The United States has turned a page of history by electing Sen. Barack Obama as our next president. Numerous civil rights leaders have commented they never expected an African-American president in their lifetime. Our country’s legal history explains why.
From colonial times, our country has tolerated racism and slavery. The first Africans were brought to Virginia in 1619, and hereditary slavery was in place by 1662. Slave statutes enacted until 1865 helped institutionalize the legal oppression of African-Americans in this country. Although the terms “slave” and “slavery” do not appear in the constitution, these omissions were, as President John Quincy Adams argued in U.S. v. Amistad Africans , merely “fig-leaves” to conceal their inclusion in our customs and our laws.
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