The document discusses Eric Foner's book "The Second Founding" about the Reconstruction Amendments to the US Constitution following the Civil War. It provides context on the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. The 13th abolished slavery, the 14th declared all persons born in the US are citizens entitled to equal protection under the law, and the 15th guaranteed all citizens the right to vote regardless of race.

2. Today we will study and reflect on Eric Foner’s Book, The Second
Founding, How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the
Constitution.
This is a history of the Reconstruction Amendments,
the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery,
the 14th Amendment that declared that everyone born and naturalized
in the United States is a citizen, and that everyone in the US is equal
under that law and is entitled to Due Process and justice,
and the 15th Amendment guaranteeing that all citizens shall have the
right to vote.

3. You may ask, what can we learn by pondering the passage of the
Reconstruction Amendments as described in the Second Founding?
Before the Civil War, the individual states were solely responsible for
determining who was a citizen and who could vote, and for the health
and the welfare of their citizens and inhabitants, free or slave.
After the Civil War, slavery was abolished, and everyone born in the US
was declared to be a citizen and all adult male citizens were given the
right to vote. The federal government stepped in to guarantee that the
heath, welfare, and dignity of all citizens would be respected by all the
states, and Congress was given explicit legal authority to fulfill this
responsibility.

4. We always like to select quotes directly from the author. At the end of
our talk, we will discuss our source for this video, and my blogs that
also cover this topic. Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments, sometimes these will generate short videos of their own.
Let us learn together!

5. YouTube Video:
Eric Foner’s Second Founding: The Reconstruction
Amendments to the Constitution
https://youtu.be/UciDV5laOLg
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6. To find the source of any
direct quotes in this blog,
please type in the phrase to
the search box in my blog to
see the referenced footnote.

7. Did the Civil War lead to a Second Founding of the United
States? Eric Foner in his book on the Reconstruction
amendments and his other books on the Reconstruction era
argues forcefully that the Civil War was a political turning point
for this country. Before the Civil War, each state determined its
own racial policies, but the politics of slavery, then white
supremacy, proved so repugnant to the North that it passed
these three amendments.

8. Battle of Spottsylvania, Kurz & Allison Art Publishers, 1888

9. Battle of Spottsylvania, Kurz & Allison Art Publishers, 1888
As Eric Foner puts it, “Together with far-reaching congressional
legislation meant to provide former slaves with access to the
courts, ballot box, and public accommodations, and to protect
them against violence, the Reconstruction Amendments
greatly enhanced the power of the federal government,
transferring much of the authority to define citizens’ rights
from the states to the nation.” Each amendment specifically
gave the US Congress the authority to enforce these
amendments by appropriate legislation.

10. Why were the three Reconstruction Amendments passed over a
period of five years, rather than immediately after the Civil War?
The simple answer is that even in the North there was not
universal political support for due process for all citizens, and
there were many Northern and border states who did not give
blacks the right to vote when the Civil War ended. Northern
support increased for the Reconstruction Amendments after
Northerners witnessed the intransience and hubris of the
defeated Confederates and the violence and injustices suffered
by the former slaves in the Confederate states.

11. There was never overwhelming support for any of these amendments in
the North. Lincoln initially said that the Civil War was not fought to defeat
slavery but to preserve the Union. This is true even for the 13th
Amendment abolishing slavery, even after Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation in early 1863 freeing all slaves in the unconquered states of
the Confederacy. During the 1864 Presidential campaign waged only in the
North, some Republicans viewed the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery
was necessary to win the war, but other politicians thought it was risky,
that it would scare away voters needed to reelect Lincoln. When Lincoln
won the election, he called on the House to approve the Amendment,
which they did, with just a few votes to spare above the needed two-thirds
majority. Which meant that many Northerners were not keen to abolish
slavery, even while the Civil War was raging full throttle.

12. Battle of Spottsylvania, Kurz & Allison Art Publishers, 1888
Thirteenth Amendment,
ratified January 31, 1865: Slavery is
abolished, except for convict labor.
Fourteenth Amendment,
ratified July 9, 1868: Everyone born
or naturalized is a citizen of the US.
All citizens are guaranteed due
process under the law
Fifteenth Amendment,
ratified February 3, 1870: All citizens
have the right to vote.

