United States v. Cruikshank

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: In what way did the Court’s decision in this case represent a retreat from Reconstruction and the protection of African Americans afforded by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution?
• 2.: An ongoing source of dispute in the United States concerns the respective powers of the federal government and those of the states. How did United States v. Cruikshank reflect this struggle?
• 3.: What events led to the Colfax massacre of 1873? Why did the Supreme Court become involved in what could have been regarded as a Louisiana matter?
• 4.: What political consequences did the Court’s decision in this case have? How might the history of Reconstruction and the post–Civil War South have been different if the Court had reached a different decision?
• 5.: What could the U.S. government have done differently in enforcing the civil rights of African Americans in the post–Civil War South? If you had been president during the 1870s, what would you have done?