Central to the 1956 penning of the Southern Manifesto was the decision to resist the directives that the Supreme Court issued after the Brown v. Board of Education case. Apparently, the mandate sought to desegregate public schools in the United States and among the white supremacists in the South, such a move was a threat to the color line. First, according to the document, the Brown decision was a threat to the people as its effects were going to “[destroy] the amicable relations between the white and Negro races” (Foner 254). Because segregation entailed separating the populace based on skin color and favoring the Caucasians, the endorsers of the Southern Manifesto considered a social hierarchy as an essential component of their communities. In other words, African Americans could not enjoy the same privileges as their white counterparts. The second argument that the document highlighted revolved around the Supreme Court’s use of “naked judicial power” to replace the law with “personal political and social ideas” (Foner 254). That was so since the Constitution not only failed to mention education but also restricted the powers of the Supreme Court at the time. For example, the Fourteenth Amendment that enfranchised African Americans granted them citizenship without mentioning their schooling (Foner 253). For that reason, since the Tenth Amendment delegated unassigned authority to the people, the Southern population had the constitutional power to repeal desegregation. Interestingly, the segregation laws that defined Southern societies for the better part of the twentieth century did not affect schools only; on the contrary, transport companies, and even public restaurants adhered to the same restrictions. The liberties enjoyed by the white men and women outnumbered the ones availed to persons of color, and as a result, the Southern Manifesto was an attempt to protect the favored position of the Caucasian.
Achieving Coherence
The paragraph utilizes transition phrases [on the contrary, in other words], uses examples [the tenth and the fourteenth amendment to the American constitution], sequencing [first, the second argument] and presents results [for that reason].
Works Cited
"The Southern Manifesto (1956)." Foner, Eric. Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History. 3rd. Vol. II. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. 253-255. Print.
