North Carolina Central Law Review Volume 37 Article 3 Number 2 Volume 37, Number 2 4-1-2015 The onsC titution, Desegregation, and Public Opinion: Swan V. Charlotte-Mechlenburg Board of educationi James L. Hunt Follow this and additional works at: https://archives.law.nccu.edu/ncclr Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, and the Education Law Commons Recommended Citation Hunt, James L. (2015) "The onC stitution, Desegregation, and Public Opinion: Swan V. Charlotte-Mechlenburg Board of educationi," North Carolina Central Law Review: Vol. 37 : No. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://archives.law.nccu.edu/ncclr/vol37/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by History and Scholarship Digital Archives. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Carolina Central Law Review by an authorized editor of History and Scholarship Digital Archives. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Hunt: The Constitution, Desegregation, and Public Opinion: Swan V. Char THE CONSTITUTION, DESEGREGATION, AND PUBLIC OPINION: SWANN V. CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG BOARD OF EDUCATION JAMES L. HUNT* The first three words of the preamble to the Constitution are "We the People." Yet the vast majority of constitutionalscholarship is limited to the opinions ofjudges, lawyers, law professors, and other political and economic elites. This article takes a different approach to constitutional understanding. It describes the legal thoughts of the citizens for whom the Constitution exists. It does so through an analysis of the public's reaction to the federal court decisions in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, a desegregation case.