White civic committees manufactured majority will through pre-typed form letters

Evidence

Once again, the WSMDC sent letters to boost white morale. “The Committee feels that Adamsville has a fine future as a community,” it assured residents. But the committee took more aggressive steps, as well. It drew up a petition, on WSMDC stationery, urging local whites to decide “by majority feeling” which real-estate market—black or white, but not both—would function in the neighborhood. After whites followed the WSMDC’s lead and voted for a white market, the committee went even further, typing up form letters for homeowners to send real-estate agents. “In view of existing circumstances of Fairburn Road, being a disputed area and all the owners not wishing to sell, and for the best interests of the community,” the sheets read, “I wish to notify you that I am withdrawing my property from the market.” All homeowners had to do was fill in a few blanks and drop the form in the mail. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 200

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels Milgrom’s findings on how private institutions engineer cooperation and enforcement — here, manufactured unanimity substitutes for legal segregation now struck down by courts.