today's class is over the fall of jim crow, charles hamilton houston and the to brown versus board of education. 1954. so today we'll talk a little bit about this major figure african-american history. charles houston, who's really

important because he uses american law to dismantle the legal structure, the system that supports and upholds racial segregation in america. he's a phenomenal person. most people don't know him, but they're more familiar with his students. and we'll talk or i'll just mention some of those individuals like thurgood marshall, first supreme court justice, as well, as pauli murray, who helped write the brief that leads to we've come to know today is title nine legislation and constance baker motley william hastily other individuals. that are associated with houston and the howard university school of law houston is significant among other things, he's responsible for creating what becomes known as the civil rights lawyer is group and cadre of individuals that will use american constitutional law to fundamentally change racial

segregation and dismantle racial segregation in. america so let's talk a little about charles hamilton houston and the of jim crow. now there is a there's this idea on some scholars history that of us are sort of born for a purpose we're born we're not born accidentally, but born to meet and to respond to some challenge in our lives. and that definitely seems to be the case with charles hamilton houston. houston is born in 1895, in d.c. he's born a middle class african-american family. his father is a lawyer by training, father graduated from howard university school of law. at this time african american lawyer's late century, late 1800s, even american lawyers

didn't really have didn't really make a lot of money. so you were a lawyer. you're a black lawyer. and had an and that was sort of your practice. you generally had other job that you did. that was the case with charles hamilton houston's as well. but he's born in washington, d.c., the middle class african-american family. and one year after his birth, we see the supreme court decision, plessy versus which really legalized jim crow, racial segregation through american law and sanctioned what becomes known as the separate but equal doctrine in american law. and doing so and doing so and this is very important. the versus ferguson case overthrows the equal protect 14th amendment, equal protection clause that gives essentially says everybody can come before the courts and the constitution and the laws are to apply to

everybody in the same fashion. and so that's the circumstance within which he's born into. so we have to acknowledge that now houston is is as student as a young person, he was very he excelled in studies to say he graduated school at the age of 15. and he will enter into amherst college. that's prestigious college in the northeast. and he'll finish his studies there. and following graduation from amherst, he'll enlist into the us military during what will one as a second lieutenant. so he's one of the few black officers actually goes in and fights or goes to europe during world war one.

it's very important because there are not many. but when we at charles hamilton houston as a figure, it's important to understand that he's going to use his experience in the military, as well as his legal experience. both of those things are going to really impact that and shape how he his approach to dismantling racial segregation in american law. he's an officer so do understand that he thinks strategic lee when we look at houston of the things in world war one, one of the things that is really important to note is the experience that black officers go through during that time. we didn't talk about a lot about what we won at all and the experience black military personnel there. but just to give you some sort of idea, african-american soldiers were segregated. the general at the time. from there, a white

counterparts, the general at the time who was commander over all u.s. military personnel. his name was john j. pershing. and he was over american expeditionary forces that the sort of america's combat force that was sent to europe. now the thing about pershing is that although he had at one point in his life commanded black soldiers by, the time that he becomes the commander over, american military forces in europe, for one he's going to be implement ing the policy of the wilson administration is to, you know, segregate racially segregate the us military. and one of the things that he does in 1918 is he sends this memo to his french counterpart, to the allied high command, and the title of this memo is called the secret information secret information concerning. it's very important because it

really does outline sort of the the approach of the us military to military personnel at the time one of the things that this this does now slow down a little bit because i know some of you were writing so but one of the things that this document does the secret information concerning blacks black troops is that pershing essentially tells his his counterparts in france that they sit not, you know, associate with fraternize black soldiers. they should not really give them any type sense of equality or commend them in any type way or give them any type or spoil the term that he uses. is that his european counterparts did not spoil black military personnel. and so this is the situation that houston finds himself at the time.

