Let There Be Dark..

And on the fifth day.. the President said let there be dark up there… and there was dark. He saw the dark and it was good. And he divided the dark and the light and he call the dark Ketanji Jackson and he called the light Senate Republicans.. There was dark and there was light.. and that was the first time…

JustUs: 1:1

Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first African American women to sit on the Supreme Court in its 262 year history. There have been three African Americans to sit on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas and now Ketanji Jackson. Some might say there have been two and a quarter.. but we gonna leave Clarence alone for right now. As a boy growing up in Washington DC, I had been to all the usual places like… the Smithsonian, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and Capitol. Of course the Natural Museum Of African American History or the Martin Luther King Memorial were not there when I was a kid. I still haven’t been to the Natural Museum Of African American History and I couldn’t get over the fact that we needed a ticket to get into it and it took months to get one. What was they doing, giving away free chicken wings with mumbo sauce?
Museum: “We are pleased to announce that your request for family tickets have been approved. These transferable tickets are good for January 23, 2540. If you are dead, your ancestors will have to provide your death certificate for entry. Cause we know how y’all folks are.. only one cousin will be allowed…”
So yeah, I haven’t been there yet, but I understand the ticket policy has changed and now you can wait outside until somebody comes out to get in. You show me another museum that does that and I will wake you up from a Klan nightmare.

The Supreme Court was established in 1789. Set forth in Article 3 of the Constitution, it provides for a Chief Justice and eight associate justices. Their task is to interpret Constitutional law and to provide a mechanism of resolution when there are conflicts between the states. There have been 116 Justices, 108 have ben white men, there have been 6 women, 2 black men or 1 and a 1/4 depending on how you look at it , 1 Latino and 1 black woman, and now for the first time in the courts history, there will not be a white male majority. So it looks like there have been no Asians on the court and no members of the LBGTQ community, although Justice Kennedy sexual orientation has been questioned by CNN. I have always known where the Supreme Court building was while growing up in DC. I just never thought about its importance as far as civil rights goes. I mean if you passed it, most people wouldn’t give the building a second thought. It is a discreet non imposing building on the corner of 1st NE. I mean across the street there used to be an apartment building. There are restaurants and a club on the next block and well it’s just not what one would imagine a place would look like that holds such enormous power. It used to be in Philly but moved to the US Capitol in 1801. It met in a chamber there for the next 134 years. The current building was completed in 1935 after President Taft decided they should have a separate location. I use to sit on the steps out front smoking cigarettes and and talking crap with my boys while waiting on the Metrobus.. I mean it just never cross my mind the enormity and consequences of the decisions made by the nine people who worked there and their predecessors.

Dred Scott v Sanford – 1857 ( Capitol Chamber)

Massa: Boy, did you go to my grape vine and wash and clean off each and every grape with dat grape rag I gave you so when I pick em, my hands don’t get dirty?
Slave: ( Whispering to himself.. Ima git his azz one day..) Yes massa all clean and shiny!!
Massa: Good… we gittin ready to travel boy… I want cha to help Missy pack up nice and tight.. and if you do a good job.. Ima let you look in da window while we eat fried chicken and cornbread… and who knows.. Missy might even crack the door so you could smell it!! How does that sound!!
Slave: Massa I don’t know why you treat a good for nothing slave like me like Im’s kinfolk..
Massa: Well boy, I just gotta kind heart… Now git to Missy!!
(Later in the free state of Missouri)
Massa: Boy I just bet this here gentleman a nickel you don’t have a tail… pull yo pants down…
Slave: I’ll tell you what… we’s in a free state now… and Im finna whip yo “Very Natural One”!!
Gentleman: Well I see you have something to talk about with this huge fellow.. so I guess I’ll be on my way…
Dredd: Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

Well it didn’t go down quite like that.. but the Dred Scott decision meant that once a slave always a slave. There were two decisions in the case. The first case was about whether you could bring a slave from a slave state to a free state and that subsequently after a period of time, that slave would become a citizen of that state and thus be free. The second question dealt with if a slave could even become a citizen at all. They were both hard no’s. Whether the decisions made any big difference or not, I will let you decide. The decisions were handed down just three years before the civil war. I wrote an article about it a couple years ago, which you can read here.

