Research On The Supreme Court Of The U.S.'s Attitude Towards The Civil Rights Of The Afro-american In The Era Of Reconstruction

The institution that has power of judicial review to the Constitution of the United States of America ultimately is the Supreme Court,which played an important role in constitutional history of America.The Supreme Court judge if the laws made by federal or states legislative branch and executive orders made by presidents constitutional or not by interpreting the Constitution and its Amendments.So the Supreme Court have great effect on legislative and executive branches.For this reason,the Supreme Court must had influence on realization of black civil rights in Reconstruction Era.In traditional view,the influence is negative.That's correct indeed to some extent,for series of legislation made by the Congress at the mercy of Radical Republicans that confer or protect black civil rights are distorted or abolished by the Supreme Court substantially,just as the Plessy Case that known by all of us.Nevertheless,according to judicial records we have now,the attitude of the Supreme Court towards such legislations of Congress is supportive at the initial stage of the Reconstruction Era.Under such circumstances,how can we understand the attitude of the Supreme Court towards black civil rights.This dissertation is decided into three section:introduction,text and epilogue.The section of introduction mainly explain the significance of the subject and research method of this dissertation.In addition,this section involve overseas and domestic research status of related issue.Moreover,this section include some simple interpretation of legal concepts involved.The section of text is the main section of this dissertation.This section consists of three part as well.The first part of main text is the part of "laws".It mainly analyze the legislative process and law contents of the three Reconstruction Amendments to the constitution and auxiliary statues and laws of them.In order to analyze the intends of legislators that means what function will work in condition of the intends of these amendments and statues are totally implemented hard and fast.The second part of main text is the part of "cases".First and foremost,it summarized the history of the Supreme Court itself in Reconstruction Era,and provide essential character introduction and setting introduction to the followingconcrete describe to black civil rights' problem resolution.Besides,it demonstrates the Supreme Court's attitude towards the problems of military control,civil rights' legislation and personal safety of Afro-American,Afro-American's right to vote and to be elected,Afro-American's right to jury trial and sit on the jury and segregation expressed by trials of cases in the constitutional system in Reconstruction Era respectively.Last but not the least,it illustrates the expression of the Supreme Court's different attitude towards different Afro-American's rights in different time.From the perspective of the whole Reconstruction Era,the Supreme Court's attitude towards black civil rights is pendulous,this kind of swing is from negative to positive and roll back to negative.The third part of main text include two aspects of content.On one hand,making macroscopic analysis for the reasons of such phenomenon,and arguing three aspects of main reason: judicial system,politic culture and social elements.On the other,demonstrating the influence of the Supreme Court's attitude on Afro-Americans and the entire American society.The epilogue points that both the development of the Supreme Court and black civil rights are process from incomplete to complete.Although the process are unfinished,the Reconstruction Era is pivotal era that the two process intersect and interact each other.The lesson we learn from it is: as a special race in American society the realization of their civil rights depends on degree and ability of their participation in the progress of democracy and ruling of law.It also depends on the improvement of judicial system of the Supreme Court.