now, in addition to this experience, when we look at his overall strategy, when we look at and i'll talk about that in just a second, i talk about when he gets to howard law school, but when we talk about houston and his military experience. it's important to know what's referred to as the racial science of the day, racial science of the day. okay. so in your notes, you put racial science and the racial of the day was based off of a of assumptions or or assertions. one of the fundamental premise is that supported or that shaped racial science of the day was this notion that people of african descent, african americans, were fundamental early or fundamentally, emotionally being emotional

beings. emotional beings by emotional beings. they're really saying was really being said was that people of african descent, were mentally weak. okay, now there's some gender context associated with emotion. the inability to reason and being mentally weak. but this was this was of this fundamental assertion. and because a science the racial science whenever the talk of integration would be broached. you're talking about the experience of black soldiers at war, military soldiers or the integration at this time wasn't really even being. but the integration of black kids or children in public schools, in higher education, the notion was that, again that black people or african-americans were emotional.

and if you had to sort of write out and an equation that was associated with the experiment, because it was always couched as an experiment into. gration the notion that blacks could fight alongside white soldiers or black children could sit alongside white children if you had to write out sort of sort of an equation or research question associated with the notion of this racial science, it would be that will exposure or would exposure to a hostile environment. it would expose it to a hostile environment and dose or bring about an emotional response yes on the part of the -- or african-american. okay. i'll just say that again. for those of you who are your background is in science. so this is a research question and the research question is will expose you to a hostile environment in this case in

combat. that would be war in school would be sort of the school experience. right. hostile environment, the independent variable, something that is manipulated. bring about or induce an emotional response. an emotional response being that dependent variable, something that is being measured, put simply, will african-americans break under the stress of or demands of the rigors of war or the rigors of of of academia. okay. that was always what was being tested. and. charles hamilton houston, in terms of his approach to law, one of the things that you'll see when and we'll talk about it here, but for those of you who are going to law school was, charles hamilton houston, a little bit more the the the litigants, the naacp selects to.

go into the courts and challenge racial segregation in education most of them will be military veterans. there are a few that aren't, but most of them will be military veterans. and it was all based off this notion that, you know, these individuals, this background, this experience where they can go into a space and sort of submit or subdue their emotional response to a very hostile environment that always a challenge. if you see the integration of, the little rock nine and the integration of central high school, all of that has to do with sort of being this notion that african-americans have to the hostile environment subdue their emotional response. all right. in 1920, 1920, charles hamilton houston enters, harvard university. okay. and and as he did a student, he

excels in his studies. absolutely excels. in fact, houston becomes the first african-american editor of the harvard review, which was the first african-american editor of the harvard law review, the nation's foremost foremost sort of scholarly legal journal at the time. this is someone who was editing the, you know the scholarship that's coming through that journal is the head of it. and to give you some parallel one of the only the few other african-american editors of the harvard law review was morocco. okay. so it's an amazing, accomplished man that he achieves at this early age.

in, 1922, charles hamilton houston graduate with his bachelor's of law from harvard university. again, he's thinking strategic about how he's going to dismantle racial segregation the law and houston, as someone needs data, he needs information, he needs to sort of see where the problem lies. okay. he spends another two years at harvard. he gets his doctors of law. but in 1924, when he comes out, charles hamilton houston takes a survey. he does a survey of, the u.s. south and african-american access to lawyers in us south. okay. okay. at the time, there are about 9 million african-americans living the south. now, the question i have, you

nijmegen, african-americans, how many black lawyers do you think were living in the at that time? well, working in the south at that time, 9 million african-americans there are going to be black lawyers. how do you do you think we're working on behalf of african american interests serving clientele at that time, 9 million. i mean, that's a lot of black lawyers. you expect anybody as ever i'm sorry, you said 210. that's that's that's very modest. but okay. no, that's a good ten backpacked through all the south, the whole south, all the states best. okay. that's why. yes. 45 1 to 25 lawyers. okay. for 9 million, that's he's a

thousand maybe. okay. maybe a million. so one for every nine. okay. anyone else i make you say no a couple of hundred. a couple hundred. okay, let's. doesn't seem realistic. not really about now. there's about a million, maybe a. anybody else out number, perhaps 9 million tied to a south. 100,000 was a oh i'll out some zeros. it was a hundred was a hundred black lawyers for a population nine made obviously some folks interests are being served. so what is what is that what does somebody do the math one that means as one lawyer serving the interest how many african americans americans my million divided by what about a thousand 10,000. oh is it 90,000. yeah, 90,000. one lawyer for 90,000 people. it's quite absurd but.

