Southern Manifesto

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Compare the presentation of the Fourteenth Amendment found in Brown v. Board of Education with that enunciated by the Southern Manifesto's authors. Which interpretation do you find most convincing?
• 2. In what ways did the Southern Manifesto's authors invoke the states' rightist tradition of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?
• 3. Did the Southern Manifesto's signers legitimately believe that it would halt the implementation of Brown v. Board of Education, or did they see it merely as a short-term measure to delay school desegregation?
• 4. To what extent was the Southern Manifesto successful in delaying the enforcement of Brown v. Board of Education?
• 5. After the massive resistance campaign failed, how did the Southern Manifesto's signers react to the increasing success of the civil rights movement?