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Southern Manifesto facts for kids

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The Southern Manifesto was an important document written in 1956 by many politicians from the Southern United States. Its main goal was to oppose the idea of ending racial segregation in public places, especially in schools.

This manifesto was signed by 19 US Senators and 82 members of the House of Representatives. All of them were from states that used to be part of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Most of the people who signed were Democrats, but two were Republicans.

The Southern Manifesto was created to challenge a big decision made by the Supreme Court in 1954. This decision, called Brown v. Board of Education, said that separating students by race in public schools was against the US Constitution. Before this, many Southern states had laws, known as Jim Crow laws, that forced white and Black people to be separate in many areas of life, including schools.

Even before the Manifesto, some Southern states were already trying to stop school integration. This was called "Massive resistance". The Manifesto itself didn't directly say it would ignore the Brown decision. Instead, it argued that the Supreme Court had gone too far and was overstepping its power. It claimed that states should have more control over their own laws, a concept known as states' rights.

The Southern Manifesto said the Supreme Court's decision was a "clear abuse of judicial power." It promised to use "all lawful means" to reverse the decision and prevent force from being used to make schools integrate. It also suggested that the Tenth Amendment should limit the Supreme Court's power on such issues. Senators Strom Thurmond and Richard Russell were key in writing the document.

Some states that had slavery but stayed with the Union during the Civil War, like Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, also had segregated schools. However, none of their Senators or Representatives signed the Southern Manifesto. The same was true for Oklahoma, which was not yet a state but had many Southern settlers.

Not all Southern politicians signed the Manifesto. Three Democratic Senators from the South did not:

Several Democratic Representatives from Southern states also chose not to sign. This included 16 of 21 Democrats from Texas, like Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. Three of seven Democrats from Tennessee and three of eleven from North Carolina also did not sign. Only two of the seven Republican Representatives from former Confederate states signed the document. Those who refused to sign sometimes faced anger from their colleagues who did.

What the Manifesto Said

The Southern Manifesto included strong statements against the Supreme Court's decision. Here are some key parts:

  • "The Supreme Court's decision about public schools is causing problems. This happens when people use power instead of following the law."
  • "The original Constitution doesn't mention education. Neither does the 14th Amendment. Discussions before the 14th Amendment show it wasn't meant to change state education systems."
  • "This wrong use of power by the Court is causing chaos in the affected states. It is ruining the good relationships between white and Black people that took 90 years to build. It has created hate and suspicion where there used to be friendship."

Who Signed and Who Didn't

Signing the Southern Manifesto was very common in many Southern states. For example, every Senator and Representative from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia signed it.

However, in some states, many politicians chose not to sign. This was especially true for Texas and Tennessee, where most of their members in the US House of Representatives did not sign.

Senators Who Signed

Senators Who Did Not Sign

Representatives Who Signed (by State)

  • Alabama: George W. Andrews, Frank W. Boykin, Carl Elliott, George M. Grant, George Huddleston Jr., Robert E. Jones Jr., Albert Rains, Kenneth A. Roberts, Armistead Selden
  • Arkansas: Ezekiel C. Gathings, Oren Harris, Brooks Hays, Wilbur D. Mills, William F. Norrell, James William Trimble
  • Florida: Charles Edward Bennett, James A. Haley, Syd Herlong, D.R. "Billy" Matthews, Paul G. Rogers, Bob Sikes
  • Georgia: Iris F. Blitch, Paul Brown, James C. Davis, John James Flynt Jr., Tic Forrester, Phil M. Landrum, Henderson Lanham, J. L. Pilcher, Prince H. Preston, Carl Vinson
  • Louisiana: Hale Boggs, Overton Brooks, F. Edward Hebert, George S. Long, James H. Morrison, Otto E. Passman, T. Ashton Thompson, Edwin E. Willis
  • Mississippi: Thomas G. Abernethy, William M. Colmer, Frank E. Smith, Jamie L. Whitten, John Bell Williams, Arthur Winstead
  • North Carolina: Hugh Q. Alexander, Graham A. Barden, Herbert C. Bonner, Frank Carlyle, Carl Durham, Lawrence Fountain, Woodrow W. Jones, George A. Shuford
  • South Carolina: Robert T. Ashmore, W.J. Bryan Dorn, John L. McMillan, James P. Richards, John J. Riley, L. Mendel Rivers
  • Tennessee: Jere Cooper, Clifford Davis, James B. Frazier Jr., Tom J. Murray
  • Texas: Wright Patman, John Dowdy, Walter Rogers, O. C. Fisher, Martin Dies Jr.
  • Virginia: Edward J. Robeson Jr., Porter Hardy, J. Vaughan Gary, Watkins M. Abbitt, William M. Tuck, Richard Harding Poff, Burr Harrison, Howard W. Smith, William Pat Jennings, Joel T. Broyhill

Representatives Who Did Not Sign (by State)

  • Florida: William C. Cramer, Dante Fascell
  • North Carolina: Richard Chatham, Harold D. Cooley, Charles Deane, Charles R. Jonas
  • Tennessee: Howard Baker Sr., Ross Bass, Joe Evins, Percy Priest, B. Carroll Reece
  • Texas: Jack Brooks, Brady Gentry, Sam Rayburn, Bruce Alger, Olin E. Teague, Albert Thomas, Clark W. Thompson, Homer Thornberry, William Poage, Jim Wright, Frank Ikard, John J. Bell, Joe Madison Kilgore, J. T. Rutherford, Omar Burleson, George H. Mahon, Paul Kilday

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Southern Manifesto para niños

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