but what this demonstrate to houston was that obviously the legal interest of african were not being supported and you have to challenge that you have to do something if he was going to actually fundamentally overthrow or approve the legal basis racial segregation he needed sort an army to do so. and by the time he gets through excuse me with howard university school of law, which becomes the citadel really within the mid 20th century for the training of african american civil lawyers or for civil rights lawyers. by the time gets to nearly a quarter, nearly a quarter of 25% of all african american lawyers will be trained at how university school of law. that's how fundamental sort of his are how sort of the influence that he has on sort of legal history at this time.

now, after he graduates from harvard university, he's done his studies and he's done his surveys that he's taken to see what the situation is. he'll become part of the faculty at howard university school of law. this was his father's old alma mater, institution he's part of the faculty. part of the faculty. you can't really implement a lot changes. but by 1929, it's a very quick turnaround. by 1929, charles houston will become dean of the school law at howard university. that's very important it's very important after this man is an officer, right? this man, he think strategically. okay. and at an academic institution. and if you want to be transformed in terms creating

opportunity is for your faculty to do innovate research, create opportunities for your students to do sort innovative studies and experiments. the position of dean is where that happens. okay. all of the creativity, innovation that happens within, a college in a space happens at the level of the dean that's what transformation happens. and so those you looking at, you know, don't think about the degree that you're getting, but one day you might become a dean and. this is an individual who understood that if he was going to transform african americans relationship to the law had to get that position. and he does so in a relatively short amount of time. okay transformational. and so he begins 1929 begins to implement changes to how university school of that will lead to the emergence of the civil rights lawyer and what becomes known as brown versus board of education.

let's look at some of those changes. let's talk about a few of those or initiatives that he that he makes. most of these changes will place between 1929 and 1934, ones that i'm going to talk about happen within a two year period, 1929 to 1931. okay. can. you have to think of this as you know, the dean is like a coach. no way, you know, like a coach of a football team. and if you that coach and you to implement changes, what do you think the response going to be sometimes? what's the response if you i'm coming in with a new system how people are going to respond over football or basketball or volleyball coach. i'm changing everything. how are people going to respond to that? so some pushback. okay. all right. and there's going to be some pushback and we'll about from who? from who, but what else some

other changes or or response is to people implementing, new ideas and changes and change. there might be people who were looking for the change in someone probably had to be that person to do it. okay definitely some of the students because one of the students, as i mentioned earlier will be thurgood marshall. he'll be part of it, sort of witnessed some of these changes. what else else he's trying to take away from potential funding or protesting. it's definitely so. let's talk about what happens. let's talk about the first change. so all of you are correct. let's talk about the first change, adding new person. he has ideas that he's held within his his his his, you know, concepts within himself since he was at harvard university actually, he was in the us military as an officer and the discrimination that he faced as an officer like i don't want to ever happen again to any

african-americans. and so he'll begin to implement these changes. but he's not in the position yet until 1929. let's talk about the first change. the first changes that he implements in 1929. he turns howard university, terrence howard university, school of law. from a part time night school to a full time day. part time night school to a full time day. nights. that's a great question. student does anybody have an answer? i'll on your colleagues for. 5050 was the night school because again at this time it's what 1929 around the time it's abc for you, it's not going to get that's high marks. it's like a harvard or yale.

