Their Accomplices Wore Robes: How the Supreme Court Chained Black America to the Bottom of a Racial Caste System

The success and the sustainability of democracy in the United States is based on shared and common goals of all its citizens. One is the balance of power of the three branches of government: the presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court. The other is representation and self-governance through voting. Legal scholar Starkey (In Defense of Uncle Tom) precisely outlines, within the historical context of the United States, how the Supreme Court has repeatedly and specifically denied or significantly delayed full rights of citizenship to Black people, including refusing to acknowledge illegality of the U.S. institution of enslavement. Faced with Constitutional amendments that were designed to protect formerly enslaved Black Americans during Emancipation and Reconstruction, the court has interpreted them in ways that significantly hampered their effectiveness. Starkey asserts that the Supreme Court is a partner in establishing and preserving a racial caste system in the U.S., enshrining white Americans’ power and economic advantages through enslavement and the exploitation of Black labor. He does so with the full backing of his extensive research, whose findings may be shocking and disturbing to some audiences.