CONTENTS Introduction 4 FROM SLAVERY TO SEGREGATION 6 A Lynching and its Legacy 9 The Creation of Jim Crow 10 Defending a “Way of Life”: The 1940s 12 Separate and Unequal: The Court’s Role 16 “MASSIVE RESISTANCE” 20 Delay, Delay, Delay: The Long Road to School Integration 28 School Closures 35 Segregation by Force 36 3 SEGREGATION REPORT 3 SEGREGATION BEYOND BROWN: OPPOSITION INTENSIFIES 40 Segregationist Violence Unchecked and Endorsed 43 Criminalizing the Struggle for Racial Equality 48 Southern Lawmakers: Obstruction and Incitement 57 Preserving Racial Inequality Up North 67 "SEGREGATION FOREVER": LEADERS OF WHITE SUPREMACY 70 HOW SEGREGATION SURVIVED 92 The Survival of Segregation in the South 96 The Evolution of Segregation in the North 100 The Inequality That Remains 104 CONFEDERATE ICONOGRAPHY IN THE 20TH CENTURY 106 The Rise of Confederate Monuments 108 Confederate Iconography in the Civil Rights Era 110 The Modern Landscape 112 Notes 116 SEGREGATION IN AMERICA 4 AMERICA IN SEGREGATION INTRODUCTION America’s history of racial inequality continues to haunt us. The genocide of Native people, 250-year enslavement of black people, adoption of “racial integrity laws” that demonized ethnic immigrants and people of color, and enforcement of policies and practices designed to perpetuate white supremacy are all part of our difficult past. This country has witnessed great triumph, innovation, and progress, but we are burdened by a painful history that we have yet to adequately acknowledge. 5 INTRODUCTION In the 1950s and 1960s, heroic civil rights activists staged Over the last 50 years, our political, social, and cultur- a valiant revolt against racial inequality that compelled al institutions accommodated and embraced elected our nation to change some of its most racially offen- officials, journalists, and white leaders who espoused sive practices and policies. The Civil Rights Movement virulently racist ideologies. White segregationists profoundly changed the character of American society were not banished or shamed; they were respected and opened doors for people of color that had too long and elected to some of the highest levels of national been barred by bigotry and ignorance. There has been authority long after the passage of the Civil Rights substantial progress on a range of issues as a result of Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The increased participation by non-white people in the po- accommodation of people who proudly proclaimed litical process. Diversity has become a demand that has racist ideology and white supremacy implicates these strengthened the political, social, cultural, and economic institutions and undermines the notion that racial landscape in significant and visible ways. equality has been achieved. But the Civil Rights Movement also triggered mass op- EJI believes that our forward progress, our future position. In response to demands for equal rights, mil- promise of a healthier and more just society cannot lions of white Americans made clear their determined, be achieved until we confront our history of racial unwavering, and committed opposition to racial equal- inequality. We believe our nation is in desperate need ity, integration, and civil rights. This entrenched com- of truth and reconciliation — and we are persuaded mitment to white supremacy inspired an often violent that process is sequential. We must first tell the truth rejection of racial justice that is frequently overlooked. about our past before we can overcome it. Understanding the opposition to racial equality is the focus of this report because it is central to confronting This is the third report in a series on America’s the continuing challenges of racial inequality today. history of racial injustice. In 2013, we issued Slavery in America, which focused on the domestic slave trade The United States is still compromised by widespread and its legacy. That research and work inspired us to racial bias and bigotry. We are still infected with false build the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to narratives of racial difference that marginalize and cre- Mass Incarceration, in Montgomery, Alabama. In ate hatred, prejudice, and discrimination against many 2015, we published Lynching in America: Confronting people of color. Black and brown people are burdened the Legacy of Racial Terror, which inspired another with a presumption of guilt and dangerousness that is new cultural space in Montgomery, the National evident in myriad ways. Memorial for Peace and Justice. We hope you’ll visit these spaces to learn more about the history of Enormous racial disparities in our criminal justice sys- racial inequality in America. tem, education, health, and employment reflect con- tinuing problems that cannot be fully understood with- Segregation in America is a critical piece of the narra- out a closer examination of the civil rights era. It was tive of American history. It details an especially dy- during this era that law enforcement agencies aligned namic time when the character of America and our themselves