13. First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln, Francis Bicknell Carpenter, painted 1864
Wikimedia webpage lists federal officials in this painting.

14. The Confederate states were compelled to adopt these Reconstruction amendments before they
were readmitted to the Union after their defeat in the Civil War, and their state constitutions had
to specifically abolish slavery. There was no possibility these could have been drafted and later
ratified had the South not rebelled and seceded from the Union.
After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President Andrew Johnson, under his
implementation of Presidential Reconstruction, attempted to readmit the Confederate states
under very lenient terms. This backfired when the former Confederate states, in their hubris,
enacted harsh black codes that essentially reintroduced slavery in all but name, and when many
former Confederal officials and military leaders were elected to Congress. Congress balked at
seating these traitors in Congress, and put the South under military rule, only readmitting those
states that had functioning biracial governments several years hence.
This painting shows Andrew Johnson seated to the far left of Lincoln, perhaps the painter is
suggesting that Johnson had far less empathy than Lincoln, he was definitely a racist who
despised abolitionists.

15. Battle of Spottsylvania, Kurz & Allison Art Publishers, 1888
Designed by John B. Bachelder and painted by
Alonzo Chappel, this work of art depicts those
who visited the dying president throughout the
night and early morning of April 14–15, 1865.
Lincoln’s wife, Mary, is pictured in the center, lying
across the president’s body. His son Robert stands in
the foreground to the right of the bed. Vice President
Andrew Johnson is seated at the far left.

16. You can deduce from this chart of the dates the Southern states were readmitted to
the Union that the 14th Amendment, which states that everyone born or naturalized
is a citizen of the US, and that all citizens are guaranteed due process under the law,
probably would not have passed if the soon-to-be readmitted Confederate states
had not voted to ratify this amendment. In these Southern states the ratification
vote was likely passed by a good margin, but with overwhelming support from black
voters but only a small portion of the white vote, and many white voters likely did
not vote.
You will note that Georgia was actually readmitted twice. After Georgia was
readmitted in 1868, white supremacists violently intimidated the elected
Republicans officials, in effect staging a coup and forcing them out, and in response
George was placed under military rule once again and was the last Confederate state
to be readmitted to the Union, and the only Confederate state to be readmitted to
the Union twice. Dr Wikipedia can tell you more of this fascinating history.

17. Battle of Spottsylvania, Kurz & Allison Art Publishers, 1888
Southern States Readmitted into Union
July 24, 1866 -Tennessee is the 1st.
June 22, 1868 - Arkansas is the 2nd
June 25, 1868 - Florida is the 3rd
June 25, 1868 - Alabama is the 4th
June 25, 1868 - Louisiana is the 5th
June 25, 1868 - North Carolina is 6th
June 25, 1868 - South Carolina is 7th
June 25, 1868 - GEORGIA FIRST readmitted
December 22, 1869 - Second reconstruction
for Georgia began!
January 27, 1870 - Virginia is the 8th
February 23, 1870 - Mississippi is the 9th
March 30, 1870 - Texas is the 10th
March 30, 1870 - 15th Amendment ratified.
July 15, 1870 - Georgia is the 11th and last.
Thirteenth Amendment,
ratified January 31, 1865: Slavery is
abolished, except for convict labor.
Fourteenth Amendment,
ratified July 9, 1868: Everyone born
or naturalized is a citizen of the US.
All citizens are guaranteed due
process under the law.
Fifteenth Amendment,
ratified February 3, 1870: All citizens
have the right to vote.

18. A cotton plantation on the Mississippi, 1884
The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, was ratified a few months prior to end
of the Civil War. The text of this amendment is: Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

19. Before he was elected, Lincoln favored gradual compensated
emancipation, which is how most Latin American countries freed
their slaves. After his election but before his inauguration
several Southern states seceded, explicitly declaring the defense
of their slave society as the reason for secession.

