The Southern Manifesto was a document that declared the intent of

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Manifesto A declaration of beliefs and policy
Derogation Belittling action
Decry To declare wrong or denounce

On March 12, 1956, 19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives signed the “Southern Manifesto,” condemning the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 1954. The resolution called the decision a clear example of judicial overreach and encouraged states to lawfully resist mandates that stemmed from the decision. In response to southern opposition, the court revisited Brown in the case of Cooper v. Aaron, 1958; however, in that case, the justices reaffirmed their decision in Brown.

Source: https://content.csbs.utah.edu/~dlevin/federalism/southern_manifesto.html

The Southern Manifesto

We regard the decision of the Supreme Court in the school cases as clear abuse of judicial power. It climaxes a trend in the Federal judiciary undertaking to legislate, in derogation [belittling] of the authority of Congress, and to encroach upon the reserved rights of the states and the people. . . .

In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 the Supreme Court expressly declared that under the Fourteenth Amendment no person was denied any of his rights if the states provided separate but equal public facilities. . . . Though there has been no constitutional amendment or act of Congress changing this established legal principle almost a century old, the Supreme Court of the United States, with no legal basis for such action, undertook to exercise their naked judicial power and substituted their personal political and social ideas for the established law of the land. . . .

We reaffirm our reliance on the Constitution as the fundamental law of the land. We decry [to declare wrong] the Supreme Court’s encroachments on rights reserved to the states and to the people, contrary to established law and to the Constitution. We commend the motives of those states which have declared the intention to resist forced integration by any lawful means. . .

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.

Comprehension and Analysis Questions

  1. How do the authors of this document refer to the decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case?
  2. Why do the authors of this document believe that the decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson should still hold?
  3. How does this document’s message encourage state resistance to integration?

On this date in 1956, Rep. Howard Smith (D-Va.), chairman of the House Rules Committee — a graveyard for civil rights bills throughout the ’50s — introduced the Southern Manifesto in a speech on the House floor. Sen. Walter George (D-Ga.) introduced an identical version in the Senate. The manifesto, formally titled the “Declaration of Constitutional Principles,” sought to counter the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. The court had found that separate school facilities for black and white children were inherently unequal and therefore constitutionally impermissible. Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) wrote the initial draft, which was revised mainly by Sen. Richard Russell (D-Ga.). It was signed by 19 senators and 82 House members, all from states that were part of the Confederacy during the Civil War. All of them were Democrats, except for two Virginia Republicans: Reps. Joel Broyhill and Richard Poff. Most members of the Texas and Tennessee delegations refused to sign, as did several members from North Carolina and Florida. The manifesto assailed the landmark Brown ruling as an abuse of judicial power that encroached upon states’ rights. It urged Southerners to exhaust all “lawful means” to resist the “chaos and confusion” that would result from school desegregation. “The original Constitution does not mention education,” the document noted. “Neither does the 14th Amendment nor any other amendment. The debates preceding the submission of the 14th Amendment clearly show that there was no intent that it should affect the system of education maintained by the states.” In introducing the manifesto, Smith asserted that the ship of state had “drifted from her moorings” and described the high court’s record on civil rights as one of “repeated deviation” from the separation of powers. Several Southerners rose to applaud Smith’s remarks. No one rose to speak against them.

Source: Historian, Clerk of the U.S. House

The Declaration of Constitutional Principles (known informally as the Southern Manifesto) was a document written in February and March 1956, during the 84th United States Congress, in opposition to racial integration of public places.[1] The manifesto was signed by 19 US Senators and 82 Representatives from the South. The signatories included the entire Congressional delegations from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia, most of the members from Florida and North Carolina, and several members from Tennessee and Texas. All of them were from former Confederate states.[1] Ninety-nine were Democrats; two were Republicans.

The Manifesto was drafted to counter the landmark Supreme Court 1954 ruling Brown v. Board of Education, which determined that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. School segregation laws were some of the most enduring and best-known of the Jim Crow laws that characterized the Southern United States at the time.[2]

"Massive resistance" to federal court orders requiring school integration was already being practiced across the South, and was not caused by the Manifesto. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas had worked behind the scenes to tone down the original harsh draft. The final version did not pledge to nullify the Brown decision nor did it support extralegal resistance to desegregation. Instead, it was mostly a states' rights attack against the judicial branch for overstepping its role.[3]

The Southern Manifesto accused the Supreme Court of "clear abuse of judicial power" and promised 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."[4] It suggested that the Tenth Amendment should limit the reach of the Supreme Court on such issues.[5] Senators led the opposition, with Strom Thurmond writing the initial draft and Richard Russell the final version.[6]

The states of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri had been border states during the Civil War (i.e. slave states that remained in the Union), while Oklahoma was not then a state and had been settled primarily by Southerners and by Native Americans under federal removal policy. Prior to the Brown v. Board decision, all required segregation in their public school systems. Nonetheless, none of the 12 U.S. Senators or 39 U.S. House Representatives from these states signed the Manifesto.

