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. Show Source: https://content.csbs.utah.edu/~dlevin/federalism/southern_manifesto.html
Comprehension and Analysis Questions
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:
The following Democratic Representatives from Southern states also did not sign:
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.
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)
United States House of Representatives
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