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Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor, and the Law Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 4-2011 Undoing Plessy: Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor, and the Law Gordon Andrews Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Andrews, Gordon, "Undoing Plessy: Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor, and the Law" (2011). Dissertations. 321. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/321 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNDOING PLESSY: CHARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON, RACE, LABOR, AND THE LAW by Gordon Andrews A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History Advisor: Nora Faires, Ph.D. Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan April 2011 UNDOING PLESSY: CHARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON, RACE, LABOR, AND THE LAW Gordon Andrews, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2011 Undoing Piessy: Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor, and the Law, 1895- 1950, explores the manner in which African Americans countered racialized impediments during the first half of the twentieth century by attacking their legal underpinnings. Specifically, this work explores the professional life of Charles Hamilton Houston, and the degree to which it informs our understanding of change in the pre-Brown era. There were a wide range of forces at work, from individuals, organizations, and institutions, to government in its various forms (local, state, and federal), complicating any strategy to reformulate the parameters of equality. Using both labor and education law as the focus of this study, I examine the complicating issues of race, the state, and the workplace to demonstrate the interplay of forces which together constituted the structure Charles Houston and others sought to dismantle. Houston's life was replete with examples to illustrate the gains that could be made by an African American who sought to exercise his own agency, and contest the imposed boundaries that limited potential. The dissertation is divided into three parts, Establishing Plessy, Confronting Plessy, and Undoing Plessy, providing the legal and historical context to Houston's life. I argue that major inroads into the dismantling of Plessy were made after the incorporation doctrine was implemented through the Supreme Court's 1925 decision in Gitlow v. New York. The Gitlow decision rejuvenated the 14 Amendment's original intent, rescuing it from the reactionary and corporatist interpretations that relegated African Americans and labor to the predations of individual, local, state, and federal caprice. Early in his career with Gitlow providing the nexus of race, labor, and the state, Houston developed a three-pronged approach, taking advantage of the courts, the workplace, and politics, as a strategy to broaden the attack. By rejecting the purely legalistic approach regularly attributed to Houston, I assert that Houston's successes were linked to his understanding of the nature of race, labor, and the law in America. Copyright by Gordon Andrews 2011 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS No work at this level occurs without the generous help of others, and I would like to acknowledge and thank those who helped to make this dissertation a successful undertaking. The support of Western Michigan University's History department has been invaluable over the years providing encouragement and financial opportunities to help defray the many costs of graduate work. By providing teaching opportunities I was able to gain much needed experience at the collegiate level, and the department's sponsorship of a grant for those in the secondary teaching profession was particularly helpful. I would also like to thank the members of my committee for working with me over the years, providing insights and thoughtful criticisms that helped to shepherd this work to a fruitful end. Dr. Ed Martini and Dr. Kevin Corder were instrumental from the outset providing constructive criticisms that invariably sharpened the focus of the work. Dr. Wilson Warren has been a mentor, colleague, and friend closely reading the manuscript and providing helpful direction that added substantially to the works coherence. Dr. Nora Faires was a consummate professional who ushered me through this process with grace, patience, and wit as she confronted the unimaginable. And finally, Mindy Donovan Andrews used her exceptional editorial expertise to hone the narrative elegantly. Any shortcomings this work suffers are of course, my own. Gordon Andrews 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE EMERGENCE OF PLESSY 14 Nineteenth-Century Louisiana 18 The Courts Prior to Plessy 24 Political and Social Conditions 28 The Courts 32 A New World 33 Intellectual Reaction in the 1890's 37 III. PLESSY AND ITS AFTERMATH 52 Homestead 1892 59 Coxey's Army 64 Confronting Jim Crow 69 Politics Race and War 77 War 83 The Houston Family 