Debateful

Here it is, Boys and Girls, even more controversy stirred up by The Old Curmudgeon. The purpose is to make one think.

A little background is in order, if you please. I graduated from high school in 1953, most likely before many, most, or even all of you, were born. We studied Readin', Ritin', and 'Rithmetic like every one else in those days. There were absolutely no black children in our schools. They had their own, Chalton-Pollard and Hebert High Schools. The black pride in those schools was tremendous. In our city alone, there were four additional white high schools, serviced by three school districts, plus a Catholic high school under the auspices of the Catholic diocese. Controversy, over the years, due to the Brown decision, has struck our small community, fairly hard, though we, as a community have mostly gotten past it. We suffered a lot of white flight to outlying communities, leaving the core of the school district ( now reduced to one ) primarily black and Hispanic. We have roughly 120000 people in our city, and yet, have a Superintendent of schools that is the second highest paid within the state of Texas. He has a top heavy administration, and we have a very high tax rate. As an aside, the community in which I live, knows first hand about racial strife, having gone through a fairly violent race riot in 1944, with the Texas National Guard sent to the city to help keep order. As a youngster, I remember seeing them camped out on the lawn of the City Hall, complete with straight rows of pup tents and stacked arms. Pretty impressive to an 8 year old at the time. the riot, of course, at the time, was a stupid thing, exacerbated, I'm sure, by the racial hard feelings within the city and by the absence of many of the younger fathers who were fighting a war, including mine.

There were also some very vocal protestations and confrontations when the local university was really integrated in the late fifties or early sixties. Nothing of permanent damage to either side, though.

Now, on to the problem of Brown vs Board of Education. I believe it can be said, with out a doubt, and not withstanding any perceived good that may have arisen from Brown, that first, The Warren Court that rendered the decision stood not on Constitutional Law but created law based on what they felt the people of the times, mostly liberals and blacks, conceived at the time, as needed to offset the terrible injustices of the South, it's Black Codes, and Jim Brown Laws. Most fail to remember the North was probably harsher in it's dealing with Blacks than the South was. This was especially true before, during, and after the Civil War.

Possibly a little more about the Warren Court and especially Earl Warren, the Chief Justice, who I don't believe ever practiced law, and my reading shows that most of the other Justices had a minimal of legal experience, yet, these men, long before it became feel good to put a woman on the Court, made a decision that affected America forever more and did so by creating law, a job specifically designated to the Congress. The linchpin of the decision was based on The Fourteenth Amendment, flawed in itself, never ratified properly, and therefore unbinding on we the people, but enforceable as it was created and supposedly ratified, at the point of a bayonet. Ever wonder why Andrew Johnson was impeached by a Radical Republican Congress? He would not sign the legislation passe by the House and Senate dealing with the Fourteenth Amendment.

A few links for your reading enjoyment on a cool late Autumn Sunday.

http://rcarterpittman.org/essays/documen...nment.html

http://www.rcarterpittman.org/home/Times_letter.html

http://rcarterpittman.org/essays/judicia..._Land.html

http://rcarterpittman.org/essays/judicia...urged.html

http://sovereignstates.org/books/NMAA/Ni...Cover.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/healy/healy3.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/healy1.html

Carry on. Comments welcomed.



more or less

And what would you do with children of mixed races such as my own children?

Quote: Most fail to remember the North was probably harsher in it's dealing with Blacks than the South was. This was especially true before, during, and after the Civil War.

You probably fail to remember that too since you weren't born yet. I can't see how that's possible given that most civil rights murders were in the south and the north has always had a more liberal approach to race. The underground railroad that helped slaves escape was to escape the south.



Even if you disagree with the lawfulness of the Warren Court you can't argue imho against the results. We have a black president. Need I say more?

Quote:The Warren Court that rendered the decision stood not on Constitutional Law but created law based on what they felt the people of the times, mostly liberals and blacks, conceived at the time, as needed to offset the terrible injustices of the South, it's Black Codes, and Jim Brown Laws.

I'll give you the point that what you say is probably true. However it was only a decade later that an amendment was added to deal with these problems so in the end Warren Court decision isn't against our laws. It can't be reversed nor should it be.

The last thing I want to do is get crosswise with the Forum Boss.

As for your children, they need to be treated like any other children. No better, no worse; just the same.

As for the underground railway. Probably served a useful purpose , but was against the Law.

As for the harshness of the difference in the South and North? What can I say. The North was adamant no freed Blacks or slaves were welcomed in the North or even the Border States. They did not want them, and several states had laws against them even entering the states. It was made abundantly clear, even by Mr Lincoln, that in his opinion, as was the opinion of most of society, that the Black race was inferior, he set out not to abolish slavery, but to protect the Union and its unfair tariffs. most of the South's Black Codes were an outgrowth of Reconstruction, passed roughly two years after the end of the Civil War. The North also had it's Black Codes.

Make no mistake, Slavery was, and is, a terrible institution. There are many that believe it was on it's way out of existence in the Northern Hemisphere and would be dead within a few years. The actual reconciliation of the races, in my opinion, was set back a hundred years by the Civil War and Reconstruction.

We can dance around the Warren Court and its decision in Brown all day long, but in the final analysis, the question must be asked; based on the Constitution, the role as delegated to the SCOTUS and all federal courts, by law, is to interpret law as passed by the Congress and or treaties on a case by case basis, and certainly not to create law, no matter how worthy of purpose, they may think it to be.

Boss, I certainly do not wish to offend thee or thine, and if I have done so, I apologize. By nature, I am somewhat of a contrarian, and believe controversy can be good if presented in the right manner. I really like this forum, but if I have to walk on egg shells, then tell me now. I then have the opportunity to toe up or walk away. I did that before, as Boogy can attest, and certainly do not wish to do so now as I really like this forum and want to be a part of it's growth. I may be a crazy old coot in the eyes of a lot of folks, but I'm my own crazy old coot. ( Well, my wife and Brown Sugar have a say in it as well ) So be it.

Well, the fat's in the fire.