so just like you're going sleep is not okay. i mean, what else cost yet and look at i don't think that's fair. okay, so so what is your yeah. what do you do because it doesn't think that's. so what do you think might. oh the maximum it is is for cameras. okay. so nice. cool bicep. nice cool part time high school. yeah. no, these people are, students, people working and people are working. and so they're students. and as i mentioned, most lawyers are going to be making a lot of money. it's not until the great migration people begin to move northward until black lawyers for the most part will have the clientele to support 1930s really onward to africa-american lawyers will have the the clientele to support them and they won't have to have other types of jobs. okay. they're students, they're

working. and when he makes this change the population that is most upset are the alumni. all the alumni are upset. and they say to houston, you don't understand your students. here you are with this harvard university education coming to this hbcu, making these changes, acting like as harvard, you don't understand your students right? charles hamilton houston essentially, i'm going to war with. the system of racial segregation and legalized racial segregation in i'm trying to use the constitution to dismantle this system that that that that can trucks and organizes everybody in terms of how relate one to another right i'm trying dismantle that system and i can't go to war with part time students we are going up against the nation's best. so this is a supreme court ruling that upholds racial

segregation in america. we're going up against the nation's best. and if i'm going to war, i have to go to war with students that study the law full time, that part time. this is this is this is this guy, right? this military officer, former military. so he makes transition. and as i mentioned, you begin, to make these changes, people get upset. alumni important because what do alumni provide generally for entity money right that's a donor base and abc and they're saying, look at this, you know, newbie. so when you begin to those changes as a new coach or a new dean, you generally have a very turnaround time to meet them in terms of when you need to make something happen, you need to make it happen. and so we see we're going to see what takes place in the case of charles hampton, houston. the second change that he does is he increases the number of books and library, the law

library, the number of books are the number of volumes in the library. and that serves two purposes, serves two purposes. first, increases the number books in the university's law library. two purposes. first. he does it because in terms of the formula for crediting accrediting the body that law schools, part of that formula is based the number of books in the library that students have access to. think logical. logical. all right. and the second reason more sort of related, fundamental. he needs students that are committed to doing research. he needs that are committed to doing research. you can't overturn the nation's

premier law that supports a ruling that supports racial segregation plessy versus ferguson unless you have unless you have students that understand the law in the same way that if you're an that you need to go to the weight right the premier you can't be a premier team. you're going to the weight room, you're working out or doing some type of, you know, some exercise that, you know, transform your body as a student. you need library to do those same things. okay. if you're not in the library, you're not trying to be transformational in trying to be transitional. you're just trying to get to a degree. there's a difference. he's trying to be transformation with the information and the knowledge that he provides. and the third thing that he does, he starts moot court competitions at howard university, moot court competition owns majority, moot court competitions. what's moot court. was world court.

and how? yes is like the type of court that the students do like a play through of perhaps and they compete to see who has between them a mock question so that no matter what's called the former times yeah and so yeah moot court is where students present oral arguments they write briefs and they present those before faculty that set them down but that helped them have that right that helped them with their argument. and here's the thing. we're not talking about going to trial arguing evidence. right? the base of, you know, trial level and evidence. we're talking about people changing the law and order to change the law. you have to to practice making those arguments at the appellate and supreme court level. how do you do that without practice, moot court competition? how do become a chemist without a laboratory right. or a biology without some type

of practice beforehand? it's impossible. he fundamentally changes howard university school of law as an institution, it becomes nation's premiere institution for turning out civil rights lawyers hands down, second to none more from this school will bring cases before supreme court decades of the fifties and sixties that with respect to civil rights law than anybody else, fundamentally transforms. okay, we'll talk about a few of those. i told you had a short time. short time, because he's making these changes started in 1929. by 1931, the american bar association has accredited how university school of law two years. that's phenomenal. that's phenomenal. turn it out, lawyers. okay. turning out lawyers making changes. questions. a pause for a second because i talk fast and yes.

