Segregationist schools’ tax-exemption fight catalyzed the New Right movement

Evidence

It would be hard to overestimate the degree of outrage that the threat of losing their tax-advantaged status on account of their segregationism provoked. As far as leaders like Bob Jones Sr. were concerned, they had a God-given right not just to separate the races but also to receive federal money for the purpose. Emerging leaders of the New Right were prepared to defend them. They began to meet regularly, to discuss politics, and to look for ways to make their voices heard in Washington. Weyrich stoked the flames with sympathetic words about the unjust efforts “to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called de-facto segregation.” In the grievances of the segregationists, he saw the opportunity to found a movement. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 251

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Conservative strategists judged school segregation too unpopular a rallying issue — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 253; The Religious Right began as reaction to IRS desegregation of Christian schools. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 312; The Religious Right’s religious-freedom framing masked its defense of segregation — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 112 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Massive resistance birthed the New Right’s future-oriented conservative politics #corroborates (0.90) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 309
• The Religious Right began as reaction to IRS desegregation of Christian schools. #expands (0.88) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 312
• A tax law ruling on segregation, not Roe, catalyzed the Religious Right #expands (0.88) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 100
• The IRS’s challenge to segregated schools, not abortion, birthed the Religious Right #expands (0.85) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 23
• Forced desegregation of Christian schools, not abortion, sparked the Christian Right #expands (0.85) — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 530
• Conservative strategists judged school segregation too unpopular a rallying issue #corroborates (0.82) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 253
• The Religious Right’s religious-freedom framing masked its defense of segregation #qualifies (0.78) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 112
• The Religious Right needed a rallying issue besides racial segregation #qualifies (0.75) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 119