Chief Justice Earl Warren
(8 of 8)
There is no doubt that the color line in the U.S. is fading. Perhaps the wiping out of segregation in the armed forces is the greatest step in that direction in this generation. The very efforts made by the Southern states to avoid desegregation already provide much better education for Negroes. The American Negro's rise from slavery in less than a century is one of the greatest success stories the world has ever known. His rise will not stop, whether he wins or loses this case. He will either get mixed schools in the South, or else continue to migrate in vast numbers to the states where opportunity is more nearly equal.
* Seventeen states and the District have mandatory public-school segregation. Among the states are all of the Confederacy: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The six other states on the list are Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Delaware (the source of one case now before the Supreme Court). Some other states, e.g., Kansas, source of another of the current cases, permit school segregation by local option; the Kansas case before the court comes from Topeka.
* A sister of Lieut. General Anthony C. ("Nuts") McAuliffe, the World War II hero of Bastogne.
* The District of Columbia case arises under the Fifth Amendment, which limits the powers of Congress ("Nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law . . ."). The state cases arise under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which limits the powers of the states ("Nor shall any State deny to any person . . .the equal protection of the laws").
† Roman Emperor Caligula (37-41 A.D.) once bestowed a consulship on his horse.
* While there has never been an official ban on Negroes at the U.S. Military and Naval Academies, Annapolis admitted no Negroes from the 18703 until 1936 and West Point's record was only slightly better. The unwritten barriers were not broken until World War II. Now, the Military Academy has 23 Negro graduates and twelve Negro cadets, the Naval Academy three Negro graduates and nine midshipmen.
* Five of the 13 other Chief Justices of the U.S., including the great John Marshall, had no previous judicial experience.