Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-14T10:32:50.993Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Enforcing Desegregation: A Case Study of Federal District Court Power and Social Change in Macon County Alabama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Brian K. Landsberg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This case study of Lee v. Macon County Board of Education demonstrates that a federal district court in Alabama, enforcing Brown v. Board of Education, brought about significant social change despite constraints on the courts. The court's application of Brown played a decisive role in ending the racial caste system in this Alabama Black Belt county. The court, by adding the U.S. Department of Justice as a party, overcame constraints that had precluded the executive branch from pursuing school desegregation. Change came through the courts before Congress legislated against school segregation. Seekers of social change must evaluate the constraints on the courts relative to the constraints on the other branches and levels of government.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 867 - 891
Copyright
© 2014 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article grows out of a larger project. Thanks to Anne Bloom and participants in a Pacific McGeorge Works in Progress program. Thanks to Steve Pollak and Dorothy Landsberg for comments on early drafts, and to Stephen L. Wasby for his ongoing advice both on this article and on the larger project. The editors and reviewers for Law and Society Review contributed valuable suggestions. I benefited also from feedback on a related article at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting in 2013, especially from Ira Strauber and Thomas Keck. Thanks to archivists at Tuskegee Institute, Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration College Park, Kennedy Presidential Library, and Alabama State Archives. A number of research assistants have helped on this project: Jocelyn Blinn, Keith Banks, Michael Heumann, Jacqueline Hassell, and Abby Maurer. Robert Mayville provided helpful research assistance on this article. Finally, Joseph M. Bagley generously shared with me his extensive research on Lee v. Macon County Board of Education.

