A Mixed Reaction to Brown: Mountain South Legislatures
“[T]he power to operate public schools in the State on a racially separate but substantially equal basis was granted by the people of Arkansas to the government of the State of Arkansas; … by ratification of the 14th Amendment, neither the State of Arkansas nor its people delegated to the federal government … the power to regulate or control the operation of the domestic institutions of Arkansas.” - Arkansas Legislature, 1956 “[Brown] threatens to result in a deterioration of the good relations that have been cultivated and developed between citizens of the white and negro races in Tennessee … [We resolve] to take all appropriate measures, honorably and legally available, to resist any and all illegal encroachments upon the powers reserved to the State of Tennessee in order to control its own domestic institutions according to its own exclusive judgment.” – Tennessee Assembly, 1956 (not concurred in by Senate) A Mixed Reaction to Brown: Mountain South Courts Roy v. Brittain – Tennessee, 1956 (297 S.W.2d 72); Smith v. Faubus – Arkansas, 1959 (327 S.W.2d 562); Marshall v. Kansas City – Missouri, 1962 (355 S.W.2d 877)
The Demise of Racial Real Estate Covenants Kraemer v. Shelley – Missouri, 1947 (198 S.W.2d 679), reversed, 334 U.S. 1 (1948); Weiss v. Leaon – Missouri, 1949 (225 S.W.2d 127), subsequently overruled, 346 U.S. 249 (1953); Stratton v. Conway – Tennessee, 1957 (301 S.W.2d 332)
Sit-In Cases in the Mountain South: Cat-and-Mouse With the U.S. Supreme Court Briggs v. State – Arkansas, 1963 (367 S.W.2d 750), vacated, 379 U.S. 306 (1964); McKinnie v. State – Tennessee, 1964 (379 S.W.2d 214), reversed, 380 U.S. 449 (1965)
“The mere fact that the exercise of a lawful right may result in a disturbance or breach of the peace does not make the exercise of that right a violation of the law so long as the right is exercised in a peaceful manner and without force or violence or threats of same. … [But] to hold [that black patrons have a right to be served] would be to employ judicial fiat to coerce unwilling lunch counter operators to afford service to patrons they do not want and did not seek.” – Justice ___, in Briggs “Under the decision handed down by the majority, a large number of people can go into any place of business, create a disturbance by their presence, disrupt business and annoy the proprietor to no end, and there is nothing he can do except request them to leave, which they can do and immediately return to the restaurant or other place of business and go through the same procedure until the owner breaks down and does business with them or goes out of business.” – Justice __ Robinson (dissenting), in Briggs “Even if we assume that the owner of the cafeteria had no right to exclude these defendants, this does not excuse their conduct in blocking this narrow passageway As citizens, we are not permitted to take the law in our own hands and correct what we consider to be wrongs… We are presented with the timely question of how far a person can go to secure his constitutional rights. Now it seems clear that a person cannot commit an assault on another to gain these rights. It seems equally clear that one cannot damage the prop of another with impunity because the other has committed an act of racial discrimination against him.” – Justice __, in McKinnie | Desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, 1957 - courtesy New York World Telegram archives,Library of Congress, U.S. Army and Wikimedia commons
[Get Roy, Faubus quotes] “We are constrained to hold that this municipal ordinance, designed to prevent discrimination by reason of race or color in restaurants, bears a substantial and reasonable relation to the specific grant of power to regulate restaurants and to the health, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the city and is fairly referable to the police power of the municipal corporation.” – Justice __, in Marshall
Sit-in at Nashville, Tennessee lunch counter (1960) - courtesy New York World Telegram archives and Library of Congress
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