The struggle for civil rights in America was fought at the lunch
counter as well as in the streets. It ultimately found victory in
the halls of government-but, as Richard Cortner reveals, only
through a creative use of congressional power and critical judicial
decisions.
Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination
in public accommodations, and shortly after its passage blacks were
refused service at the Heart of Atlanta Motel and at Ollie's
Barbecue in Birmingham, Alabama, as a test of the new law by
business owners who claimed the right to choose their own
customers. These challenges made their way to the Supreme Court,
becoming landmark cases frequently cited in law. Until now,
however, they have never benefited from book-length analysis.
Cortner provides an inside account of the litigation in both
decisions to tell how they spelled the end to segregation in the
South.
The fact that blacks could not travel in the South without
assured access to food and lodging led Congress to enforce civil
rights on the basis of its authority to regulate interstate
commerce. The Supreme Court unanimously sustained Title II's
constitutionality under the commerce clause in both test cases,
joining the executive and legislative branches in defining the
power of the federal government to desegregate society, even by
circuitous means.
Drawing on justice department files, Supreme Court justices'
papers, and records of defense attorneys, Cortner provides the
background for the cases, including previous legal battles over
sit-ins. He describes the roles of key players in the
litigation-particularly Solicitor General Archibald Cox and members
of the Warren Court. In addition, he uses presidential files, oral
histories, and other primary sources to give readers a clear
picture of the forces at work in the creation, implementation, and
validation of the Civil Rights Act.
Cortner's thorough account illuminates the nature of
constitutional litigation and the judicial process, as well as the
role of the Constitution and law, in two decisions that marked the
crowning achievement of the civil rights movement and changed the
face of America forever.
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