States Rights, Legal Wrongs: A Recurring Page from the Segregationist Playbook
ellisconversations's podcast
In this episode, the hosts discuss the history of invoking some form of States’ Rights theory to limit the efforts of the federal government to expand or protect the rights of persons within the United States Southern Manifesto Mississippi State Sovereign Commission . “Calhoun’s justification of nullification and secession as constitutional rights of the state also went beyond traditional states’ rights doctrine as they were based on an unprecedented notion of absolute state sovereignty. Most old states’ righters, including James Madison, condemned...
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Claudine Gay: The Latest Victim in the Debate over DEI, Affirmative Action, and Meritocracy
ellisconversations's podcast
In this episode, the hosts discuss the controversy concerning the Resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay.Is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion undermining merit or does it address a history of Discrimination, Exclusion, and Inequality.
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From Jamestown to Charlottesville: Virginia and America’s racial divide
ellisconversations's podcast
In this episode, the hosts discuss the leading role that Virginia has played in the racial divide in America’s history. Home to the Founding Fathers and Capital of the Confederacy, the state has been the crucible of the ideals which built this country and the ideas which would tear it apart. Washington, DC History Virginia 1619 . Florida Episode - Indiana Episode -
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Holding the Line: Sandra Day O’Connor’s legacy of bringing stability to the Supreme Court by protecting its established precedents.
ellisconversations's podcast
In this episode, the hosts discuss Justice O’Connor’s role as the “swing vote” as the Court addressed major fault lines in our society on issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and gender equality. Planned Parenthood v. Casey Grutter v. Bollinger
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Black History: Never Equal; Never Protected: Up North to Indiana
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In this episode, the hosts continue examining how specific states have addressed racial equality, Black history, and White Supremacy. In this episode, they travel outside the Deep South, and focus on the state of Indiana – Klan Capital and home of Sundown Towns. LINKS IN THIS EPISODE Links for podcast Violence in Jacksonville Florida Ax Handle Saturday Indiana History links Rosedale, NY Racist attacks Other Related Episodes Check out Check out
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Black History: Never Equal; Never Protected - First Stop: Florida
ellisconversations's podcast
In this episode, the hosts begin a series of episodes examining how specific states have addressed the racial equality, Black history, and White Supremacy. First stop: Florida. LINKS IN THIS EPISODE Smithsonian Magazine Florida Academic Standards 2023 Ron DeSantis and the State Where History Goes to Die Removing Relics of "The Lost Cause" | On the Media | WNYC Studios Lost Cause Other Related Episodes Check out Check out
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Colorblind Remedies for Color-Conscious Wrongs
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Photo Credit : Encyclyopedia Britanica In this program, the hosts discuss the Supreme Court’s decision to forbid race-conscious affirmative action approaches to achieve diversity n higher education. The discussion contrasts Justice Roberts’ pronouncement that decisions should be color-blind with Justice Jackson’s reminder that the country has been far from colorblind and the effects are not just historical but real in the present because of the intergenerational transmission of inequality. Moreover, the “self-evident” truth that all are created equal has not...
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Not in Our Stars, but in Ourselves: How The Supreme Court Undermined Its Own Reputation
ellisconversations's podcast
Image Credit: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States In this episode, the hosts discuss the Roberts Court’s failure to adhere to precedent and the effect this is having on the public’s confidence in the Supreme Court. Respect for precedents and the application of the principle of stare desisis provide constancy and comfort and avoids the appearance that the Court is swayed by political consideration. Simple assertions that a prior decision was wrongly decided are inadequate to justify undermining the expectations of parties before the Court and the public at...
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The Fire This Time: Black History Surviving in the Time of Modern-Day Book Banning
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Photo credit: Afro.com EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, the hosts discuss Black History and the historical use of book burning, book banning, and other methods to suppress inconvenient truths. False narratives flourish when voices remain silent are have been removed from the discussion. To download the transcript, A FEW KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE Denying Black people education and banning books is part of historical pattern to control access to information to control the narrative This practice of banning and burning books has been used throughout history by people in power...
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Martin Luther King: Waiting on His Dream
ellisconversations's podcast
EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, the hosts discuss why Martin Luther King should not be limited by a selection of words from the “I Have a Dream” speech delivered in 1963, and how he pointed out the failings of America, confronted those in power, and challenged them to make that dream a reality. A FEW KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE If you look at the "I Have a Dream "speech, and you don't look at that one line, but you look at what he said about the state of Black America and how black Americans were shackled in their own country, then you get a better sense of how he was...
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Photo credit: AP Images for Britannica.com
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode, we're going to focus on one of the most talked about cases in Supreme Court history. On May 17 1954, in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held in Brown versus Board of Education, that in the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal had no place, and that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal.
A FEW KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE
- In terms of what it meant to the health of the nation, Brown versus Board of Education was the most significant case in the history of the Supreme Court.
- Part of what's in the DNA of this country is aspirational. And what Brown did was having a goal of providing equality. It's certainly true that we have fallen short in some of the things that we profess as a nation.
- The difference between where we want to be and where we are, is the engine that drives change.
Judge Ellis read excerpts from the Appendix to the Congressional Globe, described here from https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwcg.html
“The Globe, as it is usually called, contains the congressional debates of the 23rd through 42nd Congresses (1833-73). There are forty-six volumes in the series based on the table found in the Third Edition of Checklist of United States Public Documents 1789-1909, Volume 1B (pp. 1466-69).
The Globe is the third of the four series of publications containing the debates of Congress. It was preceded by the Annals of Congress and the Register of Debates and succeeded by the Congressional Record. The first five volumes of the Globe (23rd Congress, 1st Session through 25th Congress, 1st Session, 1833-37) overlap with the Register of Debates. Initially the Globe contained a "condensed report" or abstract rather than a verbatim report of the debates and proceedings. With the 32nd Congress (1851), however, the Globe began to provide something approaching verbatim transcription.
The contents of the appendix of each volume vary from Congress to Congress, but appendixes typically contain presidential messages, reports of the heads of departments and cabinet officers, texts of laws, and appropriations. Speeches not indexed or referenced on the pages reprinting the debates appear in the appendix as well.”
More specifically, I read from the 33rd Congress, Second Session.[1855]
The first page of the Appendix is https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30790/m1/1/?q=thirty-third
From the entry page you can jump to specific pages, and I read from page 234, Tennessee Senator
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30790/m1/248/?q=thirty-third
And page 236, Indiana Senator
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30790/m1/250/?q=thirty-third
To download the transcript, CLICK HERE
LINKS IN THIS EPISODE
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Information from Legal Defense Fund
Information from Britannica Encyclopedia
Information from The New Yorker, May 3, 2004 Did Brown Matter?
Appendix to the Congressional Globe, described here from https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwcg.html
The first page of the Appendix is https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30790/m1/1/?q=thirty-third
Tennessee Senator https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30790/m1/248/?q=thirty-third
Indiana Senator https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30790/m1/250/?q=thirty-third
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