight, Cunningham married Cecile Hertzong and she had been reared at what is now Melrose Plantation in south Natchitoches Parish
Milton Joseph Cunningham
–
Milton Joseph "Joe" Cunningham
28.
Natchitoches, Louisiana
–
Natchitoches is a small city and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the City of Natchitoches was not incorporated until after Louisiana had become a state, on February 5,1819. It is the oldest permanent settlement in the region, Natchitoches sister city is Nacogdoches, Texas. It is also the location of Northwestern State University, Natchitoches was established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis. It is the oldest permanent settlement within the borders of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Natchitoches was founded as a French outpost on the Red River for trade with Spanish-controlled Mexico, French traders settled there as early as 1699. The post was established near a village of Natchitoches Indians, after whom the city was named, after the United States Louisiana Purchase of 1803, migration into the territory increased from the US, and Natchitoches experienced a population boom. Several plantations were built along the Red River, in the 1820s and early 1830s, Natchitoches was a freight transfer point for cotton from parts of east Texas. Cotton shippers used a route crossing the Sabine River to Natchitoches, where the freight was transferred to boats. However, the course of the river shifted, bypassing Natchitoches, a 33-mile lake was left in the rivers previous location. It became known as Cane River Lake, the lake runs through the city’s downtown historic district and Plantation Country. During the Civil War, Natchitoches was set on fire by Union soldiers who retreated through the town after their attempt to capture Shreveport. Confederate cavalry pursued the soldiers and arrived in time to help extinguish the flames before the town was destroyed. In the spring of 1863, Confederate General Richard Taylor and his men passed through Natchitoches en route to Shreveport, andrew W. Hyatt, one of Taylors line officers, wrote in his diary, reaching the banks of Cane River. We are now on a race from the enemy, and are bound for Grand Ecore. Three days later on May 11,1863, Hyatt penned, Natchitoches is quite a town, and the galleries were crowded with pretty women, who waved us a kind reception as we passed through town. Around Natchitoches and its environs,12,556 bales of Confederate cotton were stored, a match factory also opened in the city during the war. Natchitoches often engaged in fund-raising activities to relieve the destitute during the war, winters observed, Eggnog parties and other social affairs during the Christmas holiday season lifted the morale of civilians as well as that of the soldiers. Natchitoches was the site of the 1973 plane crash claimed the life of singer-songwriter Jim Croce
Natchitoches, Louisiana
–
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches, Louisiana
–
Seal
Natchitoches, Louisiana
–
Natchitoches City Hall
Natchitoches, Louisiana
–
Memory Lawn Cemetery in Natchitoches
29.
White supremacy
–
White supremacy has roots in scientific racism and often relies on pseudoscientific arguments. The term is typically used to describe a political ideology that perpetuates. Different forms of white supremacism put forth different conceptions of who is considered white, White supremacist groups have typically opposed people of color and Jews. White supremacy was dominant in the United States even after the American Civil War, in large areas of the U. S. this included the holding of non-whites in chattel slavery with four million denied freedom from bondage. The outbreak of the Civil War saw the desire to uphold white supremacy cited as a cause for state secession, in an editorial about Native Americans in 1890, author L. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, the denial of social and political freedom continued into the mid-20th century resulting in the Civil Rights Movement. On the U. S. immigration laws prior to 1965, many U. S. states banned interracial marriage through anti-miscegenation laws until 1967, when these laws were invalidated by the Supreme Court of the United States decision in Loving v. Virginia. Additionally, white leaders often viewed Native Americans as obstacles to economic and political progress with respect to the claims to land. The terms recent rise in popularity among leftist activists has been characterized by some as counterproductive, in an opinion piece in The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf has said that the usage of the term by activists creates confusion because it strays from the common definition. Nazism promoted the idea of a superior Germanic people or Aryan race in Germany during the early 20th century, gobineaus theories, which attracted a strong following in Germany, emphasized the existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan or Germanic peoples and Jewish cultures. Many modern-day white supremacist groups around the world reuse Nazi symbolism, including the swastika, racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times under the Dutch Empire, and continued when the British took over the Cape of Good Hope in 1795. Apartheid as an officially structured policy was introduced by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party after the election of 1948. Legislation divided inhabitants into four racial groups—black, white, coloured, and Indian, in 1970, the Afrikaner-run government abolished non-white political representation, and starting that year black people were deprived of South African citizenship. South Africa abolished apartheid in 1991, in Rhodesia, a predominantly white government issued its own unilateral declaration of independence from the United Kingdom during an unsuccessful attempt to avoid immediate majority rule. Neo-Nazi organisations embracing white-supremacist ideology are present in countries in the world. It has been claimed in 2007, that Russian Neo-Nazis accounted for half of the worlds total, White racial advantages occur both at a collective and an individual level. Legal scholar Frances Lee Ansley explains this definition as follows, By white supremacy I do not mean to allude only to the racism of white supremacist hate groups. Some anti-racist educators, such as Betita Martinez and the Challenging White Supremacy workshop, the term expresses historic continuities between a pre-African-American Civil Rights Movement era of open white supremacism and the current racial power structure of the United States
White supremacy
–
Members of the second
Ku Klux Klan at a rally in 1923.
