By Gloria J. Browne-Marshall
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall
September 17th is Constitution Day. Since African- Americans have worked so hard to make the promises in the Constitution a reality, they should use Constitution Day to mark their contributions to justice under law. But, most Americans never heard of Constitution Day.
On September 17, 1787, the date the U.S. Constitution was signed in Philadelphia, Black civil rights activist Prince Hall was protesting the exclusion of free Black children from public schools in Boston. African-Americans had been, and would continue, fighting for their Constitutional rights.
As early as 1870, with Hiram Revels, the first Black U.S. Senator, politicians have fought for fairness under law. Josephine DeCuir, a Black businesswoman, in 1871, took her case against racial segregation to the U.S. Supreme Court.
When segregation became the law of the land, organizations like the NAACP were created to defeat it.
In 1940, Congress passed a resolution requesting that President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaim the third Sunday in May a day to recognize all those who had attained the status of American citizenship through Naturalization. It was designated “I Am An American Day.” Yet, African-American citizens lived in fear of lynching and lobbied Congress to enact federal legislation to end it. But, the U.S. Senate failed to pass it.
Citizenship at birth had already been established under the 14th Amendment. It was created for newly freed African-Americans after slavery ended. People of African descent had been members of American society for centuries, they had not always been considered citizens. Citizenship at birth was later expanded to all persons born in America.
On July 25, 1952, President Harry S. Truman proclaimed the first Citizenship Day, commemorating September 17 and recognizing those who had attained American citizenship. It was President Truman who had desegregated America’s military with Executive Order 9981, after African-American leaders protested the hypocrisy of segregation at home while America was fighting oppression abroad.
Immigration increased after World War II. So, Citizenship Day was expanded to encourage states, counties, cities, and towns to observe this day and instruct residents “in their responsibilities and opportunities as citizens.”
African-Americans fought against housing discrimination that was forcing them into urban ghettos.
On August 19, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed the first Constitution Week. One year earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. But, that same year, a 14-year-old Black boy named Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi.
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat triggering the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
In 1956, Congress established Constitution Week by law. A year later, President Eisenhower sent troops to protect The Little Rock Nine when mobs of White adults threatened these nine Black teenagers who sought to exercise their right to a desegregated education at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
African-Americans used protest, litigation, and legislation to force America to recognize their Constitutional rights.
The Constitution was amended in 1964 to prohibit poll taxes that had been used to undermine Black voters.
Their struggle for racial equality under law challenged America to provide the democracy promised in the Constitution.
Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WVa) would play a crucial role in expanding Constitution Day. In 2004, Sen. Byrd successfully urged Congress to add requirements to Constitution and Citizenship Day. Federal agencies were now required to provide employees with materials concerning the Constitution.
Every educational institution receiving Federal funds was encouraged to hold a program to promote a better understanding of the Constitution.
However, Sen. Byrd would begin his political career undermining the constitutional rights of African-Americans. He was a vocal segregationist and member of the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1964, Byrd led a filibuster of the Civil Rights Act and opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He voted against the nomination of Thurgood Marshall, first Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Later, Byrd regretted his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan. Like segregationist Governor George Wallace, of Alabama, Senator Robert Byrd changed his stance on race-relations. He said joining the Klan was “the greatest mistake I ever made.”
After the accidental death of his grandson in 1982, Byrd said he realized that African-Americans love their children as much as he loved his children.
Byrd, who died in 2010, supported the Presidential nomination of then Sen. Barack Obama. In 2009, President Obama signed Proclamation 8418 designating the week of September 17-23 as Constitution Week.
In 2012, President Obama “encouraged Federal, State, and local officials, as well as leaders of civic, social, and educational organizations, to conduct ceremonies and programs” during this week.
During Constitution Week, African-Americans should highlight their important role in advancing Constitutional rights for all.
Their fight for civil rights involves every aspect of American life from employment to housing, marriage to voting rights, and education to criminal justice.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “when the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”
This is a great opportunity to honor African-Americans who have invested in that promissory note.
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, an associate professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College (CUNY), is a correspondent reporting on the U.S. Supreme Court, major legal issues, and the United Nations. She is the U.S. Supreme Court correspondent for AANIC. (African-American News & Information Consortium) and author of “Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present.” twitter: @GBrowneMarshall