“AN ABOMINABLE CONCLAVE OF NEGRO HATING DEMONS”

Abstract

Chapter 1 charts Turner’s acrimonious “relationship” with the Supreme Court. Starting with the Civil Rights Bill of 1875, the chapter examines how Turner’s support and belief that the Supreme Court could or would do anything to promote fairness and protect the rights of African Americans eroded over time. For Turner, as decision after decision nullified the spirit of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, and moved America from the progress of Reconstruction, Turner’s rhetoric towards the Supreme Court and against the nation grew more bitter and his denouncements became much stronger.