References

References

Bagley, Joseph M. (2012) “Interview of Willie Wyatt at Stone Mountain,” Georgia, 4 Jan.Google Scholar
Bagley, Joseph M. (2014) “School Desegregation, Law and Order, and Litigating Social Justice in Alabama, 1954–1973” Approved, unpublished PhD dissertation, Georgia State University.Google Scholar
Barrett, St. John (1964) Memo to Burke Marshall, Feb. 17. DOJ File 144-100-2- 1, National Archives and Records Administration [NARA], College Park, MD, Box 1, Section 1.Google Scholar
Bass, Jack (1993) Taming the Storm. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Brownell, Herbert (1956) Letter to Chairman and Members of the Anderson County Board of Education, Clinton, Tennessee sent December 4.Google Scholar
Brown-Nagin, Tomiko (2011) Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buford, K.L. (1959) Letter to William Rogers, Jan. 6. Tuskegee Institute Archives, Tuskegee Civic Association Files, Box 14, Folder 12.Google Scholar
Carr, Robert K (1947) Federal Protection of Civil Rights: Quest for a Sword. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Cash, W. J. (1941) The Mind of the South. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Cobb, Dan (1951) “Macon Negroes Demand Equal School Rights,” Birmingham News, 10 Feb.Google Scholar
Cummings, Scott L. (2013) “Empirical Studies of Law and Social Change: What is the Field? What are the Questions?” Wisconsin Law Rev. 171–204.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. (1957) “Decision-Making in a Democracy: The Supreme Court as a National Policy-Maker,” 6 J. of Public Law 279–95.Google Scholar
Doar, John (1963) Memo to Marshall: “Report on Status of School Desegregation—Macon County, Alabama,” sent 26 Aug. JFK Papers, Burke Marshall Collection, Box 21.Google Scholar
Doar, John (2013) “A Guided Conversation with John Doar by Owen Fiss,” in Voices of the Civil Rights Division: Then and Now (October 28, 2011), Landsberg, Brian K. ed., 44 McGeorge Law Rev. 269, 293–307.Google Scholar
Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1957) Letter to Governor Byrnes. Vol. 12, #86 Eisenhower Presidential Library, Official Files Collection, Box 430, File 102-B-3[5][3]. Reproduced in Belknap, Michal R. (ed.) (1991) Civil Rights, the White House, and the Justice Department, 1945–1968, vol. 12. New York: Garland Publishing at 286–288.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, Knight, Jack, & Martin, Andrew D. (2001) “The Supreme Court as a Strategic National Policymaker,” 50 Emory Law J. 583–611.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, & Walker, Thomas G. (2007) Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Institutional Powers and Constraints, 6th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Eskridge, William N. (1991) “Reneging on History? Playing the Court/Congress/President Civil Rights Game,” 79 California Law Rev. 613–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eyes on the Prize (1985) Interview with John Doar, 15 Nov. Available at http://digital.wustl.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eop;cc=eop;rgn=main;view=text;idno=doa0015.0543.028 (accessed 18 Sep. 2014).Google Scholar
Flowers, Richmond M. (1964) Motion as Attorney General of the State of Alabama, Served 18 Feb. DOJ File 144-100-2-1, National Archives and Records Administration [NARA], College Park, MD, Box 1, Section 1.Google Scholar
Golden, Harry (1959) For 2¢ Plain. Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Gomillion, Charles G. (1959) Letter from C.G. Gomillion to The Southerner, 7 Mar.Google Scholar
Gray, Fred (1995) Bus Ride to Justice. Montgomery, AL: New South Books.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Jack (1994) Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Guzman, Jessie P. (1984) Crusade for Civic Democracy. New York: Vantage Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Matthew E. (2011) The Nature of Supreme Court Power. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Alexander (1788) “The Federalist No. 78.” Reproduced in The Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter. New York: New American Library (1961). Also available at http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa78.htm.Google Scholar
Harris, Mac (1963) “Integration Shift Wins Macon Okay,” Montgomery Advertiser, 30 Aug.Google Scholar
Harvey, Anna, & Friedman, Barry (2009) “Ducking Trouble: Congressionally Induced Selection Bias in the Supreme Court's Agenda,” 71 J. of Politics 574–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, Gene L. (2008) Patterson for Alabama: The Life and Career of John Patterson. Tuscaloosa, AL: Univ. of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Charles S. (1934) Shadow of the Plantation. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
King, Martin Luther Jr (1963) “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in King, , Martin Luther, Jr., Why We Can't Wait. New York: Harper & Row (1964).Google Scholar
Klarman, Michael J. (2004) From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kluger, Richard (1975) Simple Justice: The History of Brown V. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality. New York: Knopf. Revised and expanded ed. 2008. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Legislative Reference Service (1954) “The School Segregation Problem.” Montgomery Alabama, 9 Jan. Describing how desegregation might be delayed or averted.Google Scholar
Mack, Kenneth W. (2012) “Law and Local Knowledge in the History of the Civil Rights Movement,” 125 Harvard Law Rev. 1018–40.Google Scholar
Marshall, Burke (1963) Memorandum for the Attorney General, Monday Report. Feb. 11. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Archives, Burke Marshall Papers, Box 001.Google Scholar
Martin, John (1963) Affidavit Attached to Complaint in U.S. v. Wallace, C.A. 1976-N (M.D. Alabama) 9 Sept.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. (1992) “Reform Litigation on Trial,” 17 Law & Social Inquiry 715–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCann, Michael W. (1994) Rights at Work. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
New York Times (1964) “Six Negroes Barred at Alabama School.” Published 6 Feb.Google Scholar
Norman, David L. (1963) Memo to St. John Barrett, 15 Aug. DOJ File 144-100-2-1, National Archives and Records Administration [NARA], College Park, MD, Box 1, Section 2.Google Scholar
Norrell, Robert J. (1985) Reaping the Whirlwind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee. Charlottesville, VA: Univ. of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Owens, Ryan J. (2010) “The Separation of Powers and Supreme Court Agenda Setting,” 54 American J. of Political Science 412–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peltason, J.W. (1961) 58 Lonely Men: Southern Federal Judges and School Desegregation. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald N. (2008) The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, David, & Gottlieb, Stephen E. (1996) “Legal Functionalism and Social Change: A Reassessment of Rosenberg's The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?” 12 J. of Law & Politics 63–91.Google Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A. (1997) “Separation-of-Powers Games in the Positive Theory of Congress and Courts,” 91 American Political Science Rev. 28–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Fred (1951) “Juicier Plums Wanted,” Birmingham News, 11 Feb.Google Scholar
The Alabama Council on Human Rights, et al. (1972) It's Not Over in the South: “School Desegregation in Forty-Three Southern Cities Eighteen Years After Brown”.Google Scholar
” Thirty-Two Negroes Ask School Desegregation in Macon County” (1955) Birmingham World, July 22.Google Scholar
Tuskegee Civic Association (1950) “Trends in Selected Aspects of Public Education for Negroes in Macon County, Alabama, 1938–39; 1943–44; 1948–49.” Tuskegee Institute Archives, Tuskegee Civic Association Files, Box 1, Folder 11.Google Scholar
Tuskegee Civic Association (1965) “Eighth Anniversary Celebration: Crusade for Citizenship,” 29 June. Tuskegee, AL: Tuskegee Civic Association.Google Scholar
Tuskegee News (1963) 15 Aug., p. 1. JFK Papers, Burke Marshall Collection, Box 21.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Justice (1964) Memorandum Brief of the United States in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction, 13 Mar. DOJ File 144-100-2-1, National Archives and Records Administration [NARA], College Park, MD, Box 1, Section 1.Google Scholar
Vecera, Vincent (2014) “The Supreme Court and the Social Conception of Abortion,” 48 Law & Society Rev. 345–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Anders (2009) The Ghost of Jim Crow: How Southern Moderates Used Brown V. Board of Education to Stall Civil Rights. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, George C. (1963a) Governor's Inaugural Address, January 14. Alabama Department of Archives and History, Available at: http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/inauguralspeech.html (accessed 15 Augst 2012).Google Scholar
Wallace, George C. (1963b) Governor of Alabama Executive Order, 2 Sept.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

