On Sept. 22, 1862 — 164 years ago today — President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that enslaved people in states still in rebellion would be “then, thenceforward, and forever free” as of Jan. 1, 1863.
The proclamation marked a profound turning point in American law and history. But emancipation also raised an enormous practical question: What would freedom mean within the legal system?
One part of that story unfolded in the Reconstruction-era courts of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Created in the aftermath of the Civil War, these courts offered newly freed people a forum in which to seek justice at a time when existing state courts often failed to protect their rights.
In a 2017 Judicature article, “A Brief Moment in the Sun,” Zachary Newkirk examines the history of these courts and their brief but consequential role in the development of postwar justice.
The story is a reminder that declarations of rights and freedom are only part of the work of the rule of law. Those principles also depend on institutions capable of making them meaningful in practice.
