President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, as Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, look on. Photo from Cecil Stoughton / White House via Wikipedia
Indian Country should pay attention to the leaders driving the colonial bus, observes Steve Russell, a member of the Cherokee Nation:
Those of us who have experienced the knifeless brain surgery that is law school are constantly reminded that U.S. and Canadian law and politics owe a great deal to the English Common Law. In most of the United States, English Common Law is still controlling authority in any matter that has not been legislated. Of course, racism can subvert even something as fundamental as U.S. debt to the Common Law, as we saw in the grossly misleading public debate over the public accommodations provision in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a debate that resulted in signs going up all over the former Confederate states claiming, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” This was the sanctity of private property argument against the Civil Rights Act, the reason Barry Goldwater and many others gave for opposing the entire bill. The argument goes that it’s your private property and the government has no writ to tell you who you do or do not invite there to do business. The problem with the argument is that the Civil Rights Act only restated the Common Law, which said that when you hold yourself out as serving the public, you must serve all of the public, subject to exceptions such as dress codes or drunkenness or other obnoxious behavior.Get the Story:
Steve Russell: The View From the Back of the Colonial Bus (Indian Country Today 10/9)
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