Civil Rights

Prior to and after the Civil War, abolitionists and women's activists worked together to pursue equal rights. However, with the passage of the reconstruction amendments, women were left to pursue equality under the law more gradually over the next century. In this lecture, Dr. Lindsay Robertson explains the history and current Supreme Court jurisprudence of women's rights in constitutional law.

Professor Kathryn Schumaker examines the case of Bradwell v. Illinois, an 1873 Supreme Court ruling that further restricted the rights of women in America.

University of Oklahoma professor Kathryn Schumaker highlights three gender-related Supreme Court cases that took place from 1971-1976, and the key role future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg played in a pivotal decade for women's rights.

All Americans, and indeed people all around the world, know the four famous warnings that now proceed custodial police interrogation.But where did they come from and why do we have them? Professor Stephen Henderson explains.

University of Oklahoma political science professor Justin Wert explains habeas corpus, how it's been used throughout US history, and where it stands today in relation to Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The United States is home to approximately five percent of the world's population and 25 percent of its prison population. The nation's rate of incarceration exceeds that of every other industrialized democracy, as well as virtually every non-democratic state in the world. People of color — especially African Americans and Hispanics – are incarcerated at a far higher rate than white Americans. This lecture examines the issue of mass incarceration as a threat to American democracy.

As citizens, we are taught to obey the law. But what do we do if the law becomes the oppressor?

University of Oklahoma law professor Rick Tepker argues Madison, Jefferson and Washington were advocates of equality regardless of religious beliefs or fervor.

In the early American republic, the Supreme Court, under the leadership of John Marshall, would decide a series of three cases – known as the Marshall Trilogy – that would be foundational in defining the framework within which the U.S. government would operate when interacting with sovereign Indian nations in the United States. In the first of the lectures, professor Lindsay Robertson explores the landmark decision in Johnson v. M'Intosh.

In the early American republic, the Supreme Court, under the leadership of John Marshall, would decide a series of three cases – known as the Marshall Trilogy – that would be foundational in defining the framework within which the U.S. government would operate when interacting with sovereign Indian nations in the United States. Professor Lindsay Robertson explores the second case, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia.

In the early American republic, the Supreme Court, under the leadership of John Marshall, would decide a series of three cases — known as the Marshall Trilogy — that would be foundational in defining the framework within which the U.S. government would operate when interacting with sovereign Indian nations in the United States. Professor Lindsay Robertson explores the third case, Worcester v. Georgia.

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery. Although the word "slave" appeared nowhere in the Constitution until the 13th Amendment, the politics of slavery – and the compromises it demanded – lie behind important features of constitutional design and development from the Founding to the Civil War.

The reframing of the Constitution after the Civil War requires not only disentangling old compromises that enhanced southern power, but also a concerted, century-long effort to implement the spirit of the reframing over creative southern resistance.

In this lecture, professor David Wrobel places the Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) into the context of the political struggles of the 1860s and into the longer history of amendments to the Constitution. He concludes with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which placed the weight of federal power behind the 14th and 15th Amendments, respectively.

Since ratification of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, the Supreme Court has ruled in numerous landmark cases respecting race and the law. Sweatt v. Painter (1950), for example, helped to undermine the Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – and pave the way to Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Since that time, the Court has had to evaluate laws that do not overtly discriminate on the basis of race, but nonetheless have a disparate impact upon racial groups.

University of Oklahoma assistant professor Kathryn Schumaker discusses Frederick Douglass's famed 1852 anti-slavery speech in which he declares to a largely white audience the Fourth of July "is yours, not mine."

The institution of slavery hung over constitutional development in the early American republic, driving sectional division and leading ultimately to Civil War. In this lecture, professor Rick Tepker explores two cases – Prigg v. Pennsylvania and the Dred Scott case – which shaped constitutional jurisprudence in the antebellum period. He discusses how both of these notorious decisions ironically galvanized abolition and contributed to the election of Abraham Lincoln.

Professor Kathryn Schumaker delivers a lecture on Brown v. Board of Education. While the civil rights victory did not overturn Plessy v. Ferguson, it is still considered one of the most impactful Supreme Court decisions in American history.

In this lecture, professor Kathryn Schumaker reviews the Supreme Court case McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, and inspects the NAACP's strategy of pragmatism over conscience.

One of the clearest examples of "original understanding" of the Fourteenth Amendment is the widespread belief and insistence that "equal protection" would not disturb state laws banning interracial marriage. Chief Justice Earl Warren put an end to this legacy of racism in a case that haunts all arguments that the Supreme Court must respect original meaning.

The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause is one of the iconic clauses of the Constitution. It has been the centerpiece of Supreme Court jurisprudence in desegregation, affirmative action, and voting rights. In this lecture, Dr. Lindsay Robertson outlines the levels of scrutiny used by the Supreme Court in evaluating Equal Protection cases.

The reconstruction amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) were ratified to extend the equal rights of citizenship to freed slaves and to protect minorities against discrimination. But what of discrimination in favor of minorities? Dr. Lindsay Robertson explains the recent history of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause as it is applied to affirmative action.

University of Oklahoma political science professor Ronald Keith Gaddie delves into the 24th Amendment and the defeat of the discriminatory poll tax.

In this lecture, political science professor Ronald Keith Gaddie tells an incredibly compelling, violent story of three men vying for governorship of Georgia in the 1940s. As Gaddie puts it, the case represents "the last great deployment of Jim Crow institutions, electorally."

University of Oklahoma professor Kathryn Schumaker puts the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into context, discussing the changing viewpoints of many Americans at the time of its enactment and how the legislation came to be.

In this lecture, OU Western History professor David Wrobel cites a scholarly article by Mary Dudziak entitled "Brown as a Cold War Case." Wrobel expounds on Dudziak's argument that bounds together the Cold War and the progress of the American Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

The United States is home to approximately five percent of the world's population and 25 percent of its prison population. The nation's rate of incarceration exceeds that of every other industrialized democracy, as well as virtually every non-democratic state in the world. People of color — especially African Americans and Hispanics – are incarcerated at a far higher rate than white Americans. This lecture examines the issue of mass incarceration as a threat to American democracy.

The problem of how to create fair, equal representation is not new. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wrangled over it and disagreed about it for decades.

In this lecture, professor David Wrobel places the Reconstruction Amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) into the context of the political struggles of the 1860s and into the longer history of amendments to the Constitution. He concludes with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which placed the weight of federal power behind the 14th and 15th Amendments, respectively.

University of Oklahoma political science professor Ronald Keith Gaddie delves into the 24th Amendment and the defeat of the discriminatory poll tax.

In this lecture, political science professor Ronald Keith Gaddie tells an incredibly compelling, violent story of three men vying for governorship of Georgia in the 1940s. As Gaddie puts it, the case represents "the last great deployment of Jim Crow institutions, electorally."

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the federal government confronted anew the fundamental question: what is freedom? The abolition of slavery was only the most obvious transformation, but hardly the only one. In this lecture, professor Rick Tepker explores the fate of civil rights in the Reconstruction period and beyond, looking at the Supreme Court cases which in fact would undermine the enfranchisement of African Americans for generations.

In this lecture, post-doctoral fellow Josh Zingher reviews Holder v. Shelby County, observing many states have already enacted strict voter ID laws since the 2013 ruling.

In 2013, a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was struck down by the Supreme Court. Political science professor Ronald Keith Gaddie examines the reasons and the consequences, and discusses the prospects for restoration.