How segregation was justified through historical memory and mythology. How did narratives about the Civil War and Reconstruction legitimize Jim Crow?

Author: Martin Munyao  Introduction The legacy of segregation in the United States cannot be understood without interrogating the intricate relationship between historical memory, mythology, and the systematic justification of Jim Crow laws. While the Civil War and...

The Competing Theories of Federalism and State Sovereignty that Underpinned Secession Debates

Author: Martin Munyao Introduction The secession debates that gripped the United States in the mid-nineteenth century were not merely a political clash but a deep constitutional crisis grounded in competing legal theories of federalism and state sovereignty....

The legal mechanisms used to create and maintain the New South social order. How did law function to both enable economic development and enforce racial hierarchy?

Author: Martin Munyao  Introduction The legal framework of the New South constituted an intricate architecture that advanced economic modernization while entrenching racial hierarchy through statutes, ordinances, judicial doctrines, and administrative practices. From...

The Constitutional and Legal Framework That Enabled Disenfranchisement While Technically Complying with the 15th Amendment. 

Author: Martin Munyao  Introduction The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1870, ostensibly prohibited the denial of the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Nonetheless, disenfranchisement of...

How did the Supreme Court’s Interpretation of the 14th and 15th Amendments Facilitate Jim Crow Laws?

Author: Martin Munyao  Abstract The period following the American Civil War witnessed a constitutional paradox that would define race relations for nearly a century. Despite the ratification of the Reconstruction Amendments—specifically the 14th and 15th...