White supremacy
–
The Good Citizen 1926 Published by
Pillar of Fire Church
30.
Dred Scott v. Sandford
–
Dred Scott v. Sandford,60 U. S.393, also known simply as the Dred Scott case, was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on US labor law and constitutional law. Dred Scott, an man of the negro African race who had been taken by his owners to free states and territories. In a 7–2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B, Taney, the court denied Scotts request. The decision was only the time that the Supreme Court had ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional. Although Taney hoped that his ruling would finally settle the slavery question, many contemporary lawyers, and most modern legal scholars, consider the ruling regarding slavery in the territories to be dictum, not binding precedent. The decision proved to be an indirect catalyst for the American Civil War and it was functionally superseded by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1868, which gave African Americans full citizenship. The Supreme Courts decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford is unanimously denounced by scholars, bernard Schwartz says it stands first in any list of the worst Supreme Court decisions—Chief Justice C. E. Hughes called it the Courts greatest self-inflicted wound. Junius P. Rodriguez says it is condemned as the U. S. Supreme Courts worst decision. Historian David Thomas Konig says it was unquestionably, our courts worst decision ever, Dred Scott was born a slave in Virginia in 1795. Little is known of his early years and his owner, Peter Blow, moved to Alabama in 1818, taking his six slaves along to work a farm near Huntsville. In 1830, Blow gave up farming and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, after purchasing Scott, Emerson took him to Fort Armstrong, which was located in Illinois. A free state, Illinois had been free as a territory under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, in 1836, Emerson moved with Scott from Illinois to Fort Snelling, which was located in the Wisconsin territory in what would become the state of Minnesota. Slavery in the Wisconsin Territory was prohibited by the United States Congress under the Missouri Compromise, during his stay at Fort Snelling, Scott married Harriet Robinson in a civil ceremony by Harriets owner, Major Lawrence Taliaferro, a justice of the peace who was also an Indian agent. The ceremony would have been unnecessary if Dred Scott were a slave, in 1837, the Army ordered Emerson to Jefferson Barracks Military Post, south of St. Louis, Missouri. Emerson left Scott and his wife at Fort Snelling, where he leased their services out for profit, before the end of the year, the Army reassigned Emerson to Fort Jesup in Louisiana, where Emerson married Eliza Irene Sanford in February,1838. Emerson sent for Scott and Harriet, who proceeded to Louisiana to serve their master, while en route to Louisiana, Scotts daughter Eliza was born on a steamboat underway along the Mississippi River between Illinois and what would become Iowa. Because Eliza was born in free territory, she was born as a free person under both federal and state laws. Upon entering Louisiana, the Scotts could have sued for their freedom and this had been the holding in Louisiana state courts for more than 20 years
Dred Scott v. Sandford
–
Portrait of Dred Scott
Dred Scott v. Sandford
–
Cover sheet summarizing the disposition of the case
Dred Scott v. Sandford
–
Chief Justice Roger Taney authored the Court's Majority opinion
Dred Scott v. Sandford
–
Justice
Samuel Nelson
.
