 Separate schools for white and colored (1904) |
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Acts passed by the Virginia General Assembly reflected race-neutral language of the legal code after the Civil War. Application of these statutes resulted in entrenched Jim Crow segregation.
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| She's Been Her Own Mistress: The Long History of Charlotte Dupee v. Henry Clay, 1790-1840 (2020) |
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This essay refocuses the story of Charlotte Dupee v. Henry Clay on Charlotte herself, detailing her long struggle navigating the strategies and pathways to freedom.
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| Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) |
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In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited the enforcement of restrictive covenants banning the purchase or occupation of property based on race. Shelley v. Kraemer was decided alongside Hurd v. Hodge, which held that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibits judicial enforcement by D.C. courts of such restrictive covenants.
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| Slaves and Free Negroes (1849) |
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This act passed by the Virginia General Assembly reflects the racialization of the antebellum legal code.
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| Stamp Act (1765) |
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The Stamp Act placed a tax on various printed material like legal documents, playing cards, and newspapers. The act specifies skins and pieces of parchment serving various legal roles and the differing amounts of tax each document needed. The tax’s payment was confirmed by the placement of a stamp indicating a specific amount on the good. It was the first of a series of taxes placed on the North American colonies without their consent, sparking protest and resistance.
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| Statement of the Chickasaw Freedmen, Setting Forth Their Wrongs, Grievances, Claims and Needs (1894) |
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This statement prepared by members of the Committee of Chickasaw Freedmen's Association recounts how the Chickasaw Nation had not met its treaty obligations to Chickasaw Freedpeople.
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| Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard (2023) |
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This Supreme Court case considered whether Harvard's admissions process violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The Court decided that the race-based admissions system did not meet the strict scrutiny required to allow a race-based system, and held as unconstitutional the consideration of an applicant’s race as a factor in making an admissions decision that benefits diversity.
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| Sugar Act (1764) |
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The Sugar Act of 1764 imposed duties on sugar, molasses, wine, and other goods imported to United States colonies. The act also includes expectations of stricter adherence to trade regulations and steeper penalties for violations. It even includes a provision to defend those enforcing the act. It was part of a series of bills imposing unequal tariffs on North American colonies and those in England. These policies aided in the popularity of independence movements in North America.
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| Swann et al. v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education et al. (1971) |
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In this case, the Supreme Court addressed busing as a means of integrating schools. After a federal district court found that the North Carolina school system's zoning-based desegregation plan was ineffectual, the court appointed an expert to develop an alternative plan. The new plan required the busing of students to various schools in order to achieve desegregation, which the Supreme Court held as an acceptable "remedial technique" to that end. The decision was eventually abrogated in Belk v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (2002), where the court found that the previously instituted remedial techniques had been successful and were no longer necessary.
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| Sweatt v. Painter (1950) |
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In this case, the Supreme Court held that separate Black law schools in Texas were not equal in quality to white-only law schools. Sweatt v. Painter set important precedent for the decision in Brown v. Board of Education four years later.
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| Sworn Affidavit of Jeff Franklin Regarding His Enslavement and Emancipation in the Chickasaw Nation as Part of His Application for Enrollment as a Chickasaw (1896) |
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In this sworn affidavit, Jeff Franklin attested that he was a colored man and was enslaved by Easter Colber, a Chickasaw man until April 28th, 1866, when the Treaty of 1866 was signed. The statement was made in support of his application for enrollment in the Chickasaw Nation under the Act of June 10, 1896 which authorized the Dawes Commission to add names to existing tribal rolls. The affidavit also includes information about his continued residency in the Chickasaw Nation until the time of his application in 1896.
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| Sworn Statement of W. L. Cochran as to the Enslavement of Margaret Clark in 1866 in Support of Her Application for Enrollment as a Choctaw (1896) |
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In this sworn statement, W. L. Cochran attested that Margaret Clark, "an African woman," was enslaved by R. L. Cochran in the Choctaw Nation until the Treaty of 1866 was signed. The statement was made in support of Margaret Clark's application for enrollment in the Choctaw Nation under the Act of June 10, 1896 which authorized the Dawes Commission to add names to existing tribal rolls.
