| Description |
xii, 283 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-271) and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction -- Prologue : Overthrow -- Who votes? -- Two amendments... -- Power in black and white : The Klan -- ....and a third : equal rights comes to the ballot box -- A fragile illusion -- Any way you slice it : The Slaughter-House cases -- Equality by law: The Civil Rights Act of 1875 -- The uncertainty of language : United States v. Reese -- Rutherfraud ascends, but not equal rights -- A slight case of murder : the strange journey of Strauder v. West Virginia -- Tightening the knot: Virginia v. Rives -- Strangling the Constitution : the civil rights cases -- The curious incident of the Chinese laundry and equal protection -- Mississippi leads the South -- The first test : Mills v. Green -- Peer review : Williams v. Mississippi -- Refining redemption -- Forging an attack -- The window slams shut : Giles v Harris -- Epilogue : stolen justice. |
| Summary |
"Beginning in 1876, the Court systematically dismantled both the equal protection guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment, at least for African-Americans, and what seemed to be the guarantee of the right to vote in the Fifteenth. And so, of the more than 500,000 African-Americans who had registered to vote across the South, the vast majority former slaves, by 1906, less than ten percent remained. Many of those were terrified to go the polls, lest they be beaten, murdered, or have their homes burned to the ground. None of this was done in the shadows-those determined to wrest the vote from black Americans could not have been more boastful in either intent or execution. But the Court chose to ignore the obvious and wrote decisions at odds with the Constitution, preferring to instead reinforce the racial stereotypes of the day. "Whites Only" tells the story of an American tragedy, the only occasion in United States history in which a group of citizens who had been granted the right to vote then had it stripped away. Even more unjust was that this theft of voting rights was done with full approval, even the sponsorship, of the United States Supreme Court"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Subject |
Race discrimination -- Law and legislation -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
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Race discrimination -- Law and legislation -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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African Americans -- Suffrage -- History -- 19th century.
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African Americans -- Suffage -- History -- 20th century.
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| ISBN |
9781640093928 (hardcover) |
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