American Constitutionalism in Historical Perspective (packet)

Precedent before Brown: p. 674-75: NAACP had gradually litigated separate but equal principles to show that separate cannot be equal. Started w/ higher ed and worked way down to primary/secondary ed b/c education is linked to mobility and is impt aspect of gov’t.

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   Gaines ex rel: the court ordered a black law student to be admitted to a school WITHIN the state, w/n allow the state to pay for him to attend a black school outside of the state b/c c/n be equal (wanted to know law of own state)
   
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   Sweatt v. Painter: court forces admission of blacks to the University of Texas Law School even though the state had recently est a law school for blacks. . Separate is not equal—terrible ed to ppl of color.
   
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   McLaurin v. Oklahoma: student admitted to a state university’s grad program not offered at state’s black school but had been req to sit in sep sections in or adjoining the classrooms, library and cafeteria. This is struck down!
   

History Inconclusive history. P. 673 No universal ed during Plessy, circumstances have changed since them. Abandonment of originalism and move to abstract connotation (racial classification is invidious prejudice). Appeal to history P.674: progress of AA since Plessy. AA’s voices have become magnified since serving in WW2 and US realized how hypocritical and racist they were, Hitler copycatted our racism

Brown v. Board of Education, 1954: justices refuse to abide by the originalist history of segregation. Freshly examines the law, overrules Plessy by showing that underlying facts have changed. Rules de jure segregation per se unconstitutional. Leads to better ed and breaking down racism/stereotypes at point which they are constructed. Appeal to social sciences in footnote 5 bottom of p. 676. Racial stigma is reinforced by separate but equal and is conn to bad education esp. in So. Doll studies (Kenneth Clark).

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