oh, we got. okay so before they were incredibly before they their accreditation like what did it mean before i, i mean they were still producing language but what exactly does do or for the institution that's an excellent question what does accreditation do for an institution? students? what accreditation for students do for an institution or? funding. that's possible. yeah. okay. what else? what's as proud have you accredited? it is. okay, so you should know. does that matter? would you select a university that was not accredited by some regional body. i'd have to hope that. but what that generally it say that this institution has met certain standards that are recognized within higher education or in this case law school that suggest that this is

a legitimate that the degree from this institution meets the standards for turning out professional in this case lawyers right. yes. do you think that how ruth's prestige was because of this men's change in their law school like prestigious they have now. um oh definitely so let's just so you know you all should be aware of that. yes. howard university school of law. it have this prestigious reputation, but it's definitely tied to charles hamilton houston even though, you know most people would associate how universities law school with thurgood marshall. but marshall is a houston student working alongside houston right. marcia will become special counsel for the national jcp after charles hamilton.

houston leaves that post and, returns back to the faculty at howard university school a lot. so without these changes, if you're going to be transformational in your position as a, you know, as an administrator, you are your students. now. but if you can think ahead and you're students now, but if you can just imagine yourself, you know, a decade from now or just ahead, whatever changes that you aren't happy with now within the world, you need to start now. and that's what houston did as a young man as a young officer in the us he envisioned himself and think went about putting himself in a space. he would be able to make those changes. he didn't live long enough. he will he'll die. actually, houston dies april 22nd, 1950. he doesn't get to see brown versus board of education. he definitely sets things in

motion. today's april 23rd. so you know what it 74 years from or about from. from the date the date of his passing any of the questions. good, good, good questions. okay. so who are some of the students that we see associated with thurgood marshall, with charles hamilton and or the the howard university of law? thurgood marshall, first supreme court justice pauli murray, admission pauli murray. earlier in terms of her work on what's referred to as jane crow, the application of the equal protection to gender discrimination. right. and so we have title ii legislation legislation to, you know, protect the rights of women in education and elsewhere. edward w jacko w jacko jr

becomes the chief legal counsel for the nation of islam and he will be instrumental in protecting prisoner rights, prisoner rights throughout the country. um, and there is some carryover here in texas, but most of that work, a lot of that work will be done by mexican inmates, prisoners who corresponded with the nation, islam. okay. all right. so let's so we've talked about some of those changes. i to just for a second, just for a second away from charles. how about in houston because although he's doing this work at university, there's some things that are going on nationally that we also have to pay attention to. and i want to just quickly talk about some changes in race relations. right, that might indicated that things were getting better. i don't know. perhaps we'll see you walking can judge for yourself. okay. into more years.

are you going to be doing this stuff by we mention or you know, you should know the us enters enters war one in december of 1941. now when that happens. you know obviously country is going to be mobilizing to to war and the state of the country is such that discrimination is still racial discrimination and and segregation is still sort of the order of the day. and so you're going to see people or now we're not going to see sort of a mass mobilization in terms of sort of the education of the masses that we see political education, the masses that we see in the sixties, to some extent, the fifties happened during this time. but the leaders are individuals like a philip randolph, who was the head of, the brotherhood of

sleeping car porters. and i'll repeat that in just a second, but this is the biggest labor union for african-americans at the time. a philip randolph was the head of the brotherhood of sleeping car porters porters. so he knows to organize. and that's important. these individuals important because they work with the trains. and if they stop as the country mobilizing to war, then all of those soldiers and everybody who are trying to enroll and enlist in the military, all of that sort of comes to a halt because they're not moving baggage, they're not moving luggage, they're not booming freight, they're not doing any of that. but it's touching that. right. and so one of the things that that happens during this period is that looking at racial discrimination in the industry and jobs in the defense.

a philip randolph says to the government that if racial discrimination was dealt with then he would lead a march on washington and his union would strike again. as the country is mobilizing towards war, that is a critical i mean, it's just a critical moment. and and the of african-americans you going marching on washington at a time when the nation is suggesting is fighting for democracy abroad, is the type of public relations that the president at the time, franklin roosevelt, does not want. and so in 1941, roosevelt issues executive order 802.

