The Declining Years of Jim Crow Summary and Analysis

The Court decision of 1954 put a symbolic and legal end to Jim Crow segregation of public schools. The issue of implementation, however, was something else entirely, and thus commenced the second period of the "new Reconstruction." While the public outside the South verbally supported the new direction, it was by no means ready to fervently press for immediate compliance. The immediate reaction of the Southern states' governments to the Brown decision was moderate. Border states announced their intention to integrate their schools. Without deadlines given in the decision, however, "Deep South" states interpreted the decision to mean they could procrastinate indefinitely. As well, it was generally felt that, so long as Southerners had swallowed increased black voting, court participation and local and state black officials, as well as integration of the...