20. In the beginning, Lincoln justified the war
as a fight to save the Union. But as Eric
Foner notes, “a powerful combination of
events moved Lincoln to adopt a new
policy towards slavery. They included the
congressional enactments of 1862; the
failure of conventional military strategy to
win the war; the desire to forestall
European intervention; the need to enlist
black soldiers; and the growing number of
slaves escaping to Union lines.”

21. In late 1862, in the Emancipation Proclamation,” Lincoln warned the “Confederates
that if they did not lay down their arms, Lincoln would decree Emancipation.”
This illustration from Harpers Weekly succinctly shows what mattered most for the
emancipated slaves, the ability to work without being whipped by an overseer, to
marry and not worry about whether their family would be broken up, to go to
school and learn, and in, the last pane, to participate in a true democracy. And, in
the center pane, just to live in peace like a normal family, not destitute, but with an
adequate standard of living.
When Lincoln helped make “the destruction of slavery an objective of the Union
Army, the Emancipation Proclamation fundamentally altered the character of the
Civil War.” The total abolition of slavery was now inevitable.

22. Emancipation
from Freedmen's
viewpoint,
illustration from
Harper's Weekly
1865

23. Battle of Antietam by Thulstrup, 1887

24. A cotton plantation on the Mississippi, 1884
The 13th Amendment contained a fatal loophole that caused much suffering, and
death. The text of this amendment is: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

25. To take advantage of this loophole, the former Confederate states passed
harsh vagrancy laws that criminalized “loafing,” which meant that any
black person picked up by the law in a southern town was automatically
put in jail so he could be leased out to plantation owners under the
overseer’s whip, as under slavery, and other businesses such as laying
railroad tracks in chain gangs. Convict leasing was brutal, sometimes
convict laborers died on the job. These convict laborers were often
treated worse than slaves had been treated, slaves had been valuable
property before the Civil War, they were worth as much then as
economy cars are worth now, but now after the Civil the life of a black
man literally had no value.

26. Cotton pickers in the field

27. Saying that after the Civil the life of a black man had no value does
sound rather harsh and degrading, this comment has been made by
many scholars, including the former Yale professor who has YouTube
videos for his undergraduate classes on Black History, and he confirms
that this comment is as harsh as it is true. We have a series of four blogs
sampling these two series of Yale lectures.

29. You might ask, who decided to include this glaring loophole that allowed convict
leasing?
This convict leasing was likely not intentional but, to a certain extent, was simply an
historical accident. This prisoner exemption in the 13th Amendment originated in
Thomas Jefferson’s proposed Land Ordinance of 1874, and in the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787, which limited the prohibition of slavery to territories north of
the Ohio River. Scholars are not sure exactly why Jefferson included this clause,
maybe he ascribed to the Enlightenment concept that work was good to build
character. The proponents of the 13th Amendment thought that if it were based on
the Northwest Ordinance precedent that would help with ratification. This clause
had become almost boilerplate language and was included in many pieces of
legislation over the years, with no ill effects.
But the former Confederate states drove a herd of elephants through this eye of a
needle, re-enslaving many former black slaves as convict laborers.

30. Treaty of Greenville, painted 1795, settling Northwest Indian War

31. Missing from Eric Foner’s discussion of slavery is a broader recognition
that slavery was nothing but a labor system for the lower and sometimes
middle classes of society. From the beginning of time the extremely
wealthy have envied for even greater wealth, seeking to enslave most
workers to a life of penury, caring for the widow and orphan and poor
was a constant theme of the Old Testament prophets from millennia
past.
The ancient world had no employees, they only had independent
contractors and slaves, slaves were the ancient equivalent of employees.
This can be seen in our blogs on slavery in the ancient world:

33. When FDR was looking forward to a post-war world, he summarized his New Deal
policies, hoping to implement their philosophy globally, in the Four Freedoms. Not
only did he include the familiar Freedom of speech and freedom of worship, but he
also recognized that the Bill of Rights freedoms were but a hollow shell for those
who were unable to feed their family.

