TY - JOUR
AU - Hutchison, Phillip
AB - Justice John Marshall Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson remains a contested flashpoint in the conversation over black equality over a century after the Supreme Court’s ignominious decision installed legal racial inequality as the law of the land. While myriad commentators extol Harlan as an inspirational beacon of racial justice for his eloquent and solitary stand against Jim Crow, this article questions such praises and argues that, in the context of white material supremacy and black material deprivation, Harlan was every bit as “racist” as the justices comprising Plessy’s majority. This article centrally contends that Harlan unsuccessfully attempted to inform his Supreme Court colleagues that legalized segregation was unnecessary in keeping whites the master race of the social realm; as Harlan conceived it, the “color-blind Constitution” would function equally well in trapping blacks in the maelstrom of political powerlessness and economic destitution.
TI - The Harlan Renaissance: Colorblindness and White Domination in Justice John Marshall Harlan’s Dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson
JF - Journal of African American Studies
DO - 10.1007/s12111-015-9316-y
DA - 2015-09-28
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/the-harlan-renaissance-colorblindness-and-white-domination-in-justice-GN0OraWNkc
SP - 426
EP - 447
VL - 19
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -