"San Francisco — ASK people to identify a few landmark Supreme Court decisions on race, and they are likely to point to classics like Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation in schools, or Loving v. Virginia, which prohibited restrictions on interracial marriages. But 40 years ago Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided a pivotal case on race and equality whose legacy has profoundly shaped American race relations. And most people have never heard of it.
The case, Washington v. Davis, involved the constitutionality of Test 21, developed by the federal government and used by the District of Columbia police force to assess people looking to become police officers. From 1968 to 1971, 57 percent of black applicants failed Test 21 compared with 13 percent of whites, leading two black would-be officers to file suit. The issue was whether a “race neutral” test that led to vastly different racial outcomes violated the Equal Protection Clause."
No comments:
Post a Comment