It is a cardinal error to be inexact in referring to a statute. In yesterday's class I should have been precise regarding the Enforcement Acts, The first - the Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed under the authority of the the 13th Amendment, provides:
42 U.S.C. §1982. Property Rights of Citizens
All citizens of the United States shall have the same right, in every State and
Territory, as is enjoyed by white citizens thereof to inherit, purchase, lease,
sell, hold, and convey real and personal property.
It stayed on the books, unenforceable due to the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 which declared that neither the 13th nor the 14th Amendments reached
racially discriminatory private contracts. And so for another century racial discrimination in a wide range of matters was unimpeded.
Black people could be excluded from stores, theatres, trains and buses. And of course schools.
It was not until 1968 in Jones v. Alfred Mayer Co. that the Supreme Court declared that the 13th Amendment provides the necessary support to make
racial discrimination in real estate unlawful. Race discrimination is a "badge and indicia" of the servitude outlawed by the 13th Amendment - rights won on the battlefield.
It is the legacy of such societal discrimination that the Supreme Court still refuses to recognize as worthy of recompense.
If the California Reparations Report yields legislation it will be interesting to see if the Supreme Court strikes it down.
- GWC
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