From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: Reviewing U.S. Supreme Court History

The current political climate in the United States is divisive and precarious, and it is not a historian’s job to explain it. What historians do best is look at the past, closely and contextually, to understand more about where humanity has been, which then perhaps can inform us about where we are going now. The history of the U.S. Supreme Court is a specific institution where a historian can analyze change over time in order to grasp the present and the future more effectively, especially with potential SCOTUS rulings on the horizon with the potential to severely change America in the future.

Most American historians—alas, most college graduates in the United States—should know the two famous court cases regarding segregation in America: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In his 2004 book From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality, legal historian and constitutional law expert Michael J. Klarman utilized a multidisciplinary approach to analyze those cases as bookends of U.S. Supreme Court involvement in the civil rights movement of the twentieth century, as well as numerous (and lesser-known) cases between them.

Klarman, by his own admission, is “first and foremost a law professor” who also has “formal training in history.”^[1] Currently on the faculty at Harvard Law School, Klarman also emphasizes he was drawing on “scholarship from a wide range of disciplines: constitutional law and constitutional theory, history, political science, and sociology”^[2] in writing this book, and the result of his efforts is an argument which is neither groundbreaking nor rote: Klarman posits that constitutional law merely “reflects the broader social and political context of the times,”^[3] so the Supreme Court itself does not create change as much as it merely rolls with it. It is a logic-based conclusion supported well and argued effectively via the author’s multidisciplinary approach.

Through seven chapters and more than a half century of American legal history, Klarman takes his readers—whether they have a legal background or not—on an enlightening journey through the Supreme Court’s role in shaping racial equality. Organized chronologically, Klarman explores almost seven decades of SCOTUS decisions that advanced the nation’s legal system from Plessy to Brown and beyond. This chronology helps build the author’s argument, with the sociological analysis accompanying the legal framework, as does the exploration of not-as-famous SCOTUS cases like Lane v. Wilson (1939) and Smith v. Allwright (1944).

The former case struck down discriminatory voter registration in Oklahoma, while the latter litigation eliminated the deployment of “white primaries” in Texas. Klarman meticulously explains how these cases are just as important as Brown, really, in the legal fight against racial inequality, even though they have not received the same attention or notoriety in the decades since the Court handed down the decisions. All the while, the author makes sure his audience understands the SCOTUS decisions merely reflected evolving public sentiment at the time.

source: Architect of the Capitol

There are a few weaknesses in this book, although they are not significant. There may be mild disappointment for any reader looking for significant revelations of behind-the-scenes SCOTUS deliberations. Klarman merely clarifies the legal realities of the Supreme Court for the laypeople in his audience. Even with that target audience, the author cannot help but use some legal jargon to explain his way through some concepts: “I do not believe that one can really understand Court decisions without paying some attention to legal doctrine,”^[4] he states.

Also, the book overall is a bit wordy for that layperson audience, and Klarman might have been able to scale down some of his excessive legal analysis by half in order to make the book more digestible for readers. As a result, this is not the kind of text instructors would use with undergraduates studying American history, although there are some excerpts on those lesser-known SCOTUS cases definitely beneficial for everyone to know. 

Overall, however, the book has many strengths which outweigh these small flaws, including the aforementioned multidisciplinary approach and analysis. Klarman’s expertise as a constitutional law expert is appreciated, especially when blended with the history, political science, and sociological views of the SCOTUS rulings. This creates a well-rounded perspective on the decisions themselves—and how they impacted society, or rather how emerging public opinions helped shape the Court’s decisions in the first place.

source: National Archives Store

That multidisciplinary framework examines the long progress of the systematic legal breakdown of Jim Crow through several different lenses, which bolsters Klarman’s argument nicely. Readers understand the decisions legally, and they grasp the Court’s thought processes sociologically and politically. All of this is put into historical context as well, when the author connects these decisions to other famous Supreme Court decisions that have nothing to do with race equality—such as Roe v. Wade—to illustrate the basic premise of the book:

“Clearly, changes in the social and political context of race relations preceded and accounted for changes in judicial decision making. This is not to say that the Court decisions did not matter, only that they reflected social attitudes and practices more than they created them.”^[5]

In many ways, the span of SCOTUS decisions that impacted racial equality in the twentieth century plays right into Jacquelyn Dowd Hall’s concept of the “long civil rights movement.” Court cases do move slowly—more slowly than perhaps some activists wish, of course—and incrementally, court decision by court decision, Klarman demonstrates how Jim Crow was eradicated through the decades.

source: TIME

By the time of Brown v. Board of Education, Klarman notes that half the country was in favor of desegregation. That did not happen overnight; it happened gradually, and Klarman illustrates the necessity of Supreme Court decisions in the fight for equality—while also noting their minimal impact. When he argues, “... because constitutional law is generally quite indeterminate, constitutional interpretation almost inevitably reflects the broader social and political context of the times,”^[6] Klarman is stating the facts: The Supreme Court may be slow, but it eventually catches up with the people.

The U.S. public has seen this happen again in recent years since Klarman published his book: Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) represented a distinct shift in popular sentiment on the issue of same-sex marriage which mandated the ruling, in essence. Thus, the Supreme Court is not the deliverer of change; it merely has the final word on the legality of change, in terms of the Constitution of the United States of America.

This is the key takeaway for the layperson in modern America wanting to understand just how the Supreme Court may rule on cases coming before it in 2020. If someone wants to understand the history of SCOTUS decisions in the realm of civil rights and equality, Klarman’s book provides plenty of data points and multidisciplinary analysis to provide enlightenment. It is a good read for anyone, historian or not, involved in political activism and social commentary.

About the author: Sam Fleischer is a third-year Ph.D. student working under Dr. Matthew Sutton in the field of modern American history. His research focuses on gender, politics, and race in international sports during the latter half of the twentieth century.

[1] Michael J. Klarman, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 9.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid., 20.

[4] Ibid., 9.

[5] Ibid., 458.

[6] Ibid., 20.