Plessy v Ferguson – 1896 (Capitol Chamber)

The conductor came down the aisle and said,” Boy are you crazy, there are ropes under every seat on this train! If you want yo neck to remain the same length, den you need to git back there with dem udder boys… and if you get back there foh I count to three, then I won’t charge you foh a seat cleaning… now hurry up boy…” Well Plessy just sat there and rolled his eyes at the conductor and looked away saying “#$$@! you.” The conductor looked at Plessy and said. “Now you done gone and did sumpin boy!!” Just as the conductor pulled out his gun, the detective intervened and arrested Plessy. As Plessy was leaving the train, he spat on the floor. The conductor let off a couple… bang.. bang.. The detective pushed Plessy to the ground.” Hold on Henry Lee… this boy is under my detention. I’ll hang him at the courthouse… I mean bring him to the courthouse..” The conductor said, “By gawd Tater, I wanna see ten toes dangling and a bunch of nigras protesting by suppa time!! I mean it!!”

None of the decisions affected us in such a detrimental way in my opinion as did the Plessy v Ferguson case. The Plessy case legalized segregation across the 45 United States. Yep we had not reach 50 yet. Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona were admitted in 1912 and Alaska and Hawaii in 1959. Anywho, it ushered in Jim Crow and Jim would have his foot on our necks for the next 3 generations. Plessy is probably better known as separate but equal. I have written about it here.

Alabama v Powell – 1932 ( Capitol Chamber)

Alabama: Judge, this white woman said these boys raped her.
Judge: Hang em!!
Alabama: Sir we at least have to give em a trial.
Judge: Okay….You boys do know that you in gawd fearing Alabama, where my great grandpappy Colonel Horatio Whitetrash of the First Confederate Alabama is buried right outside that window… and where a white woman said you raped her right here in the heart of Dixie?
Defendants: Yes your honor.
Judge: Then by your own admission I sentence you to death!! Take em away!!

Alabama v Powell was one of the biggest cases of the 20th century in terms of notoriety. It was like the OJ Simpson trial and people couldn’t get enough of it. The Supreme Court decision came as a result of the racist misconduct at the trial of the Scottsboro Nine. Now there were three things back in 1932 that a black man didn’t want to be accused of doing in the deep south that could result in yo immediate execution.. 1. Burning a Confederate flag in Mississippi. 2. Being in the same house as Missy’s bedroom was in Georgia and 3. Being accused of raping a white woman in Alabama. Unfortunately, the Scottsboro Boys were accused of the latter. You can read about it here. So the Supreme Court case dealt with the question of whether the defendants had a right to have a lawyer represent them. You thought I was joking right? The case was overturned. “The majority of the Court reasoned that the right to retain and be represented by a lawyer was fundamental to a fair trial and that at least in some circumstances, the trial judge must inform a defendant of this right. In addition, if the defendant cannot afford a lawyer, the court must appoint one sufficiently far in advance of trial to permit the lawyer to prepare adequately for the trial.” So what was the dissenting opinion? Well the judges that voted against the majority said that the defendants were not entitled to the state paying for their legal defense, and since we gonna hang em anyway… why waste time… Okay I threw that last part in there.. So now you know why when you go into court and they give you your rights, they say “If you can’t afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you..” It came from the Scottsboro Nine case. The court said they had violated the 14th Amendment: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” So yeah… basically them hillbilly’s was gonna hang them boys in front of errbody without representation, sending a clear message to black folks everywhere.. don’t y’all come down here…

Shelley v Kraemer -1948 (1st NE. Washington DC)

Kraemer: Boy that’s a nice job you doing there… when you finish painting that fence, I want you to paint mine too.. and if you do a good job.. who knows.. might let you cut my lawn and look in da window while we eat fried chicken..
Shelley: What?
Kraemer: Boy I said I want you ova my house painting my fence!
Shelley: Suh.. the only fence I’m gonna paint is this one right heh..
Kraemer: We’ll see about that!!
Kraemer: (Calling Sheriff..) A boy broke into my house and stole my paint can and brush.. he out there painting with it right now!
Sheriff: I’ll be right ova!! ( Sheriff jumps into car and speeds over..)
Sheriff: Boy hold it right there!! This man said you raped a white woman!!
Kraemer: No Sheriff, that was the other boy last week.. this one stole my paint can and brush.
Shelley: Suh this be my paint and brush! This be my house too!!
Sheriff: Well I’ll be John Brown!! You under arrest for trespassing!! Pull yo pants down!!
Kraemer: And I’ll just take my paint can and brush now…

