The Constrained Court’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights movement was a collaborative effort towards equal rights for African Americans. In 1954, the Supreme Court deemed “separate but equal” unconstitutional in the case, Brown v. Board of Education. In The Hollow Hope, Gerald N. Rosenberg analyzes the Court’s power in the Civil Rights movement, suggesting that the Court lacked the tools needed to create social reform. In From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, Michael Klarman approaches the Court’s efficiency in a different way. He views the Court as a significant catalyst for the radicalization of white southerners, whose violence was projected through media. This then changed white northerners’ minds about segregation. I hesitate …show more content…
In Rosenberg’s list of constraints, he claims that in order for the Court to be effective, they must gain support from the executive and congressional branches. Other constraints include “the need for both elite and popular support” (Rosenberg 2008, pg. 85). Due to the Court’s inability to overcome these constraints in the decade following Brown, the Court was practically ineffective until the Civil Rights Act was passed. Rosenberg claims that, the “Constrained Court view seems to explain the first decade after Brown while the Dynamic Court view appears to do a better job explaining the post-1964 findings” (Rosenberg 2008, pg. 54). I agree with Rosenberg’s claim. Once the three constraints Rosenberg analyzed are overcome by the Court, they can then begin producing direct change. This then allows the executive and congressional branches and the Court to act simultaneously to end discrimination. I can imply that when the constraints are not overcome, their effects are …show more content…
Additionally, he claims that “news coverage was extraordinary” (Klarman 2014, pg. 364). Rosenberg refutes this claim by stating there was no evidence that press coverage increased after Brown (Rosenberg 2008, pg. 111). Rosenberg also cited Time magazine for criticizing southern newspapers for not doing a sufficient job publicizing Brown (Rosenberg 2008, pg. 111). I disagree with Klarman’s claim that by simply televising violence, northerners would change their mind causing the passage of the Civil Rights Act. I believe that Klarman credits the white southerners too much for radicalizing and oppressing black people. Although there was a great deal of backlash from white southerners, I reject Klarman’s claim that it was the most direct effect of Brown in the Civil Rights
The Civil Rights movement was a collaborative effort towards equal rights for African Americans. In 1954, the Supreme Court deemed “separate but equal” unconstitutional in the case, Brown v. Board of Education. In The Hollow Hope, Gerald N. Rosenberg analyzes the Court’s power in the Civil Rights movement, suggesting that the Court lacked the tools needed to create social reform. In From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, Michael Klarman approaches the Court’s efficiency in a different way. He views the Court as a significant catalyst for the radicalization of white southerners, whose violence was projected through media. This then changed white northerners’ minds about segregation. I hesitate …show more content…
In Rosenberg’s list of constraints, he claims that in order for the Court to be effective, they must gain support from the executive and congressional branches. Other constraints include “the need for both elite and popular support” (Rosenberg 2008, pg. 85). Due to the Court’s inability to overcome these constraints in the decade following Brown, the Court was practically ineffective until the Civil Rights Act was passed. Rosenberg claims that, the “Constrained Court view seems to explain the first decade after Brown while the Dynamic Court view appears to do a better job explaining the post-1964 findings” (Rosenberg 2008, pg. 54). I agree with Rosenberg’s claim. Once the three constraints Rosenberg analyzed are overcome by the Court, they can then begin producing direct change. This then allows the executive and congressional branches and the Court to act simultaneously to end discrimination. I can imply that when the constraints are not overcome, their effects are …show more content…
Additionally, he claims that “news coverage was extraordinary” (Klarman 2014, pg. 364). Rosenberg refutes this claim by stating there was no evidence that press coverage increased after Brown (Rosenberg 2008, pg. 111). Rosenberg also cited Time magazine for criticizing southern newspapers for not doing a sufficient job publicizing Brown (Rosenberg 2008, pg. 111). I disagree with Klarman’s claim that by simply televising violence, northerners would change their mind causing the passage of the Civil Rights Act. I believe that Klarman credits the white southerners too much for radicalizing and oppressing black people. Although there was a great deal of backlash from white southerners, I reject Klarman’s claim that it was the most direct effect of Brown in the Civil Rights