From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The
Supreme Court and the Struggle for
Racial Equality by Michael J. Klarman
Truly A Masterpiece
A monumental investigation of the Supreme Courts rulings on race, From
Jim Crow To Civil Rights spells out in compelling detail the political and
social context within which the Supreme Court Justices operate and the
consequences of their decisions for American race relations. In a highly
provocative interpretation of the decisions connection to the civil rights
movement, Klarman argues that Brown was more important for mobilizing
southern white opposition to racial change than for encouraging direct-
action protest. Brown unquestioningly had a significant impact--it brought
race issues to public attention and it mobilized supporters of the ruling. It
also, however, energized the opposition. In this authoritative account of
constitutional law concerning race, Michael Klarman details, in the richest
and most thorough discussion to date, how and whether Supreme Court
decisions do, in fact, matter.

Personal Review: From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme
Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality by Michael J. Klarman
This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.
The question that the author posits is: does the Supreme Court actually
affect society? Klarman contends that Supreme Court rulings in the 1940s,
specifically when dealing with criminal procedure (as opposed to black
enfranchisement), had little tangible impact on the lives of African
Americans in the South. He cites four cases, Moore v. Dempsey (1923),
which dealt with verdicts rendered amid mob pressure, Powell v. Alabama
(1932), which dealt with the appointment of adequate counsel for felonies,
Norris v. Alabama (1935), which dealt with jury selections, and Brown v.
Mississippi
(1936), which dealt with confessions obtained using torture.
Klarman contends that despite these constitutional safeguard, African
American rights were still trampled in the South. He cites numerous "legal
loopholes" for circumventing these cases, or in some cases, just blatant
disregard. For instance, many times, lawyers were appointed at most a few
days before trial, and were unable to adequately prepare. He also cites the
reluctance of white lawyers to take on black clients for fear of reprisal, and
out of blatant racism. After the Norris ruling, African Americans were
usually selected to be in the jury pool, but never on the juries. The use of
torture
was always suspect, and a jury would almost always take a white sheriffs
word over a black mans if he claimed he was tortured. Lynching and mob
violence still permeated Southern Courts as well. Klarman maintains that
there was a set of "unwritten laws" which governed the South despite the
federal rulings of the Supreme Court. Klarman also contends that the
Supreme Court even showed hesitance toward their professed principles.
Despite passing this legislation, the Supreme Court did not always enforce
their decisions. Despite obvious "miscarriages of justice," many felt that
even the presence of these rulings-whether enforced or not-was a step in
the right direction (although I think many African Americans would probably
disagree with this). It is an argument of intention versus actuality.
He contends that Supreme Court justices are products of their time and
rarely make groundbreaking decisions, instead he contends that justices
are "a part of the society that they are trying to transform," and cannot truly
step outside of that society. Rather, they can only "go with the flow." And
this I believe to be his thesis. He cites public opinion at the time of Plessy
v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education, and that those cases
were not truly revolutionary because the "tide" of public opinion was
moving in that direction.

However, while Klarman denies the existence of tangible gains resulting
from these cases, he does not think them futile. Instead, he posits that
these cases led to intangible results for the African-American community.
Namely, it gave African
Americans confidence that the oppressive system in which they lived could
be changed, however slightly. All in all, Klarman believes that these
verdicts, while not rendering tangible results, began the impetus to toward
a higher race consciousness in the United States, and ultimately to the
groundbreaking civil rights legislation of the 1960s. The
decisions showed that change was possible, and thus were relevant, but
not in a conventional sense. And I believe this to a story of wider historical
analysis. Events such as the civil rights movement usually do not simply
"occur," they have visible, sometimes intangible; antecedents that
eventually help to birth a new consensuses.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, civil
rights history.
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