roosevelt issues, executive order 82, it establishes the fair employment practices committee and essentially what the order does that committee does is it tries to or to eliminate racial discrimination and defense industry. the threat of the march on washington as is before 1963. the march on washington. we know of that idea came from this idea. any questions of questions about it. yes so essentially essentially, dr. king got this idea from. yeah, they worked alongside it wasn't so there are a couple of things that happened in 1963. i was 1963. people upset for a number of

reasons that things have happened. we haven't sort of gotten there yet, but. the people, just ordinary people were threatening to bring washington, d.c. to a standstill or to a halt, the nation's capital to a halt. people were threatening, he said. we talk about protest today. that's a good question. we're talking about protest today and people marching, which is also a form of sort of the military. and there's this model where the military like basically the soldier the citizen soldiers and comes back to charles hamilton houston, that's the model of protest that we have. we march, we do things like that. but the people at time are trying to march. what they said was they're going to bring the city of not the nation's capital to a to a to a halt. they're to sit on the tarmacs. the the of the airport, so that the airports can't see the planes can't land right. the decks, airports and the

nation's capital, that's a, that's a significant threat. it brings the business of the nation to a halt. it would bring to some extent would bring the business, the nation to a halt. and so what king does in conversation with several other black leaders is get this idea about a march on washington but this is a different because this march on washington wasn't at the march on washington in 1941 it wasn't supported by anybody this was just we're going to washington to embarrass the government march on washington in 1963 is is it's paid for and supported there's also i mean it was planned was very planned and strategic. and it was to some extent, it it was constructed to sort of neutralize this other type of protest that ordinary that weren't martin luther king were tending to do by bringing the

nation's capital to a standstill to. all yeah. so, but yeah, the idea came from philip randolph, who was in conversation with what him with king thank you. all right. oh, in addition to that, there was also indication that there was that people fundamental concern with race relations at the time. 1950 1943 is a very just a an integral year looking race relations, because they're going to be a number of race riots that happen across the u.s., 1942, 1943. we're going to see race riots with mexican-american ins out in los angeles. we're going to see race riots and the principal race riot that happens during this time is in detroit. a lot of people moving into detroit population. one sort of of african-americans, more than doubling in size. and you're going to see as i

mean, the the actual that african-americans are going to be the space that they're going to be allowed to to stay in, to reside in, doesn't expand. so there's going to be race riots as a result of that 1943 detroit race riots june of 1943. as a result, the very violent race riots in detroit and in race riot we're going to see 34 people die,. 25 african-americans and nine white americans. it's important note and i'll just say this, since i'm on the subject of the detroit race, riot of 1943, another five african-americans that die, 17 die at the hands of law enforcement is not case with the white that died doing this this racial violence that takes place. but in response that event

because it is so stark i in terms of sort of drawing the nation's attention to race relations a number of communities cities and state governments will will launch race relations committees or committees and commissions to study race relations in. their spaces like that's the case in june of 1943, when edward kelley, of course, the mayor of chicago, establishes the mayor his committee and conference on race relations relations. and this committee simply form to prevent a race riot from happening in chicago. sort of preventative in nature. can i don't go over the details

of how many of these committees and commissions there were it is significant. let's go ahead and turn the corner. we have a few more slides to get through here. this will be the last slide. i'll i'll stuff on this slide. okay. in addition to these changes or there's actually one slide after this that i just have mention a few things in addition to the of those social considerations, there also academic considerations that happen at this time as well that suggest that the race relations were changing or need to change. in 1944 gunnar tomorrow gunnar myrdal, who was a swedish social. working alongside african-america social scientists. from hbcu was.

