Nation: A LEGAL HISTORY OF NEGRO PROGRESS

The Negro revolution is presently characterized by acts—at lunch counters, on the streets, behind prison bars. But these acts would be far less effective were it not for words—the words of the U.S. Constitution, of constitutional amendments, of judges, and acts of Congress, words given the force of law by presidential fiat. In the beginning, such words held Negroes in enslavement. From time to time, they slowed the Negro's march toward legal equality. Today, they are the license for action. Some key words in the long progression:

1787 U.S. Constitution, Art. IV, Sec. 2.

No...

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