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| Tea Act (1773) |
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The Tea Act created a monopoly on the tea trade for the East India Company. It ultimately lowered tea prices in Britain but forced colonists to pay the Townshend tax on tea. Reactions to the Act sparked the Boston Tea Party. Prior to the Tea Act, the East India Company was required to sell tea directly to London and then other merchants would sell tea to the colonies. The Tea Act eliminated third party merchants and forced colonists to buy taxed tea.
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| Texas Poll Tax (1901) |
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This poll tax law in Texas was voted on in a referendum in the 1902 election as a proposed amendment to the state constitution.
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| The Cherokee Removal Through the Eyes of a Private Soldier (1890) |
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A former Army soldier presents a first-hand account of Cherokee removal.
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| The Five Civilized Tribes Act (1906) |
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This act legislated the end of tribal enrollment in the Five Tribes, as well as the dissolution of their tribal government. However, section 28 extended tribal sovereignty for the Five Tribes for a truncated 30 days per year.
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| The Timing of Queen v. Hepburn: An exploration of African American Networks in the Early Republic (2015) |
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This essay explores the phenomenon of multigenerational networks of freedom-making through the petition for freedom cases of the Queen family in Washington, D.C.
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| The Treaty of 1866 and the Long Fight for Black Belonging in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations |
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This module reframes histories of the Civil War, emancipation, and Reconstruction by analyzing how enslaved and freed Black people in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations struggled to actualize their freedoms amid contested tribal and federal jurisdictions. Ultimately, the module elucidates how Black enslaved and Freedpeople in the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations developed unique methods of resistance and visions of freedom shaped by the legal paradigms forged in the Treaty of 1866.
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| The True Facts in the Case of Felix Quander (1879) |
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In August 1879, Felix Quander was shot and injured by law enforcement officers while evading arrest. In a letter to the Editor of the National Republican newspaper in D.C., Quander's attorney describes the event, as well as previous incidents that lead up to the shooting and capture of Quander. Related newspaper coverage of the ordeal and subsequent court case follows. While the National Republican and Evening Star tend to display varying degrees of sympathy for Quander, the Alexandria Gazette is harsh in its judgment of the man and his reputation.
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| The Woman Suffrage Movement and Frederick Douglass (1908) |
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In this speech given on the 60th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, Black women's rights advocate Mary Church Terrell reflects on the role of Frederick Douglass in the women's suffrage movement.
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| Townshend Revenue Act (1767) |
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The Townshend Acts were a series of taxes and regulations imposed on the American colonies by the British Parliament. The Townshend Revenue Act levied taxes on glass, lead, tea, and paper, replacing the Stamp Act, which was repealed the year before.
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| Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) |
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The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reset the southern border between Mexico and the United States. Implications of the treaty included issues of citizenship, land, and legal status. Mexican nationals were admitted as U.S. citizens, legally defining them as white, but they could also be regarded as Indian on a case by case basis.
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| Treaty of Logstown (1752) |
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This treaty intended to secure alliance between the Six Nations and the English. The Treaty allowed the English use of land in East Ohio, with the intention both groups could live together. Taking place just before the French and Indian War, the Treaty of Logstown sedcured an alliance between the English and the Six Nations. The treaty included discussion of the unintended consequences of the earlier Treaty of Lancaster. The Treaty of Lancaster ceded the land of Virginia to the English.
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| Treaty of Paris (1783) |
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The Treaty of Paris was signed by the United States and Britain in 1783 to end the American War for Independence (1775- 1783). It recognized the United States as an independent state and delineated the Western boundaries of the new country.
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| Treaty of San Lorenzo (1795) |
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Also referred to as Pinckney's Treaty after the U.S. official who negotiated it, this treaty settled the borders between the United States and the Spanish colony of Florida as well as provided guidelines for future navigational disputes. Pinckney's Treaty was later referenced in the 1841 Amistad case when Spanish officials demanded the return of the Africans on board the ship as "property" seized by Americans on the high seas, per Article IX of the treaty.
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