how university fisk university will travel the south and produce the seminal study card and american dilemma. american dilemma dilemma is very well funded was funded by the carnegie foundation. the most important aspect of this book was its timing. okay, 1944 it was published during a time when an increasing of white americans and principally decision makers decision makers were concerned about the fate of ism and the oppression of peoples around world. the question that they asked was could what happen in nazi germany happen in america and

see basis so we have some potential answers to that but yes that was the question that was okay okay it was at the time that it was published the most exhaustive study of race and race relations of time the most exhaustive study of race and race relations at the time. and myrtle's book essentially pointed out that the situation and circumstance of african-americans was concretely similar in america was concretely similar to that of -- in nazi germany and. the third reich. well, let me make sure that i on time just want to check off. well, something had long.

my watch and somebody have the time. i may ask 130 to see if i can do this in 10 minutes. i don't mean to keep you this long, but that's just so i get through this horse. cayton and sinclair. drake. sinclair dragon horse cayton they write black metropolis. 1945. this this, this book may made the point. among other things, it made the argument that if based on their studies if american if america did not accord african-americans of equal rights there would most likely be radical consequence and given the situation 1943 for the 1942 as well as 44 the race riots that.

there was reason to suspect that that would be the case that african-americans had reached a point where they would no longer tolerate the type of, you know, treatment as well, as well as a lack of protection under under the. now talk about jackie robinson. he's going to be the last person that i talk about and then i'll mention one thing with harry and i'll just really, really quickly going through the slides, mention. a couple of the cases are related to houston's work, jackie robinson and these are sports considerations that would allow us to to ask the question if race relations in america

were actually beginning to change. jackie robinson in 1947 became the first african-american to play a major league baseball in the modern. okay, okay. 1947. and so the question that we to ask ourselves and i you to think about is whether or not has entrance into baseball was based on what we might say altruistic reasons or unself rich ethical reasons. we want the game to better we want the better symbol of american etc. race relations relations. it wasn't done for profit. race and profit is the relations between race and profit. when we talk about sport sport, yes. okay. can can be.

is that you? that's something that can sometimes drive ticket sales. it's a question we might so let's talk about it so. there's two ways that jackie robinson's entrance into major league baseball are frame one is that it was uncertain. it was done for ulterior ethical purposes. and the is that it was done for profit. let's talk about both. okay. the first story that i'm going to talk about is called the charlie thomas story. and this is this is should be put under notion that jackie robinson's into baseball was done for altruistic reasons and selfish ethical reasons. it's called the charlie thomas story. and it comes us from branch rickey. so anybody know who branch rickey was? the is another one. we recruited jackie robinson, who has is president of the brooklyn dodgers.

it's called the charlie thomas story. and so let's go let's let's let's just talk about it. in the early 1900s, 19 offer to be precise, branch rickey was, coach of a baseball team, the wesleyan and these his team was going to play notre dame in south bend, indiana. when the team gets to south bend and pull into their lodging space for the day, charlie thomas was denied lodging with his his teammates. it's black the only black athlete on the team is denied lodging. the experience is set to have so upset branch rickey that he said if he ever got in position to so he would make sure that that never happened again that no african american player would ever have to suffer that type of

disgrace. okay it make sense. okay. all right. that's now that story comes to us from branch rickey, this other story also comes to us from branch. and you can label this sort untapped reservoir, untapped reservoir, the and the quote that is attributed to branch rickey, president, the brooklyn dodgers believed that, quote, african-americans represented the greatest untapped reservoir and history of major league baseball. okay. profit markets, expansion markets. you introduce african-americans to the game. you expand markets. yeah. and there was reason to support. following world war two, african-american had, an increase of median family

income. african-americans had also supported major league baseball. excuse me, -- league baseball teams in their cities. so there was a notion that yeah. you know african-americans like baseball if you brought their players to the sport they would follow follow. so when we look at the emergence of an integral of jackie robinson into major league baseball, we sort of have to think about, you know, why this was done. the other thing that i'll just point out very quickly, his story does sort of it it follows what we've been talking about in terms of racial science or what i mentioned in terms of racial science, jackie robinson is someone who has to subdue when he goes into major league baseball, he does have to subdue his emotions despite effect. and he's working in a hostile he's being spiked and now, if

