How Equal Protection Did and Did Not Come to the United States, and the Executive Branch Role Therein

Leslie F. Goldstein

What follows is an interbranch comparison of federal policy toward three racial groups in the United States—African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans—during the four decades following the postbellum entrenchment of the right to “equal protection of the laws.” It should be read as an extended, analytic commentary on the Timechart compilation of policy developments in each branch of the federal government during these years, which is appended at the end of this Essay. My analytic focus is on institutional forces that conduced to executive branch intervention on behalf of racial minorities (or not). This will be elaborated in the conclusion.