History 3457/Children’s Studies 3120
Higher Education, Public Schools, and the Path to Brown
14 February 2013
I. Laying the Foundations
1. World War II (appeasement & FDR inadequacy; outbreak of war & initial US
neutrality; FDR re-election & increasing U.S. involvement; Pearl Harbor and mobilization of U.S.
effortdramatic expansion of WWI experience; federal spending; massive U.S. military
commitment; effects of the draft—race relations, expanding cultural and geographic horizons)
2. The NAACP and “Separate-but-Equal” (legacy of Washington/DuBois dispute; failure
of politics: anti-lynching legislation and the power of the Southern filibuster; Huston and origins
of the Legal Defense Fund; dealing with legacy of Plessy; challenging separate but equal:
education—Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada (1938); Sweatt v. Painter (1950); McLaurin v.
Oklahoma (1950); part of broader movement against Jim Crow: elections (Smith v. Allwright);
housing (Shelley v. Kramer))
II. Brown and Beyond
1. Brown (federalism and varying approaches to segregation; LDF approach: filing of
cases and path to Supreme Court; giving the Court an excuse: Kenneth Clark and role of social
science; Vinson and divided Supreme Court; Vinson death & nomination of Warren; Warren
background and idea of politicians on Supreme Court; reargument and path to unanimous
decision; Brown II and “all deliberate speed”)
2. Reaction (Eisenhower and origins of massive resistance; Klarman & backlash thesis;
major centers of opposition: Virginia: Byrd & state’s segregationist history; “interposition
theory,” 1956 referendum, & attempt to block Brown; state SupCt rejection & movement
toward closing public schools; Supreme Court rejection; Arkansas: Orval Faubus and overt
challenge to federal authority; Little Rock background, sending of troops, AR response—close
schools unless popular vote to allow integration court rejection & cultural legacy)