The Southern Manifesto was a document signed by the leaders of the southern states rejecting the Supreme Court ruling that all school segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine was unconstitutional.
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in the Brown v. Board of EducaTION case. The Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for schools to be segregated and ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine laid down in the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling of 1896 was unconstitutional. Southern whites were furious at the decision and called May 17 “Black Monday.” Many of the southern senators and representatives in Congress were outraged by this decision as well, and they were determined to resist it.
On May 12, 1956, 101 members of Congress, all from southern states, affirmed their opposition to the Brown decision in what they called the “Southern Manifesto.” Signers of the manifesto declared that it was their intention to use “all lawful means to maintain segregation.” Many state and local government officials in the South also supported the document. Those signing the manifesto agreed not to desegregate unless forced to by law. These southerners felt that the Supreme Court ruling constituted an attack on states’ rights. They felt, too, that the Supreme Court was attempting to use its power to legislate, not interpret the law.
The support that the manifesto gained in the South gave it some respectability in the rest of the country. Many southerners rallied around the manifesto and formed such groups as the National Association for the Advancement of White People and White Citizens’ Councils. There was a resurgence in the popularity of the Ku Kiux Klan, an organization that terrorized blacks and sought to prevent them from exercising their court-ordered rights. Many of these new groups used scare tactics in order to keep the supporters of desegregation quiet. Throughout the South there was a dramatic increase in bombings, lynchings, and murders.
By 1957, the manifesto had reached the national spotlight when Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, refused to comply with a court ruling to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock. The governor, along with the Arkansas National Guard and several white protesters who had gathered at the scene, blocked the entrance of the school. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to dispatch federal troops to Little Rock so that nine black students could enter the school for classes.
Throughout the South, the Southern Manifesto encouraged efforts to stop or slow desegregation. In some communities, the public schools were shut down completely. In other places, leaders instituted student placement laws, in which local officials used nonracial criteria to delegate which schools certain students should attend. The federal courts constantly struck down these plans to keep segregation alive in the South.
The manifesto echoed once more in 1963, when Alabama governor George C. Wallace promised in his inaugural speech, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.” That same year, Wallace delivered on his promise when he blocked the entrance of the University of Alabama to stop two African American students who were trying to register. President John F. Kennedy subsequently sent in the Alabama National Guard to allow the two black students access to the school.
The Southern Manifesto encouraged violence and social discord in direct contempt of the Brown ruling. The chaos eventually gained the attention of government leaders in Washington, D. C. Finally, Republicans and progressive Democrats joined together and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These measures, along with strict federal enforcement of the laws, quickly put an end to the demands of the Southern Manifesto and the resistance against desegregation by the South.
Further reading: Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954-1992 (New York: Hill & Wang, 1993).
—Matthew Escovar
World History
