The US Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Movement - Detailseite

After the Second World War, the relevance of the Supreme Court for the civil rights movement in the U.S. can hardly be underestimated. Starting with the then highly controversial decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the court under chief justice Earl Warren positively supported the struggle for racial equality. How did the justices of the Supreme Court justify their decisions? To what extent were they committed to serve the goals of the civil rights movement and where did they set limits? How did they react to new social and political developments? And what conclusions can we draw about the relationship between law, politics, and society in U.S. history?

In this course (taught in English), we will try to find answers to these questions by focusing on two aspects: the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and the general development of the civil rights movement. In light of the still persisting controversies about racial discrimination, we will also discuss current debates about the legacy of these two aspects. Students are expected to do short presentations in class and read from a collection of primary and secondary texts.

Michael J. Klarman: From Jim Crow to Civil Rights. The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford 2004; Peter F. Lau (Hg.): From the Grassroots to the Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Education and American Democracy, Durham/London 2004; James T. Patterson: Brown v. Board of Education. A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy, Oxford 2001

Ausgleichsberechtigte Studierende wenden sich zur bevorzugten Platzvergabe per E-Mail mit einem Nachweis der Ausgleichsberechtigung an die Studienkoordinationsstelle Geschichte. Ausschlussfrist für die Geltendmachung von Ausgleichsberechtigungen ist der letzte Tag der zentralen Frist, 16 Uhr. Textnachrichten in AGNES werden hingegen nicht gelesen