Massive resistance ironically aided desegregation by threatening federal judicial supremacy

Evidence

For blacks, the goal in school desegregation suits remained the effective use of the Brown mandate to eliminate statesanctioned segregation. These efforts received unexpected help from the excesses of the massive resistance movement that led courts to justify relief under Brown as a reaffirmance of the supremacy of the judiciary on issues of constitutional interpretation. Brown, in the view of many, might not have been a wise or proper decision, but violent and prolonged opposition to its implementation posed an even greater danger to the federal system. — Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Brown v. Board of Education and the…, 115

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the course’s institutions thread: courts claiming supremacy over constitutional interpretation in Cooper v. Aaron. — connects to: Moral conviction alone never sufficed for racial reform in America. — Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Brown v. Board of Education and the…, 68; Elected officials and schools mobilized en masse against desegregation — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 932; States’ rights rhetoric signals resistance to federally-enforced racial equality. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 286 (+5 more)
• ADDENDUM: Parallel to the sacrifice-article theme of defiance rationalized by a higher systemic good, here federal supremacy.

Related

• Moral conviction alone never sufficed for racial reform in America. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Elected officials and schools mobilized en masse against desegregation #expands (0.85) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 932
• Resistance efforts can be complicit with the very exclusionary power they oppose #complicates (0.85) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1243
• Segregationists understood resistance as defending their own rights and freedoms #expands (0.82) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 31
• States’ rights rhetoric signals resistance to federally-enforced racial equality. #expands (0.80) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 286
• Judicial desegregation policies prospered in politics’ absence. #expands (0.78) — Matthew D. Lassiter, The Suburban Origins of “Color-Blind”…, 113
• Delegating implementation to local judges enabled Southern delay of desegregation #qualifies (0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2978