35. Just as important are the other two freedoms, freedom from want and freedom
from fear. The New Deal, and the Atlanta Charter that he signed with Winston
Churchill at the start of the war, seeks to ensure that anyone who works a full-time
job is entitled to live with dignity, earning enough to adequately feed and clothe his
family, and live in decent housing.
How can we claim to have truly abolished slavery if we have a sizable portion of our
population earning a minimum wage that is not a living wage? Not everyone has
the intellectual capability to attend college, and there are some for whom trade
school is a challenge. Should we condemn our least talented but hard-working
citizens to a life of hopeless penury?
So, in a very real sense, slavery did not end with the Civil War, slavery is still with us
today under the guise of a minimum wage that is far from a living wage.

37. We go now to the text of the 14th Amendment, which came into effect when many
of the former Confederate states ratified it as a condition for readmission to the
Union in 1868:

38. FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
No longer could states abuse the rights of their citizens without
consequence, with the 14th Amendment the federal
government was the final guarantor that all citizens would be
guaranteed due process under the law, regardless of which
state they resided. All citizens, in all states, were now equal
under the law.
This is the text of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United
States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall
make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.

39. Radical Republican
congressmen like
Thaddeus Stevens and
Charles Sumner “saw
Reconstruction as a once-
in-a-lifetime opportunity
to purge the republic of
the legacy of slavery and
guarantee that all
Americans enjoyed the
same rights and
opportunities, secured by
a powerful and beneficent
national government.”

40. These pictures show how Charles Sumner was darn near killed when he was
throttled on the Senate floor by fellow Senator Preston Brooks from South Carolina,
who was lionized by the Southern press for this attempted murder. Not even the
floors of Congress were safe from violence in the years leading up to the Civil War.
This incident was one of many leading up to the Civil War, Charles Sumner was
forced to recuperate for several years before returning to his seat in the Senate.
And we have Representative Thaddeus Stevens delivering the Articles of
Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson to the Senate.

42. Congressional midterm elections of 1866 were essentially a referendum
on the 14th Amendment, and the Radical Republicans were swept to an
emphatic victory in the Northern states. This amendment guaranteed
that when the Southern states were readmitted back to the Union,
equality of the races and civil rights could not be undone, and the goals
of white supremacists.
You can tell from the campaign posters of this year that the political
campaigns could get quite nasty, with full throttle racism out front and
center.

43. Two racist posters attacking Radical Republican who
support black suffrage, issued during the 1866
Pennsylvania gubernatorial race.

44. Eric Foner notes, “every effort to expand
the rights of blacks was attacked by
opponents as sure to lead to ‘social
equality,’ a phrase that conjured up images
of black-white sexual intimacy and
interracial marriage.” “Although unable to
prevent the 14th Amendment’s passage,
Democrats railed against it as a violation of
two norms of American political life, white
supremacy and the traditional power of
the states to define and regulate the rights
of their inhabitants. Months before
passage,” after a vicious racist rant in
Congress, “a Republican senator remarked,
‘it only comes back to this, that a nigger is
a nigger.’” A southern senator confirmed,
“that is the whole of it.”

45. The other sections of the 14th Amendment forbade former
Confederate officials from holding political office; reduced
representation when a state obstructs the voting rights of its
citizens, a clause that has never been enforced; and validates US
government debt but forbids repayment of Confederate war
debt. This last clause was added due to fears that a Southern
controlled Congress could seek to wreak havoc on the nation’s
finances, some thought it should have been applied during the
government debt crisis during the Obama administration.

46. FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT
The text of the 15th
Amendment,
guaranteeing all citizens
the right to vote, is as
follows:
The right of citizens of the
United States to vote
shall not be denied or
abridged by the United
States or by any State on
account of race, color, or
previous condition of
servitude.

47. The political leaning of the North prior to General Ulysses Grant’s Presidential
Campaign of 1868 was that it was necessary to force the readmitted Southern
states to extend the franchise to former slaves, but that each Northern state
should decide the black suffrage question for themselves.
This was a controversial issue in this election, the Democrats accused the
Republicans of forcing “Negro supremacy” on the South, there was talk of
overthrowing Reconstruction. Grant’s resounding electoral victory greatly
advanced the cause of the 15th Amendment granting the right to vote to all
citizens. Grant was inaugurated shortly before Congress passed the 15th
Amendment, and he encouraged its ratification in his Inaugural Address.
Although it was passed quickly by the Southern biracial Reconstruction states, its
ratification by border and Northern states was more problematic than was the
case for the 13th and 14th Amendments.

