Word: segregationism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When the Supreme Court decrced an indefinite period for the "adjustment of local problems" in desegregation, even enthusiastic liberals must have felt considerable relief. The prospect of enforcing a law that some citizens seem prepared to break violently is not a pleasant one. The Court evidently hopes that under this...
But the expedient nature of the Court's decision does not hide what "adjustment of local problems" really means. Segregation, before the original decision a year ago, was a matter of taste. One either believed in it or not, and practiced it or not within the limits of local police...
If, for administrative reasons, desegregation could not be accomplished within a week, or even a year, it would have been entirely natural to allow a maximum of time in which the Court's decision should take practical effect. But by its supplementary ruling the Court is, in effect, diluting its...
While the new decision smacks of moral abdication, the Court was probably right to adopt a practical point of view. The consequences of open defiance to a "desegregation immediately" order, depending on southern tenacity, could have meant virtual military occupation. On the other hand, the plan of South Carolina to...