“EQUAL RIGHTS, WHICH EQUAL LAW MUST PROTECT”: LEGAL CHALLENGES TO SOUTHERN SEGREGATIONIST SCHOOLS AND THEOLOGICAL RACISM IN THE SOUTH By AMANDA BEYER-PURVIS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2017 © 2017 Amanda Beyer-Purvis “To Matilda” ACKNOWLEDGMENTS So many have contributed to bringing this project to fruition. Thank you foremost to my husband, Jason Purvis, for the countless sacrifices he made while writing his own dissertation to facilitate and support the completion of mine. Thanks to my advisor Dr. Elizabeth Dale for the excellent advice and support concerning my scholarship and beyond. Through many life changes and challenging circumstances over seven years, she has given me endless support and patience. I could not have asked for a more well- matched advisor to my graduate student needs and quirks. Dr. Joseph Spillane’s class in Modern American History pointed me toward this very important and pressing topic and I thank him for encouraging my inquiry into a subject that seemed ripe for deeper investigation. Dr. David Hackett’s much needed encouragement and pep-talks at the beginning of the dissertation writing process helped me gain confidence in the importance of my project and my ability to see it through to the end. Dr. Jon Sensbach’s endless and valuable recommendations for literature on the colonial development of race and religion gave me the foundation upon which to build the project’s main argument and cohesion. For Dr. Paul Ortiz’s endless enthusiasm and willingness to help with contacts and connections, I am so lucky to have your support. Thanks to the UF Department of History for the generous Bertram Wyatt-Brown Research grant, from which this project has greatly benefitted. Finally, thanks to all my family and friends who for the past seven years have been so incredibly understanding of all the limits on time and money that have restricted our time together. You are still with me, despite my neglect. I am truly fortunate. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 9 2 RACE AND RELIGION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE .......................................... 51 Monogenesis and Racialized Knowledge ............................................................... 53 Theological Racism in the Americas ....................................................................... 59 Black and White Theology Separates ..................................................................... 64 Consecrating Southern Race Hierarchies ............................................................... 68 White Theology Reacts to Desegregation ............................................................... 70 Desegregation and Miscegenation ......................................................................... 77 Connecting Race and Religion ............................................................................... 81 3 RACE, EDUCATION AND RELIGION ........................................................................ 83 Resistance to Desegregation .................................................................................. 85 Reforming the Mission of the American Public School ......................................... 102 Rise of Segregation Academies ............................................................................ 108 4 BATTLE OF THE RIGHT TO FREE EXERCISE ...................................................... 121 The Supremacy of State Interest .......................................................................... 126 The Court Defines Religion ................................................................................... 131 Insiders and Outsiders in Pursuit of Free-Exercise ............................................... 141 5 THE GOVERNMENT AND TAXES .......................................................................... 163 Legal History of Battles Over Tax/Voucher Status ................................................ 165 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 .................................................................................. 168 The Nixon Administration ...................................................................................... 171 The Hearing .......................................................................................................... 184 The Reagan Administration .................................................................................. 193 6 CASE STUDY OF GOLDSBORO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM ........................ 198 Segregationist Academies Proliferate ................................................................... 200 Goldsboro’s Desegregation Plan .......................................................................... 202 The Incorporation of Goldsboro Christian Schools ............................................... 210 The Legal Case Begins......................................................................................... 215 5 Bob Jones v. United States ................................................................................... 217 Goldsboro’s Theological Stance ........................................................................... 219 Decision by the Court............................................................................................ 229 Results for Goldsboro Christian Schools .............................................................. 233 7 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 236 APPENDIX: EXCERPT FROM THE DEPOSITION OF ED ULRICH FOR GOLDSBORO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL, INC, V. U.S. ............................................. 248 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 251 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 266 6 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy “EQUAL RIGHTS, WHICH EQUAL LAW MUST PROTECT”: LEGAL CHALLENGES TO SOUTHERN SEGREGATIONIST SCHOOLS AND THEOLOGICAL RACISM IN THE SOUTH By AMANDA BEYER-PURVIS May 2017 Chair: Elizabeth Dale Major: History In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court legitimized one of the hardest fought legal challenges of the civil rights movement; school desegregation. Despite the profound legal and social meaning of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision, the fight to truly eliminate desegregation practices within the U.S. education system was just beginning. Over the next decade, as more and more public schools systems truly began to integrate, private schools—especially religious private schools—became havens for whites seeking segregated education for their children. Why religious discriminatory academies grew in such significant numbers and became the primary shadow segregationist education in the U.S. during the 1960s through the 1980s remains a topic of debate. Some scholars have argued that the tax status of these schools made them more financially solvent than secular private schools that lost access to state funds through a series of legal injunctions in the 1970s. This dissertation examines how the financial considerations often attributed to the exponential increase in religious private academies in the wake of desegregation fail to recognize the longstanding theological dedication of white religious traditions to a segregated society. Far from being simple 7 tax havens for a secular effort to preserve segregation, these religious schools believed themselves to be protecting God’s mandate to keep the races separate. The ardent religious beliefs intertwined with the private academies’ discriminatory practices, however, created a challenge for the legal system attempting to grapple with the mandate to eliminate all support for discriminatory institutions by the government. The legal system was charged with determining a) if the segregationist practices of these institutions were religiously based and therefore protected by the First Amendment, and b) how to balance these First Amendment claims with the now constitutionally binding Brown decision. In grappling with these legal issues, governmental institutions confronted each other over how to balance between the right to church autonomy and religious free-expression and the mandates of desegregation. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court legitimized one of the hardest fought legal challenges of the civil rights movement; school desegregation. Despite the profound legal and social meaning of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision, the fight to truly eliminate desegregation practices within the U.S. education system was just beginning. Over the next decade, as more and more public schools systems truly began to integrate, private schools—especially religious private schools—became havens for whites seeking segregated education for their children. Religious segregationist education grew exponentially in the U.S. from the 1960s through the