American Booksellers v. Hudnut, 771 F.2d 323 (7th Cir. 1985), aff'd, 475 U.S. 1001 (1986).Google Scholar
Briggs v. Elliott, 98 F.Supp. 529 (E.D. S.C. 1951), vacated, 342 U.S. 350 (1952).Google Scholar
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). (Brown)Google Scholar
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, 349 U.S. 294 (1955). (Brown II)Google Scholar
Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 191 F.Supp. 871 (E.D. La. 1961).Google Scholar
City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997).Google Scholar
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, 103 F.Supp. 337 (E.D. Va. 1952), rev'd, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 349 U.S. 294 (1955).Google Scholar
Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 221 F.Supp. 297 (D.C. Ala. 1963).Google Scholar
Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 231 F.Supp. 743 (D.C. Ala. 1964).Google Scholar
Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, 267 F.Supp. 458 (D.C. Ala. 1967), aff'd, Wallace v. U.S., 389 U.S. 215 (1967) (structural injunction case).Google Scholar
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).Google Scholar
U.S. v. Madison County Board of Education, 219 F.Supp. 60 (N.D. Ala. 1963), aff'd, 326 F.2d 237 (5th Cir. 1964), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 929 (1964).Google Scholar
U.S. v. Rea, 231 F.Supp. 772 (M.D. Ala. 1964).Google Scholar
U.S. v. Wallace, 222 F.Supp. 485 (M.D. Ala. 1963) (Five Judge District Court).Google Scholar

Legislative Acts

Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-352, 78 Stat. 241 (1964) (codified as amended in scattered sections of 2 U.S.C., 28 U.S.C., and 42 U.S.C.).Google Scholar
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89-10 (1965) (20 U.S.C. §§ 6301 et seq.).Google Scholar
Voting Rights Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89-110, 79 Stat. 437 (1965) (42 U.S.C. §§ 1971, 1973a-p (Supp. I, 1964)).Google Scholar
Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982. Pub. L. No. 97-205, 96 Stat. 131 (1982) (codified in scattered sections of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973 to 1973aa-6 (1982).Google Scholar