Abstract

End of the Second Reconstruction?

Brown v. Board of Education is justly recognized as one of the U.S. Supreme Court's finest moments. In the case the Court expressed a sweeping vision of racial equality. But when people celebrates Brown, one need to remember that the Supreme Court is not always the special champion of African Americans. Indeed, if history is any guide, the Court is as likely to choke off an American Reconstruction as to precipitate one. Last year in Shaw v. Reno the High Court cast an ominous shadow over the centerpiece of the Second Reconstruction, the Voting Rights Act, which after nearly thirty years had finally begun to integrate the political process. The Voting Rights Act is unquestionably the most successful civil rights statute in American history.