Thread by @ZinnEdProject

Since news broke of SCOTUS draft to overturn Roe, we've seen many people say some version of:

"Never before in U.S. history has a constitutional right been taken away."

Well, the history of Reconstruction tells us otherwise.
#TeachReconstruction 🧵1/7
teachreconstructionreport.org

During Reconstruction, the Constitution finally became a document that people could cite in arguments for equality.

14th Amend., ratified in 1868, demanded equal protection of the laws & due process of law for all people. It authorized Congress to enforce these principles. 2/7

But soon after its enactment, SCOTUS interpreted the 3 Reconstruction Amend's (13th, 14th, 15th) extremely narrowly & Congress retreated from its commitment to use them to protect Black people & democracy itself from white supremacist terror & fraud. 3/7
zinnedproject.org/materials/they…

One major example:

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 rested on the principles of the 14th Amendment.

It prohibited racial discrimination in access to public facilities, accommodations, and transportation.

Just 8 yrs later. . . 4/7
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/robe…

. . . in 1883, SCOTUS struck down the 1875 Civil Rights Act.

"The world has never witnessed such barbarous laws entailed upon a free people as have grown out of the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, issued Oct. 15, 1883." -- Henry McNeal Turner 5/7

zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/civi…

In an 8-1 decision, SCOTUS refuted the constitutional right to equal protection & cleared a path for Jim Crow that reached well into 20th century.

Constitutional rights HAVE been taken away before.

Howard Zinn wrote in 2005: "It would be naïve to depend on SCOTUS to. . . 6/7

. . . defend the rights of poor people, women, people of color, dissenters of all kinds. Those rights only come alive when citizens organize, protest, demonstrate . . . to uphold justice."
#HowardZinn100 7/7

Read via @theprogressive & @ZinnDigital: ⬇️
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