Southern Manifesto

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In 1954, The Supreme Court ruled “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” and put an end to racial segregation in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Thus revolutionizing the nation’s education system by overruling the concept of “separate but equal,” which had been in place for nearly a century. Southern legislators in congress disagreed with The Supreme Court and united to construct the Southern Manifesto in opposition. The authors of the Southern Manifesto use previous supreme court rulings to argue that the desegregation of schools is unconstitutional and infringes upon the rights of State Government.
The Southern Manifesto pulls from past Supreme Court rulings to negate the present outcome of Brown v. Board of education. …show more content…
The manifesto also declares that since 1849 segregation has not been considered unconstitutional according to The Supreme Court; “the doctrine of separate but equal schools ‘apparently originated in Roberts v. City of Boston (1849), upholding school segregation against attack as being violative of a State constitutional guarantee of equality.’” Roberts v. City of Boston was a case where a father wanted to enroll his five year old daughter in the nearby white school to prevent the psychological trauma the young girl would …show more content…
They claim that checks and balances were meant to prevent such power from being in the hands of the few; “The Founding Fathers gave us a Constitution of checks and balances because they realized the inescapable lesson of history that no man or group of men can be safely entrusted with unlimited power.” This argument ignores the fact that The Supreme Court is a part of that very system of checks and balances. It serves as a check on acts passed by congress ensure that the laws that are in place abide by The Constitution. Also, the Southern Manifesto rejects the court’s ruling on the basis of there being a lack of consent of the governed; “Without regard to the consent of the governed, outside mediators are threatening immediate and revolutionary changes in our public schools systems.” However, the Supreme Court Justices are elected by the president and confirmed by The Senate. Justices are put into positions of office by officials the people have appointed for government. Therefore, the people consent to be governed by the officials they elect. Lastly, the authors of the manifesto decry the end to segregation as unconstitutional and decide not to abide by it; “We pledge ourselves to use all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation.”
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