In its first 130 years, the Supreme Court issued comparatively few decisions addressing civil rights and liberties of individuals. After World War II, when the United States emerged as a global leader defending democratic values and personal freedoms, the Supreme Court began to change course as well.

For many Americans, the reasons for fighting in World War II were substantial --- to protect the right to self-determination, to guarantee freedom from fascism and authoritarian terror, to guard freedom of religion and the inherent rights of all people to be treated equally. As illustrated in the film segment, then Vice President Henry Wallace said, “This is a fight between a free world and a slave world.”

With some clear exceptions, the world did become more democratic after World War II. Between 1945 and 1965, territories under the control of the United States, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom were either granted or fought and won independence from their former colonial powers. People in those former colonies (mostly in Asia and Africa) achieved independence and the right to self-determination and to exercise their political freedoms.

Back at home in the U.S. democracy moved slowly. After the war, many Americans felt betrayed for having fought “over there” for freedoms they lacked here at home. There are many principles that define democracy. Certainly one important characteristic of a democracy is “free and fair elections” yet Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, gerrymandered legislative districts, and voter intimidation interfered with many poor and African American peoples’ right to vote and their political participation. It took nearly twenty years for the Court to strike down literacy tests and poll taxes in state and federal elections and for Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which outlawed many of the discriminatory practices that had been responsible for disenfranchising so many African Americans.

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