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ing special curfews and harsher criminal penalties applied to Blacks, the Virginia General Assembly passed laws banning certain interac- tions between free and enslaved Blacks. “In 1793, Virginia became the ¿UVWVWDWHWREDQWKHPLJUDWLRQRIIUHH%ODFNVLQWRWKHVWDWH´ ³7KLV¿UVWFLYLOULJKWVPRYHPHQWFKDQJHG$PHULFD´E\LQWURGXFLQJ and promoting a vision of racial equality “never before pursued nor widely accepted, at any level of government.” Yet “its most enduring consequence is the Fourteenth Amendment, a bulwark for individual rights, equal protection, and due process under the law.” Opposition to the notion of equal justice rested on “deeply ingrained convictions about white racial superiority.” A few places in the U.S. Constitution — “particularly the privileges and immunities clause — opened the door to federal protections of free Black people's rights.” The process encompassed coalition build- LQJDQGFRPSURPLVHV7KHVHH̆RUWV³IRXQGDKRPHLQWKH5HSXEOLFDQ 3DUW\ ZKLFK HQWHUHG QDWLRQDO SROLWLFV LQ FRPSULVHG RI SHRSOH ZLWK PDQ\ GL̆HUHQW SROLWLFDO SHUVXDVLRQV´ 7KH\ GLG KRZHYHU WDNH the moral high ground in their treatment of Blacks. “With the Four- WHHQWK$PHQGPHQW5HSXEOLFDQVVRXJKWWRFODULI\WKDW$IULFDQ$PHUL - FDQVDUHFLWL]HQVWKXVHOHYDWLQJIHGHUDORYHUVWDWHFLWL]HQVKLSZLWKWKH promise that the U.S. government will protect the basic civil rights of DOOFLWL]HQV´ 7KH 5HSXEOLFDQV RI DQG ³FUDIWHG WKH ODQJXDJH RI WKH Fourteenth Amendment to explicitly limit the power of the states. 0DQ\KDG ORQJRSSRVHGUDFLDOO\GLVFULPLQDWRU\VWDWH ODZVDQGZDQW - ed to ensure that the Constitution would forever bar such language.” 4XHVWLRQV UHPDLQ DV WR ³ZK\ WKH 5HSXEOLFDQV GLG QRW HOLPLQDWH WKH anti-vagrancy laws and other measures used against poor people to harass them” and restrict their freedom of movement and economic opportunities. “And why, even after new measures were passed, did
VWDWHVUHWDLQVXFKH[SDQVLYHSRZHUVRIRSSUHVVLRQ"´ “There were proponents and leaders in every free state” sympa- thetic to strengthening protections against discrimination. Yet the “Northwest Territory States barred slavery while permitting racially GLVFULPLQDWRU\ODZV(̆RUWVWREULQJWKHTXHVWLRQRIUDFLDOHTXDOLW\EH - fore federal authorities — Congress as well as the courts — were only marginally successful in an era in which southern slaveholders held disproportionate power in Washington.” State courts were also “im- mensely deferential” to legislators; and race-based regulations legal- L]LQJVODYHU\DOVRWDUJHWHG1DWLYH$PHULFDQVDQGIUHH%ODFNV,QDGGL - WLRQWKH6XSUHPH&RXUW 6ODXJKWHU+RXVH decision put the most important privileges and immunities under state rather than federal authority. $XWKRU .DWH0DVXU¶V ZHOOUHVHDUFKHG ERRN HTXLSV UHDGHUV ZLWK D clear understanding of the problems and how we got to where we are, in addition to possible pathways and solutions. Every piece of infor- PDWLRQ LQ WKLVERRNPDWWHUV0DVXU¶V FRQWULEXWLRQ WR HQKDQFLQJRXU level of literacy about our nation’s sordid history of civil rights and civil liberties is enormous.
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South By Winfred Rembert, As Told To Erin I. Kelly Foreward by Bryan Stevenson, Founder of the Equal Justice Center Initiative 2021; Bloomsbury Publishing Inc.; New York 285 pp; $30.00 HB ISBN 978-1-83557-659-7
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