Because Brown banned only intentional segregation, Northern de facto segregation was harder to litigate

Evidence

Several factors complicated desegregation litigation in the North. Southern school districts had forthrightly maintained segregated systems, but most Northern districts never expressly mandated separate schools for blacks and whites. Because Brown outlawed only intentional school segregation, the mere fact of segregated schools did not violate the Constitution. Proving constitutional violations therefore was more difficult than it had been in Southern school cases. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3018

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the de jure/de facto distinction and why it determined whether a constitutional violation existed at all.
• XREF: Directly bears on the competing meanings of equality — formal nondiscrimination versus substantive integration — in the course’s foundational values.