The amendment that refused to die : equality and justice deferred : the history of the Fourteenth Amendment / Howard N. Meyer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meyer, Howard N.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Constitution--14th Amendment.

United States.

African Americans--Civil rights.

African Americans.

Equality before the law--United States.

Equality before the law.

Due process of law--United States.

Due process of law.

Physical Description:

xx, 291 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

Updated edition.

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Madison Books, 2000.

Summary:

Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History. The Amendment That Refused to Die examines the passage of, and assault on, the "Big Fourteen," the post-Civil War amendment to the Constitution that guarantees equality and justice for all people. Howard N. Meyer explores the sinister reaction against the amendment's sweeping reform, from judicial sabotage and KKK terrorism to the "separate but equal" debacle of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. He investigates the amendment's impact on more recent issues, such as institutionalized segregation and police misconduct, as well as the challenges faced by those who would extend the amendment's protective mantle to the interests of labor, women, homosexuals, and legal immigrants.

This updated edition analyzes the current attacks on the Fourteenth Amendment that not only threaten affirmative action, desegregation, voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights, protection from the tyranny of the State, and due process, but the amendment itself, the vital heart and guarantor of all our liberties.

Contents:

Preamble: The Twice-Made Constitution xviii

Part I. Birth: The Founding Fathers of 1789 and 1866 1

1. Liberty Limited 3

2. "What No Just Government Should Refuse" 7

3. A Son of the Revolution 12

4. Dred Scott: Four Tries for Freedom 17

5. "There is a Mode ... by Which It May be Amended" 22

6. Moving Toward a New Birth of Freedom 28

7. Antislavery Origins 34

8. The Second American Constitution 39

9. Completing the New Constitution 45

10. Justice, Equality

and National Honor 51

11. Perfecting the Structure: Votes and Rights Laws 61

Part II. Fall: Resistance, Struggle and Denial 69

12. Two Steps Backward 71

13. Slaughterhouse of Liberty 77

14. Retreat from the Constitution 84

15. Election Returns and an Unexpected Dissenter 90

16. A Banker, a Burglar and a Bootlegger 95

17. Law and Order in Chicago 102

18. A Carpetbagger's Lost Cause 110

19. Color Caste or Color-blind? 117

20. This is Due Process? 124

21. This is Democracy? 132

Part III. Rise: Revolution and Return to the Constitution 139

22. Grandson of the Revolution 141

23. Sumner's Secretary Carries On 147

24. The Ultimate Guardians of Our Freedom 154

25. Leo Frank, Joe Hill and Frank Moore 163

26. Liberty by Another Label 172

27. Lawlessness in Law Enforcement 180

28. The Court Begins to Curb Lawlessness 186

29. Chipping Away at Inequality: the "Fatal Injustice" 196

30. It Took Another Amendment... 206

31. Tourgee Triumphant

On Paper 215

32. Mr. Justice Black Revisits Congressman Bingham 225

33. Too Late? 233

Afterword. Equality and Justice Deferred Again?: The Fourteenth in a New Century 241

Excerpts from Justice Thurgood Marshall's Remarks to the Annual Seminar of the San Francisco Patent and Trademark Law Association in Maui, Hawaii, on May 6, 1987 265

Appendix Constitutional Amendments: The Bill of Rights and the Freedom Amendments 271.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [275]-278) and index.

ISBN:

1568331703

OCLC:

44502488