Three Democratic Senators from Southern states did not sign:

  • Al Gore Sr. and Estes Kefauver of Tennessee
  • Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson of Texas

The following Democratic Representatives from Southern states also did not sign:

  • 16 of 21 Democrats from Texas, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn and future Speaker Jim Wright
  • 3 of 7 Democrats from Tennessee
  • 3 of 11 Democrats from North Carolina
  • 1 of 7 Democrats from Florida (Dante Fascell)

This refusal earned them the enmity for a time of their colleagues who signed.

There were seven Republican Representatives from former Confederate states. Only two signed the Manifesto: Joel Broyhill and Richard Poff of Virginia.

  • "The unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court in the public school cases is now bearing the fruit always produced when men substitute naked power for established law."
  • "The original Constitution does not mention education. Neither does the 14th Amendment nor any other amendment. The debates preceding the submission of the 14th Amendment clearly show that there was no intent that it should affect the system of education maintained by the States."
  • "This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding."[7]

In many southern States, signing was much more common than not signing, with signatories including the entire delegations from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia. Those from southern states who refused to sign are noted below.[1] Refusal to sign occurred most prominently among the Texas and Tennessee delegations; in both states, the majority of members of the US House of Representatives refused to sign.[1]

United States Senate (in state order)

Signatories Non-signatories
  • John Sparkman (D-Alabama)
  • Lister Hill (D-Alabama)
  • J. William Fulbright (D-Arkansas)[1]
  • John L. McClellan (D-Arkansas)
  • George A. Smathers (D-Florida)
  • Spessard Holland (D-Florida)
  • Walter F. George (D-Georgia)
  • Richard B. Russell (D-Georgia)
  • Allen J. Ellender (D-Louisiana)
  • Russell B. Long (D-Louisiana)
  • James O. Eastland (D-Mississippi)
  • John Stennis (D-Mississippi)
  • Samuel Ervin (D-North Carolina)
  • W. Kerr Scott (D-North Carolina)
  • Strom Thurmond (D-South Carolina)[1]
  • Olin D. Johnston (D-South Carolina)
  • Price Daniel (D-Texas)
  • Harry F. Byrd (D-Virginia)[1]
  • A. Willis Robertson (D-Virginia)
  • Allen Frear (D-Delaware)
  • John J. Williams (R-Delaware)
  • Alben Barkley (D-Kentucky)
  • Earle Clements (D-Kentucky)
  • James Glenn Beall (R-Maryland)
  • John Marshall Butler (R-Maryland)
  • Stuart Symington (D-Missouri)
  • Thomas Hennings (D-Missouri)
  • Robert Kerr (D-Oklahoma)
  • Mike Monroney (D-Oklahoma)
  • Albert Gore Sr. (D-Tennessee)[1]
  • Estes Kefauver (D-Tennessee)[1]
  • Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas)[1]
  • William Laird (D-West Virginia)
  • Matthew Neely (D-West Virginia)

