Executive Order 10730: Little Rock Nine Theme of Justice and Judgment

The heart of the Brown decision and Eisenhower's obligation to enforce it is the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment: "No State shall […] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

After emancipation, the southern states issued laws called "Black Codes" that severely restricted the civil liberties of freed Blacks. The justification was that the codes would restore order and protect blacks from the consequences of their own "laziness and ignorance" (source).

Oka-a-a-y…

The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 to grant citizenship to freed Blacks and to protect their civil liberties. The southern states refused to ratify it, so Congress put the South under military rule and passed the Reconstruction Act , which pretty much told those states that if they wanted back into the Union, they'd better ratify the Fourteenth. They did, but soon found ways around it: how about separate schools, trains, bathrooms restaurants, and clubs? As long as they're, you know, equal. That stuff lasted until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

You should totally fall in love he Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; it's one of the most important guarantees of our system. It's the basis for how American society functions; the law protects everybody. Desegregation, equal employment opportunities, the Americans with Disabilities Act, voting rights, the right to a public defender, same-sex marriage—all those have the Fourteenth Amendment to thank.

If you ever visit the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., you'll see engraved over the entrance: EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW. When you stop and look at it and really think about what that means, guaranteed it will blow your mind.

1. Do you think that segregationists saw segregation as an injustice?
2. The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868. What's important about that time period?
3. What's the advantage of first allowing local authorities to enforce the law before the feds ride in?
4. How did the southern states get away with Jim Crow laws given that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited discrimination?

The Fourteenth Amendment was necessary because some states would never have granted equal rights to African Americans.

Because the Fourteenth Amendment also says "All persons born or naturalized in the United States […] are citizens of the United States," it's become part of the ongoing fight over the rights of immigrants.