89 IV. SAVING THE WORLD FOR DEMOCRACY 93 The Approach of War 96 CHAPTER Work or Fight 97 iii Table of Contents—continued The Road to Camp 102 Life in Camp 105 Riots in Camp 107 Camp Meade Maryland 114 Army Justice 118 EXPORTING RACE: WORLD WAR ONE AND SEGREGATION 123 The Military's Exportation of Race 132 A Near Escape 140 Heading Home 146 INCORPORATING RIGHTS: THE NEXUS OF RACE, LABOR, AND THE STATE 156 Devolution and Evolution of the War Time Amendments 161 The Nexus of Race, Labor, and the State 171 Reanimating the 14th Amendment 176 Houston, Labor, and the Law 185 "The Need For Negro Lawyers" 189 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SCOTTSBORO 193 Scottsboro and Labor 197 Scottsboro, Communism, and the NAACP 206 The Call of the NAACP 217 iv Table of Contents—continued CHAPTER The "Second Scottsboro Case" 224 In Court 228 VIII. RACE, PRESIDENTIAL POWER, AND AGENCY 232 Facing Congress on Race and Labor 237 Costigan-Wagner Act 246 The AFL, CIO, and Race 249 Houston, the NAACP, and Labor 255 The Education Cases 260 Missouri ex.rel. Gaines v. Canada 264 IX. UNDOING PLESSY 275 As War Came 279 Fair Employment 286 Foul Employment 294 Postwar and Reconversion 307 X. CONCLUSION 320 BIBLIOGRAPHY 329 v 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION "Undoing Plessy: Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, and the Law" explores the manner in which African-Americans countered racialized impediments during the first half of the twentieth century by attacking their legal underpinnings. Specifically, this work explores the professional life of Charles Hamilton Houston, and how it informs our understanding of change in the pre-Brown era. There were a broad range of forces at work, from individuals, organizations, and institutions, to government in its various forms (local, state, and federal), complicating any strategy to reformulate the parameters of equality. Using politics, labor, and law as the focus of this study, the complicating issues of race, the state, and the workplace will demonstrate the interplay of forces which together constituted the structure Charles Houston and others sought to dismantle. Houston's life offers many examples illustrating the gains made by African Americans who sought to exercise their own collective agency, contesting the imposed boundaries that limited their lives. The second purpose of this work is to explain a paradox associated with Houston's life. That is, given his historic successes in effecting change in the pre-Brown era, why does he remain a relative unknown to the public? 2 Born in 1895 in Washington D.C., Charles Hamilton Houston died in 1950 and is probably best remembered as the civil rights attorney who laid the groundwork for the Brown v. Board decision of 1954. His life was dedicated to the emancipation of oppressed people, thus he was inspired early on to choose the law as a tool to become, in his words, a "social engineer." Throughout a career that spanned more than a quarter century, he earned a Supreme Court record of 10-1. Between 1925 and 1950 Houston served as Vice Dean of the Howard Law School, collaborated with attorneys in the Scottsboro case, headed the legal wing of the NAACP, and represented African American railroaders in an effort to integrate white unions. Notably, as special counsel to the NAACP, he taught and hired Thurgood Marshall, and was special council to, and later a member of, the Fair Employment Practices Commission, while simultaneously working tirelessly in private practice to improve the lives of African Americans. Houston's life provides a unique lens through which one may more accurately view the threads of race, labor and the law as they are woven throughout American society. Houston understood the difficulties facing black workers in America, and by marshalling his considerable skills as an attorney and leader, was able to construct a strategy that fought for full integration by changing the laws of the United States at the highest level. This study will also argue that major inroads into the dismantling of Plessy were made after the incorporation doctrine was implemented through the Supreme Court's 1925 decision in Gitlow v. New York. The Gitlow decision rejuvenated the 14th Amendment's original intent, rescuing it from the reactionary and corporatist 3 interpretation that relegated African Americans and labor to the predations of individual, local, state, and federal caprice. Charles Houston's legal career, spanning the first quarter century following incorporation, provides tremendous insights into the nexus of race, labor, and the state, resulting in the expansion of civil rights. By examining Houston's life in this context we can best understand the impact of his pragmatic approach to undoing Plessy. With unparalleled success, Houston developed a three-pronged strategy between 1925-1950 that focused on the courts, the workplace, and politics, securing the expansion of labor rights and civil rights for African Americans.
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