Poorer whites resisted desegregation out of fear of losing elite-guaranteed status.

Evidence

When segregation was finally condemned by the Supreme Court, however, the outcry was nevertheless great, especially among poorer whites who feared loss of control over their public schools and other facilities. Their fear of loss was intensified by the sense that they had been betrayed. They relied, as had generations before them, on the expectation that white elites would maintain lower class whites in a societal status superior 36 D. — Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Brown v. Board of Education and the…, 70

Categorization

• XREF: The poorer-whites-betrayed-by-elites structure recalls the class-angry-white dynamics in Home Boy and echoes the ‘morality alone is insufficient’ theme from the abolition parallel. — connects to: Moral conviction alone never sufficed for racial reform in America. — Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Brown v. Board of Education and the…, 68; Whites resist redistributive racial policies to protect their privileged status. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2627; Desegregation taught working-class whites that self-interest trumps community loyalty — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 191

Related

• Moral conviction alone never sufficed for racial reform in America. (similarity 0.83)
• Whites resist redistributive racial policies to protect their privileged status. (similarity 0.82)
• Desegregation taught working-class whites that self-interest trumps community loyalty (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Whites resist redistributive racial policies to protect their privileged status. #corroborates (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2627
• Desegregation taught working-class whites that self-interest trumps community loyalty #complicates (0.80) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 191