with opponents of racial equality and be- difficult history of racial injustice was on painful dis- came the face of violent resistance to integration and play. It was also a time of great hope for many people voting rights. The struggle for racial justice was blocked in this country who believed we could overcome that by uniformed police who were hostile and often violent history and create a truly just society. That hope has in their opposition to peaceful efforts for equality. It is inspired us to re-examine this era so that we might impossible to fully comprehend the tensions between better understand the challenges facing us all as the many communities of color and the police today with- struggle for racial equality in America continues. out a deeper appreciation of this history. SEGREGATION IN AMERICA 6 TO SEGREGATION TO FROM SLAVERY 7 FROM SLAVERY TO SEGREGATION TO 7 FROM SLAVERY oday, the story of the American Civil Rights Movement is familiar: courageous activists waged an epic struggle, faced great risks, and suffered tragic losses to achieve victories that forever Tchanged the nation. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott; the murder of Emmett Till; the Selma to Montgomery March; and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 are well-known milestones in the movement. In contrast, the story of national opposition to civil rights is muddled and incomplete. If civil rights activists’ ef- forts constituted a soaring chorus of We Shall Overcome, hundreds of thousands of white opponents responded with a deafening shout: “No you will not!” White Americans concentrated in the South and influ- ential throughout the country conducted a widespread, organized, and determined campaign to defend their “way of life” against the “burden of integration.”1 Racist politicians enjoyed support from the majority of white voters; the Ku Klux Klan claimed many of the South’s most prominent and powerful citizens as members;2 and white perpetrators of vicious attacks on black people were regularly acquitted by all-white juries.3 Understanding this opposition to civil rights can help us address its legacy today. SEGREGATION IN AMERICA 8 AMERICA IN SEGREGATION Men and boys pose beneath the body of Lige Daniels, a black man, shortly after he was lynched on August 3, 1920, in Center, Texas. (James Allen, ed., et al., Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America (Santa Fe, NM: Twin Palms Publishers, 2000), 117-118.) 9 FROM SLAVERY TO SEGREGATION TO 9 FROM SLAVERY Later that year, Woods Eastland named his newborn son for his slain brother.6 James Oliver Eastland, the privileged son of a wealthy planta- tion-owning white family on the Mississippi Delta, became a lawyer and the state’s longest serving Unit- ed States senator. Eastland com- A LYNCHING AND mitted his 36-year Senate career ITS LEGACY to maintaining white supremacy. From 1942 to 1978, he defended On February 7, 1904, a black man Mississippi’s deeply rooted racial and woman were tortured and caste system and led the virulent killed in Sunflower County, Mis- white opposition to school deseg- sissippi, as hundreds of white peo- regation, black voting rights, and ple watched and cheered. The racial equality. man, Luther Holbert, was accused of fatally shooting James Eastland, a white landowner from a promi- nent and wealthy family. Eastland’s brothers, Woods and Hiram, led For a generation of white the posse that captured Holbert as he fled with a black woman whose Americans who bitterly name was not reported.4 fought civil rights progress, Eastland and leaders like Eyewitnesses reported that mem- him linked the era of racial bers of the mob prepared funeral terror in which they were pyres while Luther Holbert and the born to the era of inequality black woman, each tied to a tree, and Jim Crow segregation. watched. They were forced to hold out their hands as their fingers were chopped off, one at a time, and dis- tributed as souvenirs. Then their ears were cut off and handed out as prizes. Holbert was beaten until his skull fractured and one eye hung from its socket. Mob members then used a large corkscrew to bore into their arms, legs, and torsos, pull- ing out large pieces of flesh before throwing both victims on the fire to burn to death. The event was de- scribed as festive, with 600 specta- tors enjoying deviled eggs, lemon- ade, and whiskey.5 When shifting national sentiment With white control of state and lo- threatened federal interference with cal government restored, lawmak- slavery, South Carolina seceded ers passed legislation that required from the Union to form the Con- racial separation in major and federacy in December 1860, and mundane areas of life. the Civil War began in April 1861.8 Four years later, the rebels were de- In 1905, the City of Ensley, Ala- feated, black people were emanci- bama, required all barbers to use pated, and white Southerners began separate razors, brushes, linens, and SEGREGATION IN AMERICA 10 AMERICA IN SEGREGATION rebuilding a society that recreated chairs for black and white patrons,13 white supremacy.