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= The Journey of Acceptance = media type="youtube" key="MRfFfr-tYh0" height="259" width="418" align="right"

America is a country that was founded on the idea of freedom for everyone, regardless of religion, creed, or social status. However, over the course of history, many things have challenged what is considered America's greatest strength - freedom. Time passes and things change, opening up new opportunities for new people. These people deserve freedom as well. When America was first founded, the founding fathers had no idea that their would be so much bloodshed, hatred, and discrimination over the rights and freedoms of non-white, non-male, American citizens. However, denying someone the freedoms that are a life necessity simply because of how they were born is downright inhumane; and people grew sick of it. It started with the abolotionist movement which then extended into the civil rights movement. After that, the women's suffrage movement rose with a vengeance and not too long after that the fight for gay rights came to the forefront of America. America is moving towards acceptance of all peoples, regardless of religion, creed, social status, and now gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

= Scottsboro Boys Case (1931)  =

Nine African-Americans boys were hopping trains and a couple white boys saw them and got off the train to tell local authorities they had been beaten up by the boys. The police formed a posse, searched the train, and found two girls who accused the boys of rape (2). The boys were rushed through three fast trials in Scottsboro, Alabama with little legal representation. In the Jim Crow south, the penalty for raping a white woman was the death penalty. All of the boys were sentenced to death except for 12 year old Roy Wright (2). The American Communist Party helped step in to appeal the case. The ACP was a very notable supporter of African-Americans during the Jim Crow era South. With their help, the Alabama Supreme Court kept 7 of the 8 convictions but Eugene Williams was given a new trial due to his being a juvenile. The case was brought back into the lower courts because Chief Justice Anderson said they didn't have a fair trial (1). The story unfolded during the retrials. One of the white girls said that she lied about the entire rape story and that the black boys had not touched either of them. Ultimately, the case was tried three times, all with the same verdict - guilty. The third trial even had a black jury member (2). Charges were dropped for 4 of the defendants but the remaining five defendants had to serve 75 years or were given a death sentence (1).

=Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)=

A black family, the Shelley's, bought a house in St. Louis, Missouri in 1945. When they purchased the house they did not know that there was a restrictive covenant placed on the property since 1911. This restrictive covenant stated that the house could not be owned by people of the Negro race. A man who lived 10 blocks, Louis Kraemer, sued the Shelley's in order to keep them from owning the property. The Supreme Court of Missouri decided that the restrictive covenant was in fact enforceable because it was a private agreement and was not targeted towards a specific person (3).

Two questions were considered in the Courts: 1) is a racially-based covenant legal under the Fourteenth Amendment? 2) Is it enforceable by law? (3)

The US Supreme Court decided that racially based covenants are valid and can be enforced by the private parties but to ask for judicial support in enforcing them goes against the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment due to discrimination (4).

= Brown v. Board of Education (1954)  =

In 1951, thirteen parents filed a class action lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education in regard to their twenty children. The parents wanted the school district to end segregation in the school district. The local District Court ruled in favor towards the Board of Education (6). They based their decision on the precedent set in the Plessy v. Ferguson case (1896). In Plessy v. Ferguson, "separate but equal" was upheld in the instance of segregation betweens blacks and whites on railway cars. The three judges in the District Court knew that segregation in the education system negatively affected black students but due to the fact the school buildings, transportation, curriculum, and education background of the teachers were equal, they denied a reversal on school policy (6). The case went to the United States Supreme Court for judicial review. Chief Justice Earl Warren suggested to the board of judges that the only reason to really keep segregation in place was to actually believe that blacks were inferior to whites (5). He also stated that the court should overrule the Plessy v. Ferguson case, otherwise they should be considered a true institution of protecting liberties (5). After making this argument, Warren had a unanimous decision. After the overruling of the case, Topeka schools were integrated and segregation in the school district ended (7).

=Loving v. Virginia (1967)=

Mildred and Richard Perry Loving were an interracially married couple. They were both from Virginia but due to the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited interracial marriage in Virgina, they had to go to Washington DC in order to be married (9). Once they were back home, police invaded their home in the night time in hopes to catch them in the act of sex, which was also a crime in Virginia. Mildred Loving showed the officers their marriage certificate but to no avail because interracial couples getting married out of state and then returning to Virginia was against Sections 20-58 of the Virginia Code (9). The Lovings plead guilty on January 6, 1959 and were sentenced to one year in prison. However, their sentence was suspended for 25 years assuming they would leave the state of Virginia (8). The Lovings then moved to Washington DC. While in DC, the ACLU filed a suit on behalf of their case. The case was taken to the US Supreme Court and their criminal sentence was overturned on the grounds that Virginia's anti-miscegenation broke the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court issued a statement:

//"Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State." (10)//

This case was a milestone case in the fight for black civil rights. The decision on this case ended all legal restrictions dealing with race in the United States.

=Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)=

Allan Bakke was a 32 year old white male who was applying to medical schools in 1973. Bakke was a National Merit Scholar in high school, graduated from the University of Minnesota with a 3.51 GPA, and joined the Marines after graduation to fulfill his ROTC requirement (11). He was highly upset when he applied to the University of California Davis in 1973 and 1974 and was denied both years. However, students with a less impressive resume were getting accepted and he wasn't (13). After learning that UC-Davis reserved 16 out of 100 seats for minorities, Bakke filed a suit against the University of California saying they didn't him accept due to his race. He cited that his exclusion from admission was a direct violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (12). The courts easily made a decision regarding this case. They ordered the University of California to accept Allan Bakke. After this case was decided, California made it illegal for school's to use race as a factor in determing admissions (12).

=Oprah Winfrey's Talk Show (1986)=

Oprah Winfrey was the first African-American woman to host a nationally syndicated talk show. This was a huge milestone in the history of blacks in America. It symbolizes a true end to one era of America's past. Racism still existed but blacks were being giving more prominent roles in America (14).

=LA Riots (1992)=

The Los Angeles riots were in response to the acquittal of 4 police officers involved in the beating of Rodney King. Looting, arson, assault, and vandalism ran rampant through South Central Los Angeles for days (15). Damages were estimated at nearly at $1 billion. In the aftermath, 53 were dead and thousands more were injured. The LA riots showed that race tensions were still alive in the country (15).

=Jena Six (2006)=

"Jena Six" refers to a group of six black teenagers who beat up a white student named Justin Barker at their high school, Jena High School. This occurence was not a random act of violence. In the months leading up to the incident, racial tensions were rising in the community (17). There were nooses hung from a tree in the high school courtyard, part of the high school was set on fire, and various confrontations between black and white youth (17). The most notable aspect of this case is not the fact that racism is still alive, everyone already knows that. The most interesting piece of this case is the amount of support the Jena Six received, 15,000-20,000 supporters marched through Jena on September 20, 2007 to protest the treatment of the parties involved (16). The protestors felt that the white students involved had not been dealt with as harsh as the black students. That was cited as one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in years (16).

=The Impact=

All of these cases are not just cases of black civil rights. They each tell the story of America's slow, but continuous movement towards acceptance - Christian, Muslim, Jew, Atheist, White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Gay, Straight, Rich, Poor, etc. Although the cases are originally for black civil rights, they shaped America and pushed us towards acceptance of all kinds of people, regardless of lifestyle differences.

=Works Cited=


 * 1) Klarman, Michael J. "Scottsboro." //Marquette Law Review// 93.2 (2009): 379-432. //Academic Search Complete//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 2) "Scottsboro Case." //Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition// (2011): 1. //Literary Reference Center//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 3) Rosent, Mark D. "Was Shelley V. Kraemer Incorrectly Decided? Some New Answers." //California Law Review// 95.2 (2007): 451-512. //Academic Search Complete//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 4) "Shelley V Kraemer." //Supreme Court Cases: The Dynamic Court (1930-1999)// (1999): N.PAG. //Military & Government Collection//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 5) "Brown V. Board Of Education Of Topeka, Kansas." //Brown Et Al. V. Board Of Education Of Topeka Et Al// (2009): 1. //MasterFILE Premier//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 6) "Brown V. Board Of Education Of Topeka, Kans." //Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition// (2011): 1. //Literary Reference Center//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 7) Engl, Margaret, Steven B. Permuth, and Terri K. Wonder. "Brown V. Board Of Education": A Beginning Lesson In Social Justice." //International Journal Of Educational Reform// 13.1 (2004): 64-73. //ERIC//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 8) "Loving, Mildred." Britannica Book of the Year, 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2011. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 9) Quindlen, Anna. "The Loving Decision." //Newsweek// 24 Nov. 2008: 68. //MAS Ultra - School Edition//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 10) []
 * 11) "Regents Of The University Of California V. Bakke." //Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition// (2011): 1. //Literary Reference Center//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 12) "Bakke Case." //Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition// (2011): 1. //Literary Reference Center//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 13) Christianson, Stephen G. "Bakke V. University Of California…Appeal: 1978." //Great American Trials// (2003): 672-675. //History Reference Center//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 14) "Oprah Winfrey." //Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition// (2011): 1. //Literary Reference Center//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 15) Whitman, David. "The Untold Story Of The LA Riot. (Cover Story)." //U.S. News & World Report// 114.21 (1993): 34. //MAS Ultra - School Edition//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 16) Alfieri, Anthony V. "Jim Crow Ethics And The Defense Of The Jena Six." //Iowa Law Review// 94.5 (2009): 1651-1698. //Academic Search Complete//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.
 * 17) Garcia, J. Malcolm. "A Product Of This Town: Jena, Louisiana—January 2008." //Virginia Quarterly Review// 84.3 (2008): 44-73. //Literary Reference Center//. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.