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43 U. Det. L.J. 255 (1965-1966)
Race Relations and the Warren Court

handle is hein.journals/udetmr43 and id is 257 raw text is: Race Relations and the Warren Court HAROLD J. SPAETH* U NTIL the onset of reapportionment as a constitutional issue, race relations appeared to be the area for which posterity would best remember the Warren Court. Since Baker v. Carr' and its progeny,2 one cannot be so sure. This is not to suggest that the Warren Court's decision making in the reaim of race relations pales by comparison with that of reapportionment. But rather, that in both areas the Warren Court's decisions are producing momentous changes in the character of American society and politics. The landmark character of the School Desegregation Cases3 has, in this author's opinion, caused Warren Court decisions in the non-educational aspects of race relations to be over- looked to some extent. The latter, however, are also worthy of atten- tion. Accordingly, this paper shall focus first upon the Warren Court's education decisions, then upon those dealing with the non-educational aspects of race relations, and lastly it shall undertake an empirically based analysis of all the Warren Court's formally decided race relations decisions, directed at ascertaining the variable motivating the Court's decision making and specifying the response of each of the justices to this motivating variable. I Beginning shortly before World War II, the Supreme Court began to qualify and narrow the scope4 of the separate but equal doctrine which had governed race relations since the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.1 This limitation of the separate but equal doctrine was a limitation only in the sense that prior to Gaines the doctrine had been applied by the Court to require only the separation of educational facilities. No inquiry into the equality of the Negro facilities with those 0 A.B., 1952; M.A., 1953, Xavier University; Ph.D., 1956, University of Cincinnati; Associate Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University. Parts I and II of this article are a revision of Chapter 4 of the author's forthcoming book, The Warren Court: Cases and Commentary. Part III is a preliminary presentation of research being undertaken with the support of the MSU All-University Research Fund. In connection with Part III, I wish to acknowledge the assistance rendered by my col- league, David J. Peterson, whose competence in matters methodological has been of great benefit. 1. 369 U.S. 186 (1962). 2. Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368 (1963); Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964); Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964); Lucas v. Forty-Fourth Gen. Assembly of Colo., 377 U.S. 713 (1964). 3. Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954), and Brown v. Board of Educ., 349 U.S. 294 (1955). 4. Missouri ex reL. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337 (1938). 5. 163 U.S. 537 (1896.

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