Word: segregationism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
The Supreme Court was about to hear final, oral arguments on one of the most momentous issues to come before the court in its 164-year history, perhaps the most important question that ever came before a Chief Justice so early in his tenure. The crucial question: Should segregation in...
Sutherland opened the debate with a survey of the history of the 14th Amendment, on which an anti-segregation ruling by the Court would be based. The Amendment prevents any state from depriving a citizen of "life, liberty, or property without due process of law," and requires "equal protection under...
The means of bringing about the end of segregation rather than the end itself was the basic question of the debate. Speakers on both sides upheld the legality of Supreme Court decision to declare segregation in the schools unconstitutional.
"I do not deny that there is authority in the United States to abolish segregation," Howe explained. He said that he felt a Court edict would only give rise to political delaying tactics and possible social upheaval in the South, however.
The states would soon find the maintenance of separate but actually equal facilities too costly to continue, and, what with the gradually improving economic status of the Negro, segregation would die a natural and comparatively painless death.