"The Dred Scott Case: Slavery, Succession and Its Aftermath."
On March 6, 1857, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black people--whether enslaved or free--were neither citizens of the United States nor could sue in Federal Courts.
It also held that the Missouri Compromise (1820) was unconstitutional and that Congress lacked authority to prohibit slavery in the territories.
In recognition of Black History Month, Christopher A. Bracey, Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School, provides a presentation on this landmark decision at the District's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
Christopher A. Bracey is a recognized expert in the fields of U.S. race relations, individual rights and criminal procedure. At the GWU law school, he teaches courses that focus on U.S. legal history, U.S. race relations, constitutional law, civil rights, criminal procedure and other areas.
Professor Bracey earned his B.S. degree from the University of North Carolina and his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School. Among his achievements at Harvard, he served as general editor on the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and editor on the HarvardBlackletter Law Journal.
After Professor Bracey graduated from Harvard, he clerked for the Honorable Royce C. Lambert (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) and later worked at the DC law firm, Jenner & Block, where he litigated both civil and criminal matters. Before joining the law faculty at GWU, he taught at Northwestern University School of Law (Chicago) and Washington University School of Law (St. Louis, MO).