History students trudging through reading assignments or struggling to memorize a hodgepodge of dates and facts may often forget one particular beauty of the subject: its inseparable ties to reality. Two Choate students — Zemia Edmondson ’16 and Dylan Stafford ’16 — recently reminded themselves of this point by attending a Yale event highlighting the implications of the Fourteenth Amendment.
On Thursday, March 31, a common interest in Constitutional Law and the Reconstruction Era brought six renowned history scholars to Yale University for a discussion titled “Equal Protection: Origins and Legacies of the Fourteenth Amendment.” They hailed from Yale University, Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, University of Chicago, and Columbia University. Among their ranks was Mr. Eric Foner, a name fifth- and sixth-form students may recognize as the generally beloved author of their U.S. history textbook series, Give Me Liberty!.
Edmondson and Stafford first heard about the event from Ms. Allyson Brundige, who teaches The Civil War and Reconstruction, on that very morning. Despite the short notice, the students immediately decided to go. They traveled to Yale by taxi as soon as classes finished in the afternoon. Edmondson, who is very passionate about this time period in history, added, “I think it would have been a shame if I knew this event was going on and didn’t go.”
So what exactly is the Fourteenth Amendment, and why should we care? Ratified on July 9, 1868, it theoretically guaranteed all citizens, including recently emancipated African Americans, full and equal protection under the law and the right to life, liberty, and property. This monumental addition to the Constitution has served as the basis for many Supreme Court decisions in the decades following.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) showed how interpretations of the amendment could limit its effectiveness. When a Louisiana law required African Americans to sit in different railroad cars, passenger Homer Plessy voiced his protests. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the notion of “separate but equal” was not a violation of the Constitution. Justice Henry Billings Brown argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment “could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color.”
It was not until the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) that the Supreme Court finally eliminated the “separate but equal” mantra and classified segregation in schools as unconstitutional.
The Fourteenth Amendment also played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement, acting as the foundation for subsequent pieces of legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
The very fact that the Fourteenth Amendment is still being actively discussed in 2016, as the Yale panel demonstrated, is a testament to its significance. The panelists made several points that forced the audience to think about the Fourteenth Amendment in new ways. For example, in their discussion about past and present definitions of freedom, one panelist argued that access to leisure activities and general fun is an important part of being free.
Overall, both Edmondson and Stafford were very impressed. “Being able to listen to people who have dedicated their entire lives to learning about the Reconstruction Era and American history in general was truly incredible,” said Edmondson.
Of course, the students also cherished the opportunity to see the author of their U.S. history textbook in person. According to Stafford, “Foner was very insightful and witty. He didn’t miss the mark by any measure.” Indeed, Mr. Foner is very popular in the Choate U.S. history community. Ms. Amy Salot, who taught both Edmondson and Stafford, said, “I have been a big Foner fan for a long time, and I love seeing students who view historians as intellectual rock stars, too.”
Later in the evening, the students returned to Choate with an even greater appreciation for the significance of the Fourteenth Amendment. As Stafford concluded, “The legacy of the Fourteenth Amendment lives on. Our daily lives are completely affected by the way it is interpreted by Supreme Court justices and other judges all the way down.”