United States House of Representatives

Alabama
Signatories
  • George W. Andrews (D)
  • Frank W. Boykin (D)
  • Carl Elliott (D)
  • George M. Grant (D)
  • George Huddleston Jr. (D)
  • Robert E. Jones Jr. (D)
  • Albert Rains (D)
  • Kenneth A. Roberts (D)
  • Armistead Selden (D)
Arkansas
Signatories
  • Ezekiel C. Gathings (D)
  • Oren Harris (D)
  • Brooks Hays (D)[1]
  • Wilbur D. Mills (D)
  • William F. Norrell (D)
  • James William Trimble (D)
Florida
Signatories Non-signatories
  • Charles Edward Bennett (D)
  • James A. Haley (D)
  • Syd Herlong (D)
  • D.R. "Billy" Matthews (D)
  • Paul G. Rogers (D)
  • Bob Sikes (D)
  • William C. Cramer (R)
  • Dante Fascell (D)
Georgia
Signatories
  • Iris F. Blitch (D)
  • Paul Brown (D)
  • James C. Davis (D)
  • John James Flynt Jr. (D)
  • Tic Forrester (D)
  • Phil M. Landrum (D)
  • Henderson Lanham (D)
  • J. L. Pilcher (D)
  • Prince H. Preston (D)
  • Carl Vinson (D)
Louisiana
Signatories
  • Hale Boggs (D)
  • Overton Brooks (D)
  • F. Edward Hebert (D)
  • George S. Long (D)
  • James H. Morrison (D)
  • Otto E. Passman (D)
  • T. Ashton Thompson (D)
  • Edwin E. Willis (D)
Mississippi
Signatories
  • Thomas G. Abernethy (D)
  • William M. Colmer (D)
  • Frank E. Smith (D)
  • Jamie L. Whitten (D)
  • John Bell Williams (D)
  • Arthur Winstead (D)
North Carolina
Signatories Non-signatories
  • Hugh Q. Alexander (D)
  • Graham A. Barden (D)
  • Herbert C. Bonner (D)
  • Frank Carlyle (D)
  • Carl Durham (D)
  • Lawrence Fountain (D)
  • Woodrow W. Jones (D)
  • George A. Shuford (D)
  • Richard Chatham (D)
  • Harold D. Cooley (D)
  • Charles Deane (D)
  • Charles R. Jonas (R)
South Carolina
Signatories
  • Robert T. Ashmore (D)
  • W.J. Bryan Dorn (D)
  • John L. McMillan (D)
  • James P. Richards (D)
  • John J. Riley (D)
  • L. Mendel Rivers (D)
Tennessee
Signatories Non-signatories
  • Jere Cooper (D)
  • Clifford Davis (D)
  • James B. Frazier Jr. (D)
  • Tom J. Murray (D)
  • Howard Baker Sr. (R)
  • Ross Bass (D)
  • Joe Evins (D)
  • Percy Priest (D)
  • B. Carroll Reece (R)
Texas
Signatories Non-signatories
  • Wright Patman (D) [1]
  • John Dowdy (D)
  • Walter Rogers (D)
  • O. C. Fisher (D) [1]
  • Martin Dies Jr. (D) [1]
  • Jack Brooks (D) [1]
  • Brady Gentry (D)
  • Sam Rayburn (D) [1]
  • Bruce Alger (R) [1]
  • Olin E. Teague (D) [1]
  • Albert Thomas (D) [1]
  • Clark W. Thompson (D)
  • Homer Thornberry (D) [1]
  • William Poage (D) [1]
  • Jim Wright (D) [1]
  • Frank Ikard (D) [1]
  • John J. Bell (D)
  • Joe Madison Kilgore (D) [1]
  • J. T. Rutherford (D)
  • Omar Burleson (D) [1]
  • George H. Mahon (D) [1]
  • Paul Kilday (D)
Virginia
Signatories
  • Edward J. Robeson Jr. (D)
  • Porter Hardy (D)
  • J. Vaughan Gary (D)
  • Watkins M. Abbitt (D)
  • William M. Tuck (D)
  • Richard Harding Poff (R)
  • Burr Harrison (D)
  • Howard W. Smith (D)
  • William Pat Jennings (D)
  • Joel T. Broyhill (R)
  • American Civil Rights Movement
  • Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
  • Brown v. Board of Education
  • 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress
  • Massive resistance
  • Racial segregation in the United States
  • Solid South
  • Southern Democrats
  • Conservative Democrat
  • 84th United States Congress
  • Full Text

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Badger, Tony (June 1999). "Southerners Who Refused to Sign the Southern Manifesto". The Historical Journal. 42 (2): 517–534. doi:10.1017/S0018246X98008346. JSTOR 3020998.
  2. ^ John Kyle Day, The Southern Manifesto: Massive Resistance and the Fight to Preserve Segregation (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2014).
  3. ^ Brent J. Aucoin, "The Southern Manifesto and Southern Opposition to Desegregation". Arkansas Historical Quarterly 55#2 (1996): 173-193.
  4. ^ James T. Patterson,Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (1996), p. 398
  5. ^ Zornick, George. "Republican race to turn on 'Tentherism?'" CBS News, 20 May 2011.
  6. ^ "The Southern Manifesto". Time. March 26, 1956. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved August 10, 2007.
  7. ^ "Southern Manifesto on Integration (March 12, 1956)". Thirteen.org. June 25, 2020. Archived from the original on May 28, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.

  • Aucoin, Brent J. (1996). "The Southern Manifesto and Southern Opposition to Desegregation". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Arkansas Historical Association. 55 (2): 173–193. JSTOR 40030963.
  • Badger, Tony (1999). "Southerners Who Refused to Sign the Southern Manifesto". The Historical Journal. Cambridge University Press. 42 (2): 517–534. JSTOR 3020998.
  • Henderson, Cheryl Brown; Brown, Steven M. (2016). "The Southern Manifesto: A Doctrine of Resistance 60 Years Later". Journal of School Choice. Taylor & Francis. 10 (4): 412–419.
  • Day, John Kyle (2015) [2014]. The Southern Manifesto: Massive Resistance and the Fight to Preserve Segregation. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1496804501.
  • Manifesto text and signers from the Congressional Record

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