Federal executive and judicial branches fanned post-emancipation racism nationwide

Evidence

Their story begins with the optimism that the Thirteenth Amendment produced because it was designed to provide fertile soil for black success and landownership. That, however, was followed by an immediate white supremacist backlash from the executive branch, which was later fueled by an all-white, all-male Supreme Court (whose justices included former enslavers). Together, the executive and judicial branches encouraged the spread of antiblack racism throughout the country. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 248

Categorization

• XREF: Establishes that harm came from the federal government itself, not just private actors — crucial for building a state-action case foundational to a reparations legal argument.