48. Cartoon by
Thomas Nast,
arguing that the
reason Democrats
objected to
African-Americans
having the vote,
was that in the
1868 US
presidential
election African-
Americans voted
for the Republican
candidates
Ulysses S. Grant
and Schuyler
Colfax.

49. Congress was aware that the right to vote could be circumvented by obstacles like
poll taxes, literacy tests, and other ostensibly nonracial requirements, which later
happened during the Redemption Era in the Deep South, butting adding these
provisions to the 15th Amendment would have made it more difficult to ratify.
Who helped implement the Congressional Reconstruction policies in the former
Confederate states? The governmental agency formed for this task was a
temporary agency, the Freedmen’s Bureau, with assistance and protection from
the Union Army. Always hopelessly underfunded, funded year to year, the
Freedmen’s Bureau nevertheless accomplished much during Reconstruction.
We prefer to quote from WEB Dubois’ Black Reconstruction for an overview of the
Freedmen’s Bureau, these slides are from that video.

50. Freedmen's Bureau. Issuing rations to the old and sick, 1866

52. WEB Dubois writes: “Twelve labors of
Hercules faced the Freemen’s Bureau: to
make as rapidly as possible a general survey
of conditions and needs in every state and
locality; to relieve immediate hunger and
distress; to appoint state commissioners and
upwards of 900 bureau officials; to put the
laborers to work at regular wage; to transport
laborers, teachers and officials; to furnish land
for the peasant; to open schools; to pay
bounties to black soldiers and their families;
to establish hospitals and guard health; to
administer justice between man and former
master; to answer continuous and persistent
criticism, North and South, black and white; to
find funds to pay for all this.”
FREEDMENS BUREAU:
FIRST WELFARE AGENCY IN
AMERICA

53. The Freedman’s Bureau faced many challenges in
ensuring that the civil rights of blacks would be
respected, that schools were built for them to attend,
that hospitals would admit them, that they could seek
justice with the police and judges just like any white
man. Often these challenges included risking the lives of
both the black freed slaves as well as those whites who
tried to help them.

54. A Congressional Report stated that the
Freedmen’s Bureau is “almost universally
opposed by the mass of the population, and
exists in an efficient condition only under military
protection, while the Union men of the south are
earnest in its defense, declaring with one voice
that without its protection the colored people
would not be permitted to labor at fair prices,
and could hardly live in safety. The also testify
that without the protection of the US troops
Union men, whether from the North or the South,
would need to abandon their homes. The feeling
of many towards the emancipated slaves,
especially among the uneducated and ignorant,
is one of vindictive and malicious hatred. This
deep-seated prejudice against color is
assiduously cultivated by the public journals, and
leads to acts of cruelty, oppression, and murder,
which the local authorities are at no pains to
prevent or punish.
SOUTHERNERS ARE
HOSTILE TOWARDS
FREEDMENS BUREAU

55. But year after year, Southern resentments and violence grew and grew.
Particularly in the late 1860’s and early 1870’s, white supremacist terrorists such as the Ku Klux
Klan were guilty of acts assault, arson and murder committed not only against blacks but also
anyone sympathetic towards blacks, including Republicans, teachers, and scalawags, or
Southerners sympathetic towards blacks. Their claim to be protectors of white womanhood
included sexual assaults against black women. If victims reported their crimes to the police and
courts, they were subject to further retaliation. Local officials were paralyzed in their efforts to
stem the violence without the help of federal troops and officials.
Outrage led to the passage of Enforcement Acts in 1871 that dramatically increased the federal
government’s power to curb the violence, even permitting the suspension of the right of habeus
corpus when necessary to restore order, granting the federal government authority to
prosecute murders and assaults. President Grant used these sweeping powers to enable federal
troops to crush the Ku Klux Klan. But these many prosecutions swamped the federal court
system. Grant’s reelection ensured that this enforcement could continue, but this level of
federal involvement in local law enforcement could not last for long, and so the violence would
resume and would pervade for decades.