you've ever been spiked before, track and field or soccer, some other sport, baseball. but it's not as painful. and so despite that, he is challenged not be emotional, but just to play the game to achieve. and so in a lot of ways, his experience does track track that. just really quickly, the thing that i want to note about president truman. in 1947, truman established, the us commission on rights and this commission, a report card to secure these rights. to secure these rights as very important. so, you know, we talked about a lot of things in this class. this you should just at least this 1947, the u.s. commission

on civil rights issued a report card to secure these rights and. the report stated that racial segregation racial excuse me, racial desegregation was a desire, well, national goal was a desirable national goal. so we see these academic studies that are going influence decision makers and people have a thinking about race relations. we're also going to see because there are racial riots people are going to be thinking about race relations in different ways. and so all of that is going to all of that is going to impact impact, some would say the the the court cases is going to create a social environment which was favored will to changing the laws with respect to race and racial segregation. just a couple of cases that it

before preceded brown versus board of education that aren't necessarily to education. and 1946 the supreme court ruled that segregation on interstate busses was unconstitutional. so and as result you won't see the freedom riders in the sixties early sixties. in 1948. and we talked about this in class the case shelly versus kramer. the court would declare restrictive covenants were unconscionable that limited property of to minorities were unenforceable able. in 1950 the court declares that laws prohibiting african-americans eating in railroad dining cars are

unconstitutional. may 17th, 1954. but a number of court cases and alcohol mma in maryland and missouri that preceded and in texas sweat versus those are you familiar human that precede brown versus board of education case but it may or may 17th 1954 brown versus board of education the supreme court rules racial segregation and public education is unconscious intuition. okay. okay. that concludes the lecture. are there any questions which again. okay, my first question.

well of many questions but but my main question is going to be about the american dilemma. okay. and i was wondering if they consider the relationship between the black population in america versus, the jewish population in europe, how come it's so easy for them to get reparations and have, you know, the effect the holocaust is to such a big issue and always be pressing matter in history when slavery was global and we still can't get reparations for it so that's a very good i don't know if i have the answer within the time frame that we have but what i would say is one of the things that you see with. and not so we're talking about european -- for the most part, but there's going to be sort of political support based on political support based not on

the holocaust, in the crimes that we see following, you know, following that. but also a tragedy, but also human rights tragedy, but also there's also to be political support for the creation of the state of israel for various reasons. they're going to be, you know, governments are going to want to sort of promote and protect their interests in the middle east. israel sort of provides them that space that is also going to be sort of the of europe getting rid of its, quote unquote undesirable population. so there's ethical there's political and there's sort of more so sort of other reasons why sort of occurs on the other thing that i would just say is that it's not as if african at this time didn't attempt to bring the case of reparations

before or before the u.n. and various places, in fact, that did. there is a document that's called we charge genocide. it's very important. it's got we tried to decide and it was produced by the civil rights congress and it's a social it's not statistical, but it's just lays out a lot of it doesn't get to slavery, but it just lays out like lynching and a lot of the other things sort of crimes and violence that's been committed against african-americans. but one of the things that happens. two things really happen when african-americans to push that before the un. one is that the person who fundamentally stops that is eleanor roosevelt. she uses her influence. a friend of the -- uses her influence to make sure that the african demand for reparations at the un does not succeed. the other that happens is that

genocide the the term genocide is defined in such a way that and this is deliberate that the us sort of demands this that it really doesn't capture what happens the violence that happens to african-americans as written is defined in such way as it's sort of defined. african-americans. the afro-american experience is sort of defined outside of that. and so we have to look at sort of how genocide is. genocide is defined at the time. and this all happens 1947, 1948, in this very short period time during this time, we can question whether race relations were really or improving and at whose expense are we progressing so long as ask for nothing in relation to what has to us?

and is that a fair? i don't. this is it. you? we can be citizens so long as we never ask for anything that has happened to us in the past. great question. all right. is that we're all good. thank you. all for coming. thank you all for wiping the silly eyes. i appreciate it. and i'll see you all hopefully on thursday.