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Enforcing Desegregation: A Case Study of Federal District Court Power and Social Change in Macon County Alabama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Brian K. Landsberg
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Abstract

This case study of Lee v. Macon County Board of Education demonstrates that a federal district court in Alabama, enforcing Brown v. Board of Education, brought about significant social change despite constraints on the courts. The court's application of Brown played a decisive role in ending the racial caste system in this Alabama Black Belt county. The court, by adding the U.S. Department of Justice as a party, overcame constraints that had precluded the executive branch from pursuing school desegregation. Change came through the courts before Congress legislated against school segregation. Seekers of social change must evaluate the constraints on the courts relative to the constraints on the other branches and levels of government.

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Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 867 - 891
Copyright
© 2014 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

This article grows out of a larger project. Thanks to Anne Bloom and participants in a Pacific McGeorge Works in Progress program. Thanks to Steve Pollak and Dorothy Landsberg for comments on early drafts, and to Stephen L. Wasby for his ongoing advice both on this article and on the larger project. The editors and reviewers for Law and Society Review contributed valuable suggestions. I benefited also from feedback on a related article at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting in 2013, especially from Ira Strauber and Thomas Keck. Thanks to archivists at Tuskegee Institute, Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration College Park, Kennedy Presidential Library, and Alabama State Archives. A number of research assistants have helped on this project: Jocelyn Blinn, Keith Banks, Michael Heumann, Jacqueline Hassell, and Abby Maurer. Robert Mayville provided helpful research assistance on this article. Finally, Joseph M. Bagley generously shared with me his extensive research on Lee v. Macon County Board of Education.

References

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