57. Regiment of colored troops, Union Army

58. Northern enthusiasm for the enforcement of the civil rights laws in the former
Confederacy in the face of continual violence by white supremacist terrorists
waned after the Panic of 1873, which was a major recession. White supremacists
sensed this lack of Northern enthusiasm, and the violence dramatically increased,
which led to the contested Presidential Election of 1876. There was widespread
voting fraud, the KKK even destroyed ballots for several black counties, and dual
sets of Republican and Democratic electors for several southern states both
declared victory

59. The country avoided restarting the Civil War with the Compromise of 1877.
Negotiations in Congress led to an agreement where the Southern states would
recognize the Republican electors for the disputed states, and in return the federal
government agreed to pull their troops out of the Southern states, which meant
that any civil rights actions would be unlikely in the former Confederate states.
This led to the eventual takeover of the Southern governments by white
supremacist Democrats, who basically reenacted the old black codes under the
Jim Crow laws, denying blacks the right to vote, due process, and equality under
the law until the new round of civil rights legislation were enacted and supported
by the Supreme Court in the 1960’s.
After the Compromise of 1877, white supremacists once again terrorized the
blacks and their sympathizers, but now blacks had no legal recourse, and when
blacks reported crimes by whites, often the blacks were the ones arrested.

60. Great Financial Panic of 1873 - Closing the
door of the Stock Exchange on its members.
Great Financial Panic, 1873 - View in Broad St., near the
Stock Exchange, after the closing of the Exchange doors

61. A truce - not a compromise, but a chance for high-toned gentlemen to retire gracefully from
their very civil declarations of war Thomas Nast. Illus. in: Harper's Weekly, Feb. 17, 1877

63. The Supreme Court during decades before and after the Civil War was
more of a reactionary force than a progressive force. In fact, the
Supreme Court Dred Scott decision was a major cause of the Civil War,
and after Reconstruction, during the Jim Crow Redemption era, rarely
even took up civil rights cases, let alone ruling in favor of black litigants
who had been wronged, which happened on occasion, but not very
often.
One of the main causes of the Civil War was the 1857 Dred Scott
decision, written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, which may have permitted
slavery to spread everywhere had the Civil War not erupted.

64. Matthew Brady photo of Roger Taney, and Supreme Court Building

65. Matthew Brady photo of Roger Taney
The Taney decision held that no negro had ever
enjoyed the rights of a citizen under the
Constitution. The Taney decision stated that
Negroes were denied the dignity of
personhood, negroes were always property and
would also remain property, negroes were
declared by the Supreme Court decision to be
“so far inferior that they had no rights which a
white man was bound to respect.” This
decision also claimed that “Negros have shown
less capacity for government than any race of
people,” and “wherever they have been left to
their own devices they have shown a constant
tendency to relapse into barbarism.”

66. The real issue was that the Southerners did not regard blacks as equal to whites, blacks were
seen as subhuman and an inferior race. White supremacists feel this way to this very day.
Roger Taney Scott remained on the Supreme Court during the Civil War until he died on October
12, 1864. Southern Democrats were a majority of Supreme Court justices until the death of
Taney. Although Lincoln issued no public statement, he did attend a memorial service on his
death, and appointed Salmon P Chase, a strong anti-slavery Republican from Ohio as Chief
Justice.
Although Lincoln appointed several Radical Republicans to the Supreme Court, the Presidents
from 1870 to 1900 mostly appointed as justices to the high court lawyers from privileged
backgrounds, including numerous railroad lawyers, who had little interest in civil rights. Although
the due process clause was applied to many unforeseen legal situations, cases where due process
was granted to blacks suffering injustice and discrimination were not that common.

67. After the Panic of 1873 and the rollback of the Reconstruction civil rights reforms in
the South, this toleration of the Jim Crow racial laws also applied to the Supreme
Court rulings at the time, which basically ignored the intent of the Reconstruction
Amendments in very narrow legal constructions, which finally crumbled in the
Warner Court years. The original intent was ignored in the Slaughterhouse case,
where the 14th Amendment was held to only apply to federal citizenship, not state
citizenship. Likewise, voting restrictions were ruled to be legal as long as they were
not specifically racial in character. The Supreme Court in the Robber Baron years in
the early 20th Century was much more resolute in applying the Due Process clause
of the 14th Amendment to corporations, but for blacks, there was not much interest
in ruling in favor of due process. Consult Eric Foner for more dreary history.