True story.. kinda. Before the Fair Housing law took effect in 1968, many white neighborhoods engaged in what was called housing covenants. In this particular case the covenant affecting Shelley prevented “people of the Negro or Mongolian Race” from occupying the property. So Kraemer who lived about ten blocks away sued Shelley from taking possession of the property. Yeah right.. this dude didn’t even live near Shelley.. anyway, the Missouri Supreme Court sided with Kraemer saying since the contract was a private party contract it was enforceable… in other words.. ni@@r move out! Shelley wasn’t having it and took the matter all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. So to make a long story short, the US Supreme Court sided with Shelley.. but not for the reasons you think. Their decision was not based on the racist aspect of the contract, but dealt with the Sheriff enforcing it… I’m saying sheriff.. but the opinion said state. it read: The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits discrimination by the State, but the actors in this case were all individuals who had privately agreed not to sell property to members of certain races. Although the contract itself was private, the plaintiff in the litigation had sought the assistance of the State court in enforcing the contractual provisions. Bam!! Thats a no.. no!! You can’t use the state to enforce discrimination contrary to the 14th Amendment which states something about “equal civil and legal rights.” In other words, if you can’t throw a white man out using the courts based on his color, neither could you throw a black man out… now give me back my paint can and brush..
Shelley: Come on baby.. let’s go home and throw some chicken on the grill!
Baby: What’s that smoke coming from over there?!! That’s our house!! Our house is on fire!!
Kraemer: I thought somebody called the fire department… Did anybody call the fire department??

and that’s another story…

Brown v Board Of Education – 1954 (1st NE. Washington DC)

Black Child: Teacher Matt wont let me share his piece of coal so I can write my ABC’s on my leaf!
Black Teacher: Matt give her the piece of coal so she can write her ABC’s..
Matt: Teacher she won’t let me use the rake!!
White Teacher: That’s very good Marybeth!. You wrote all you ABC’s in different colors!!
White Child: Yes I ran out of chartreuse teacher.. so I used fuchsia with avocado bisque!!
Black Teacher: Don’t forget everyone, try to bring in a newspaper so we can cut out the words to make a book!
White Teacher: And Friday we gonna have a campfire so don’t forget to bring in your old newspapers!!
White Child: I want chocolate milk with my cookies!! I don’t want want white milk!! Bah!! Bah!! Bah!!
Black Child: You said I could use the cup today!! Bah ! Bah ! Bah!
Black Teacher: Sapphire you know we only have one cup.. you can use the cup tomorrow…

With the winning of Brown v Board of Education by Thurgood Marshall, the end of segregation had arrived. We took a beating in the years that followed Plessy v Ferguson, where the doctrine of separate but equal was the law of the land. If you had time to read the story I referred you to in the Plessy v Ferguson paragraph, then you know all of these Civil Rights Supreme Court cases were part of an overall anti-segregation strategy. So what happened.. why did they overturn Plessy for Brown? It was genius in its simplicity… basically the question became.. why are you separating it.. if its equal? It shouldn’t make a difference if my kids go to your schools or your kids come to mine.. they’re supposed to be equal. It was easy to prove the that black and white facilities were indeed not equal. Once Brown v Board Of Education was upheld, the same legal strategy was applied across the board.. in housing transportation, restaurants and hotel accommodations, loans and business. Was it a good thing.. the end of segregation? We will delve into that in the next HIll1news article.. For now Brown v Board of Education opened the gates to the modern Civil Rights movement and is responsible for where we are at today… it was voted on and became the law of the land by judges sitting at their bench on the corner of 1st NE, Washington DC.

Loving v Virginia -1967 ( 1st NE. Washington DC)

Convict #1: You gonna eat that squirrel tail?
Convict #2: Naw you can have it..
Convict #1: Watcha in heh fo?
Convict #2: I married a white woman a Virginia..
Convict #1: See that old timer ova there… He’s in heh cause he looked at one… in Mississippi…

