Racism and the Early American Legal Process,1619-1896

Abstract

An understanding of the early American legal process is central to dealing with the racial disparities of today. From 1619 to 1860 the American legal process was one which expanded and protected the liberties of white Americans—while at the same time the legal process became increasingly more harsh as to the masses of blacks, with a steady contraction of their liberties. The United States Constitution sanctioned slavery, so that under federal law the slave "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Though the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments significantly expanded the actual rights and options of blacks, nevertheless from 1865 to 1896 the legal process failed to effectuate the full potential of the rights intended and assured under the constitutional amendments.