9.4: Southern Manifesto (1956)

Following Brown v. Board of Education, white southern Democratic senators began a legal and political campaign to sght the Court’s desegregation order. This resulted in the Southern Manifesto, published in 1956. It essentially argued that the Brown ruling violated southern states’ rights to conduct their societies as they saw st. The document helped establish the ideological foundation for sghting desegregation. It moved away from traditional arguments of “black inferiority” or southern fears of “miscegenation” and instead made more historical and constitutional arguments against desegregation. The document promoted the idea that southern states had a right and responsibility to shield their populations from “damaging” policies (e.g. desegregation) promoted by the federal government.