Massive resistance

Massive resistance was the political strategy used by Southern politicians, particularly in Virginia, to resist the desegregation of public schools.

Background

In 1954, in the lawsuit Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court ruled that school segregation violates the United States Constitution. However, many all-white schools still refused to allow black students to attend. In 1955, in Brown v. Board of Education II, the Supreme Court ordered them to desegregate "with all deliberate speed."

Many Southern politicians were unhappy with this ruling. By 1956, Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia had gathered a coalition of almost 100 Southern politicians who were determined not to desegregate. (This was around 20% of the people in Congress.) These politicians signed a "Southern Manifesto" stating that they would use massive resistance to prevent schools from being desegregated.

According to one source:

On February 25, 1956, Senator Byrd issued the call for “Massive Resistance” — a collection of laws passed in response to the Brown decision that aggressively tried to [delay] and prevent school integration. For instance, the Massive Resistance doctrine included a law that punished any public school that integrated by eliminating its state funds and eventually closing the school.

Tactics

The massive resistance strategy involved a range of tactics, including:

• Enacting laws that made desegregation more difficult
• Closing schools to prevent desegregation
• Funding segregated private schools

Massive Resistance Media

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  Harry F. Byrd, a Democratic political figure who created the massive resistance strategy

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  School desegregation in the southern states from 1953 to 1976*Note that "integrated school" is defined as a school with at least one white and one black student, thus underestimating the extent of de facto segregation

Related pages

• Racial segregation
• Desegregation busing
• Brown v. Board of Education
• Brown v. Board of Education II