Reading Material

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Readings for Module 1 include two short-answer questions based on the lessons about Historical Reality and Historical Memory. Students should answer each question in about two paragraphs, using only the information from the assigned readings and videos, without outside sources. Proper formatting is essential: 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. Each paragraph should be at least six sentences long, and responses should be carefully proofread to avoid spelling errors. Plagiarism, including the use of outside sources, will result in a failing grade. Points may be deducted for improper formatting or incomplete responses.

Paper For Above instruction

1) The Supreme Court decisions of 1883 in the Civil Rights Cases and of 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson played pivotal roles in enabling the emergence and entrenchment of the Jim Crow South, which institutionalized racial discrimination and segregation through legal means. The 1883 Civil Rights Cases, which struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, effectively allowed private businesses and individuals to discriminate based on race without federal intervention, undermining efforts to promote racial equality. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine, which provided legal justification for segregated facilities across the South. Justice John Marshall Harlan dissented in both cases, arguing that the majority decisions violated the principles of equality embedded in the Constitution. He believed that the Constitution was color-blind and that the state’s actions should not sanction racial discrimination, anticipating the harms that such rulings would foster.

Harlan’s dissents reveal his firm belief that the majority’s interpretations misinterpreted the fundamental rights protected under the Constitution. In the Civil Rights Cases, Harlan argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was within Congress’s power to enforce equal rights and was essential for protecting African Americans from private acts of discrimination. Regarding Plessy, he contended that the segregation laws sanctioned racial inequality and were inconsistent with the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Harlan warned that legitimizing segregation based on supposed "separate but equal" facilities would undermine civil rights and perpetuate racial injustice. His dissenters saw the majority decisions as a departure from constitutional principles and as enabling institutionalized racism that would persist for decades, shaping the legal landscape of racial discrimination in America.

2) The Lost Cause myth was a narrative that emerged in the South after the Civil War, particularly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, aiming to reshape the historical memory of the Confederacy and the Civil War. As discussed by Professors Revels and Taylor, it portrayed the Confederate cause as noble and just, emphasizing themes of states’ rights and regional honor while minimizing or justifying slavery and racial oppression. This myth served to justify the South’s social and political systems, including segregation and disenfranchisement, by romanticizing the Confederacy and its leaders. The South felt the need to create the Lost Cause because it provided a way to maintain regional identity and white supremacy after their defeat, at a time when their political power was waning and racial tensions were rising. By rewriting history to cast the Confederacy as a noble endeavor, they aimed to legitimize racial hierarchy and foster a sense of pride among white Southerners.

The myth is clearly contradicted by historical evidence, which demonstrates that slavery was a central cause of the Civil War, and that many Confederates fought explicitly to preserve the institution of slavery. Scholars have shown that many of the texts, speeches, and monuments associated with the Lost Cause were constructed decades after the war, using selective memory and distortions to support their narrative. Furthermore, the Confederacy's own documents make it clear that their primary goal was to defend slavery and white dominance. The widespread dissemination of misinformation and the post-war distortions prove that the Lost Cause was indeed a myth, fabricated to serve political and ideological purposes that perpetuated racial injustice and denial of the true causes of the Civil War.

References

• Betcherman, L. (2011). The Civil Rights Cases (1883). In Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties. Oxford University Press.
• Foner, E. (2014). The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution. W.W. Norton & Company.
• Litwack, L. F. (1998). Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow. Vintage Books.
• McPherson, J. M. (1995). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press.
• Revels, R., & Taylor, J. (Year). The Lost Cause Myth and Its Impact on History. Florida Humanities Council Video.
• Sears, J. (2003). The Civil War: A Narrative. Modern Library.
• White, R. (2011). The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. Oxford University Press.
• Woodward, C. V. (2001). The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Oxford University Press.
• Wilson, C. (2005). The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War Memory. University of North Carolina Press.
• Yarbrough, T. (2004). The Civil War as a Theological Crisis. University of Georgia Press.