68. Supreme Court Justices, 1894, Harlan is fourth in front row.

69. There was one ray of hope, one ray of sunshine, one Supreme Court Justice who carried the torch
of freedom and civil rights during those dark Jim Crow days following Reconstruction, John
Marshall Harlan, known as the Great Dissenter.
John Marshall Harlan was appointed to the Supreme Court by Rutherford Hayes after the
Compromise of 1877. Harlan was a former slaveholder from Kentucky, he had served in the
Kentucky militia for the Union in the Civil War, but was a reluctant Republican. President Hayes
wanted to appoint a justice from the South to promote national unity, but remarkably he was
known as a dissenter who faithfully supported civil rights and the original intent of the
Reconstruction Amendments.
Eric Foner quotes Harlan in his famous lone dissent in the “separate but equal” Plessy v. Ferguson
case of 1896. Plessy was an NAACP test case where Plessy, a black man, bought a first class
railroad ticket, and was arrested when he refused to move to the blacks only carriage, in violation
of the state Jim Crow law. The majority opinion ruled that separate facilities for whites and blacks
were permitted as long as they were equal.

70. Supreme Court, Washington, DC

71. Supreme Court, Washington, DC

72. This is what Eric Foner wrote, edited for
conciseness:
“The white race,” Harlan wrote, was
undoubtedly the dominant race” in wealth,
power, prestige, and achievements.
However, the Constitution itself is color-
blind. The thin disguise of equal facilities
was not an innocuous separation of the
races, but is rather an expression of racial
dominance rooted in slavery. The law
assumed that blacks were “so inferior and
degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit
in proximity to white persons.” “In my
opinion,” Harlan added, “the judgement this
day rendered will, in time, prove to be as
pernicious as the Dred Scott opinion.”
Harlan correctly predicted that the decision
would unleash a flood of statutes
segregating every realm of Southern life. In
fact, segregated facilities were never equal.

73. Justice Harlan did not live to see the Supreme Court to repudiate the
Separate but Equal doctrine, but this happened in a string of cases
culminating in the Brown V Board of Education in 1954, which decisively
rejected the separate but equal doctrine as wrongly decided, mandating
school desegregation with “all deliberate speed.” Chief Justice Earl
Warren, who was appointed by President Eisenhower because he
thought he would be a safe conservative choice, lobbied his fellow
justices so that Harlan’s lone dissenting opinion was now the unanimous
opinion in the Brown case.
Some years later the lead counsel of the NAACP who argued the Brown
case, Thurgood Marshall, would himself be appointed as a justice to the
Supreme Court.

74. Supreme Court, Washington, DC

75. SOURCES:
The main source is Eric Foner’s Second Founding, which is an excellent
short history on the Reconstruction Amendments.
We also quoted from WEB Dubois Black Reconstruction, which is well
written, his language is a bit flowery at times, but he does turn a good
phrase quite often, and he speaks from the perspective of a black man
who lived through the times he was writing about and was an active
civil rights leader.
We also encourage you to listen to Eric Foner’s undergraduate lectures
for Columbia University that are on YouTube.
And Eric Foner also has a cool website with many articles to read, and
course outlines that include many references.

78. And we have the attribution to AA Lamb for his wonderful painting of the
Emancipation Proclamation we used for our thumbnail, with the rejoicing
freed slaves in the background at left, and the marching Union soldiers in
the background at right.
The US Capitol building was also a symbol during the Civil War. The dome
was under construction when Lincoln was inaugurated, Lincoln insisted the
construction continue during the Civil War to project continuity and
confidence in the Union cause.

79. .”
Emancipation Proclamation, AA Lamb, painted 1864

80. PLEASE click on the link in the description for our blog on the Second
Founding.
And please click on the links for other interesting videos that will
broaden your knowledge and improve your soul.

81. To find the source of any
direct quotes in this blog,
please type in the phrase to
the search box in my blog to
see the referenced footnote.