Did you know that in 1967, sixteen states had laws against interracial marriages. So I know some people have been offended by my jokes about black men and white women. I assure you it’s all rooted in fact and that it was so hated by racist that it was one of the main reason for segregation. Anywho one of the states that prohibited interracial marriage was right in our backyard… Virginia. This excerpt is from an article I wrote 4 yrs ago:
” Ever heard of  “miscegenation?” Well there was a lot of miscegenation going on back in the day. We can thank Mrs Loving for making it legal. Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other. Their marriage violated the state’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as “white” and people classified as “colored”. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision determined that this prohibition was unconstitutional, ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the U.S., and is remembered annually on Loving Day, June 12.”
I wish I had of gotten into it a little more, but the material was so distasteful to me then. I know now that it is a story that needs to be told and Hill1news is going to tell soon. Anyway, miscegenation laws had been on the books since colonial days. It not only banned interracial marriage, but in some cases also banned interracial sexual relations. So while we normally think that these laws were a product of the south, in reality most of the states had laws against interracial relations and the laws were not only against black and white relations. Louisiana in 1920 banned marriage between Native Americans and African Americans, and Maryland in 1935 banned marriages between Black people and Filipinos. Maryland always had some shady shat going on with them… Blacks and Filipinos… really? Remember although Maryland was a slave state, it stayed with the Union. It was probably a good idea.. being surrounded by the northern states and all… Most of these civil right cases revolve around the 14th Amendment and one particular clause of it.. the Equal Protection Clause, which prohibits arbitrary deprivation of “life, liberty, or property” by the government except as authorized by law. “Liberty under law extends to the full range of conduct which the individual is free to pursue, and it cannot be restricted except for a proper governmental objective. In other words show me how my marriage to the person I love is going to hurt the government because I am black or the person I marry is white. The Court found that the law nonetheless violated the Equal Protection Clause because it was based solely on “distinctions drawn according to race” and outlawed conduct—namely, getting married—that was otherwise generally accepted and which citizens were free to do.”

Regents of University of California v. Bakke -1978 ( 1st NE, Washington DC)

Judge: Sir why are you here before this court, please state your reason.
Bakke: Well your honor, I was trying to get into medical school, but there were no more seats available in the class because they were reserved for minority students. Now I worked hard as hell to make sure my grades were at the top of the class.. and these “people”, that they are reserving seats for grades are not as good as mine.. I think that race based admission violates my constitutional rights to equal treatment!
Judge: I see… Clerk hand me that folder… It says here you won a National Merit Award at your high school in Florida… Coral Gables High… How many black people were at your high school?
Bakke: I’m not sure.. I don’t think any..
Judge: You went to the University of Minnesota where you got your undergraduate degree… how many black folks were there in your undergraduate class?
Bakke: I don’t know!! What am I.. an encyclopedia?
Judge: You gonna be an incarcerated encyclopedia if you keep running yo mouth… I don’t think there was that many seeing that only 4% of all Minnesotans are black… Then let’s see here… you joined the Marine Corp and fought in Vietnam… you obtained the rank of Captain…. outstanding!!! How many black captains did you meet there?
Bakke: None…
Judge: So now you come back here and you want to go to medical school… but you say there are too many blacks.. Okay.. I’ve made my ruling… GTFOH!!

Lol… Unfortunately that’s not how the Supreme Court ruled… again sorta kinda.. Some members of the liberal press described the decision as an end to affirmative action, when it was not and to be transparent.. I am a liberal, but when you wrong .. you wrong. Anyway.. Bakke won. The supreme court ruled that quota systems based on race were illegal. Affirmative action does not say you have to have an specific number of minorities. If it did, it would violate the Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment. Affirmative Action just means that with all things being the same, you can use race as a determining factor. That’s different from a quota system. There was another mitigating circumstance in the Bakke case.. a few of the institutions turned him down in part because of his age. He was over thirty years old. So why didn’t he sue for age discrimination? Was it just easier to go after black people? I guess we will never know. In the aftermath of the case California banned the state’s use of race as a factor to consider in public schools’ admission policies. UC banned the use of race as a determining factor in its admissions also, instead relying on policies such as allowing the top 4% of students in California high schools guaranteed admission to the University of California System. It was suggested that this would get the minority representation from the inner cities. I did the math and it boils down to roughly 4000 African African kids. There are 45,000 people attending UC. In 2021 black enrollment at UC was at about 4608, statistically about the same. So like I said Affirmative Action was not gutted. As for Bakke after graduation he went on to become an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic. He is currently practicing at the Black Like That Medical Center In Harlem where he hopes to one day be MIC.. ( Massa In Charge..). Okay I’m kidding… Bakke went back to Minnesota and is working at the Olmsted Medical Center where the darkest thing there is night time.

Thanks for reading Hill1news.