Public-School Desegregation
After the abolition of slavery in the United States, three Constitutional amendments were passed to grant newly freed African Americans legal status: the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth provided citizenship, and the Fifteenth guaranteed the right to vote. In spite of these amendments and civil rights acts to enforce the amendments, between 1873 and 1883 the Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions that virtually nullified the work of Congress during Reconstruction. Regarded by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern states. In 1896 the Supreme Court sanctioned legal separation of the races by its ruling in H.A. Plessy v. J.H. Ferguson, which held that separate but equal facilities did not violate the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment.
Beginning in 1909, a small group of activists organized and founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They waged a long struggle to eliminate racial discrimination and segregation from American life. By the middle of the twentieth century their focus was on legal challenges to public-school segregation.
In June 1950, Thurgood Marshall convened a conference of the NAACP's board of directors and affiliated attorneys to determine the next step in the legal campaign. After several days of debate, Marshall decided to shift the focus from the inequality of separate black schools to a full assault on segregation. The NAACP immediately instituted lawsuits concerning segregated public schools in Southern and border states. Brown v. Board of Education was filed in the U.S. District Court in Topeka, Kansas, in February 1951.
On June 25, 1951, Robert Carter and Jack Greenberg argued the Brown case before a three judge panel in district court in Kansas. They were assisted by local NAACP attorneys Charles Bledsoe and brothers John and Charles Scott. As in Briggs, the testimony of social scientists was central to the case. The Court found "no willful, intentional or substantial discrimination" in Topeka's schools. However, presiding Judge Walter A. Huxman appended nine "Findings of Fact" to the opinion. Fact VIII endorsed the psychological premise that segregation had a detrimental effect on black children.
The Supreme Court did not render a judgement after the initial oral arguments in Brown v. Board. Instead, the Court submitted a list of five questions for counsel to discuss at a rehearing that convened on December 7, 1953. The questions pertained to the history of the Fourteenth Amendment and the relation between the views of the Amendment framers' intent to "abolish segregation in public schools." The questions also addressed what remedies to be used in the event the Court ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, declaring that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This decision was pivotal to the struggle for racial desegregation in the United States. Chief Justice Warren read the Court's opinion from the bench: "We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment."
After the Brown opinion was announced, the Court heard additional arguments during the following term on the decree for implementing the ruling. In a draft, prepared by Felix Frankfurter, which Warren subsequently adopted, Frankfurter inserted "with all deliberate speed" in place of "forthwith," which Thurgood Marshall had suggested to achieve an accelerated desegregation timetable. Frankfurter wanted to anchor the decree in an established doctrine, and his endorsement of it sought to advance a consensus held by the entire court.
At the time of the May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education,decision seventeen states and the District of Columbia had laws enforcing school segregation. By 1958, only seven states--Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana --maintained public school segregation.
George Wallace lost the 1958 gubernatorial election to John Patterson. Although both campaigned as segregationists, Patterson, as attorney general, had established a stronger record as a defender of racial discrimination, and Wallace placed less emphasis on segregation in his speeches and advertisements. Though Wallace supported segregation, he remained moderate enough to win NAACP support. Wallace spoke against the Ku Klux Klan and tried to continue with the principles of Jim Folsom: championing the poor, the underdog. After his loss Wallace vowed never to be outdone as an advocate and defender of segregation.
Dan Carter, his biographer, says that Wallace said: "You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about niggers, and they stomped the floor." Seymore Trammell, Wallace's former finance director, recalled a talk with Wallace after the defeat: "He said, 'Seymore, do you know why I lost that governor's race?' I said, 'I'm not sure, Judge. What do you think?' He said, 'Seymore, I was out-niggered by John Patterson. And I'll tell you here and now, I will never be out-niggered again.'"
Wallace fulfilled his vow in the 1962 election campaign and won primarily on that basis. In his inauguration speech he promised to maintain "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." This often-quoted battle cry served as a summary of the next decade of his career. Wallace opposed every attempt by the federal government to end segregation especially in schools, and he fought the federal government's attempts to end voting discrimination.
As governor Wallace supported the notorious racist Bull Connor in his campaign to become Birmingham's mayor, attempted to bar the enrollment of two black students at the University of Alabama, and sent over one hundred state troopers to stop the federal court-ordered integration of public schools in Macon County, Birmingham, Mobile, and elsewhere. He supported the closing of public schools in order to prevent integration and the use of public monies to assist all-white private schools created mainly to avoid integration.
In the wake of national repulsion over violent encounters between police and civil rights marchers in Birmingham, Alabama, the Kennedy administration proposed far-reaching civil rights legislation that President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through Congress following President Kennedy's 1963 assassination. Enacted under congressional authority to regulate interstate commerce and enforce the provisions of the 14th Amendment, the 1964 Civil Rights Act forbade racial and related forms of discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and federally funded programs. Application of the last provision did more than any court order to hasten the desegregation of public schools.
Whether it was his conscience or political expediency that sparked him to ask for forgiveness will never be known. But when Wallace reentered politics for the 1982 governor's race, he sought and won the vote of black constituents, and he worked with black leaders once elected.
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