United State Vs Cruikshank Case Study

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Safia Southey
United State vs. Cruikshank:
The Case that Ended Reconstruction Following the Civil War, the political and legal status of freed black Americans seemed to be improving. This time was called the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877), during which the previously enslaved people were finally emancipated and being provided with new opportunities and legal rights. In several southern states such as Louisiana, African-Americans made up a majority of the population, which allowed them to gain political power through numbers, but also created animosity with the whites of the territory. This tension culminated in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 13th, 1873, when approximately three-hundred African-American Republicans were murdered by a mob …show more content…
vs. Cruikshank effectively dismissed all hope for equal rights for racial minorities, in both civil and criminal actions. Following the case, from about 1877 until about 1955, Southern whites succeeded at building Jim Crow America without legal hindrance. Bradley applied or ignored various doctrinal principles as he changed focus. Although the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments contain language that could be read to support a judicially enforceable requirement of state action, Bradley chose to follow the language with regard to the Fourteenth but not the Fifteenth. In the wake of the case, Jim Crow laws were enacted all across the South, forcing segregation between the white and minority populations. These laws covered almost every aspect of life, and were completely legal because of the standard set in Cruikshank that only the state could be in violation of the 14th amendment, but the common people could take away as many black rights and freedoms as they wished. Following the case and the end of Reconstruction, the segregation of white and black citizens in education, public accommodations, public transport, and even sexual relations was a common and accepted practice. Cruikshank terminated the day-to-day federal enforcement of civil rights, effectively ending the effort to reconstruct southern
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