In honor of Black History Month, we are taking a look at how African Americans have historically used the court system in pursuit of equal rights. These cases span the history of the United States, beginning well before the Civil Rights Era of the mid-twentieth century. The National Archives Catalog includes cases that famously went to the Supreme Court, such as Scott v. Sandford in 1857, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, and Brown v. Board of Educationin 1954. These landmark cases and other less well-known cases illustrate how the judiciary has long been a central battleground in the fight for civil rights.
There are many other civil rights-related cases within the United States District and Circuit Courts that are held by the National Archives Field Facilities. They may not all have the same fame (or infamy) as some of the more frequently cited cases, but these examples from the National Archives at Chicago highlight how Black activists have used the court systems to fight against racist laws and policies in the United States. There is often a throughline between these court records, which exemplifies how progress is not always linear. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” These cases can also show how the well-studied cases fit into a larger picture of that arc.
(Left) Henrietta Wood vs. Zeb Ward, Declaration, National Archives Identifier 148721411
(Right) Henrietta Wood vs. Zeb Ward, Verdict, National Archives Identifier 148721426
The 1857 Dred Scott Decision from the Supreme Court declared that people of African descent were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. Not quite 15 years later, in 1871, a formerly enslaved woman named Henrietta Wood filed a civil lawsuit for reparations and won. Wood was living as a free woman in Cincinnati in 1853 when Zeb Ward, in collusion with Wood’s former enslavers, kidnapped her and brought her to Kentucky. As the case states, “the plaintiff has been deprived of her time and the value of her labor for the space of Fifteen years and compelled to work for the said defendant…that she has been reduced to slavery and treated as a slave all that time and subjected to great hardships, abuse and oppression, and by reason of said wrongful removal to the state of Mississippi and Texas, and her said duress and imprisonment there, she was prevented from returning to her home in Cincinnati until the month of April in the year eighteen Hundred and Sixty-seven.” It was a lengthy case, but in April 1878 the jury rendered a verdict in favor of Wood and awarded her $2500 in damages. See the complete case in the Catalog: Henrietta Wood vs. Zeb Ward. Read more about Dred Scott v. Sandford inDocsTeach.
Eva V. Gazaway by John W. Gazaway, her next friend vs. William J. White, page 46, National Archives Identifier 312294066
In 1881, seventy-seven years before Oliver Brown sued the Board of Education in Topeka, a father in Springfield, Ohio attempted to use the court to force the integration of Springfield public schools. John W. Gazaway, who was a Reverend in Springfield, sued Superintendent William White on behalf of his eight year old daughter Eva for her to be allowed to attend the all white Shaffer Street public school, which was much closer to where they lived than any of the schools designated for Black children. As in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the Gazaway’s suit was a deliberate effort by activists to end segregation. In November 1882 a jury ruled in favor of the Superintendent, and Springfield schools remained segregated. See the case from the US Circuit Court in Cincinnati hereEva V. Gazaway by John W. Gazaway, her next friend vs. William J. White.
Exhibit, Racial Characteristics of Public Elementary Schools, National Archives Identifier 12008848
These are just a few of the cases that have been featured. Many more civil rights cases exist in the National Archives Catalog from our facilities across the country, and there are even more to be found that have not yet been identified or digitized. If you are interested in this topic, you can search the Catalog or reach out to our reference staff by using the Contact Us form. Select Research and then Court Cases
The National Archives does not have a nationwide master list of case files by name, type, or content. Records are arranged sequentially by case file number--not by the type of civil suit.
Depending on the type of federal court and the date of the case, there may be indexes and dockets available to assist in locating a particular court case file. Search for digitized case files in the National Archives Catalog by entering the case’s party name(s) and/or name variations.
If the search is unsuccessful, determine where the case would have been filed (e.g., “U.S. District Court for the Central Division of California” or “U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit”). Using the court location, contact the facility noted in the guide where the records are located for further assistance.
While their pension files may not mention race, through extensive research the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) have identified many African American Revolutionary War Veterans. Help us transcribe the pension files of these patriots.
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