Question

In 1954, the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The decision stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” and began the process of national integration of public schools. In response, southern legislators in Congress signed a statement of opposition to the court’s decision. Read the declaration of resistance to Brown v. Board of Education, which has been called the Southern Manifesto. Then write a brief essay of one to two pages examining the following question: Why did the authors of the Southern Manifesto claim that Chief Justice Earl Warren’s decision was a threat to the US constitutional order? Consider what type of arguments they make. Can you link their argument to any other situations in US history?

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren issued the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, ruling that racial segregation in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. As a result, students of color in the United States would no longer be required by law to attend previously under-resourced Black-only schools. The ruling was a pivotal event in the civil-rights movement in the United States. Changing, hearts and two centuries of entrenched racism would require much more than a degree from the nation's highest court. Brown was met with apathy at first, as well as strong resistance in most southern states.

Monroe Elementary, her all-Black school, was fortunate, and unusual, in having well-kept facilities, well-trained instructors, and sufficient supplies. However, the Brown case's other four lawsuits indicated more widespread issues. The school facilities in Clarendon, South Carolina, were described as decaying wooden shacks in the trial. Crowding forced students to learn on an old school bus and shacks. In Prince Edward County, Virginia, where the high school lacked a cafeteria, gym, nurse's office, or teachers' bathrooms.

The Supreme Court's decision brought public attention to the captivity of African-Americans for the first time since the Reconstruction Era. What's the result? The emergence of a new civil rights movement that will use boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rides, and voter-registration drives to persistently oppose segregation and seek legal equality for Black families. The Brown decision spurred Southern blacks to challenge restrictive and punishing Jim Crow laws, but it also mobilized Southern whites in support of segregation, resulting in the notorious 1957 standoff at a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. By the mid-1960s, violence against civil-rights activists had intensified, upsetting many in the North and overseas, and assisting in the passage of key civil-rights and voting-rights laws. Finally, in 1964, two parts of the Civil Rights Act provided the federal government for the first time the ability to compel school desegregation: the Justice Department could sue schools that refused to integrate, and the government could withhold money from segregated schools. Within five years of the act's implementation, over a third of Black students in the South were enrolled in integrated schools, and by 1973, that number had risen to nearly 90%.