Cowan, Whiteness, Resistance to Brown, and the Persistence of the Past

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the use of litigation as a strategic tool of resistance for thwarting school desegregation. Utilizing Cowan v. Bolivar County Board of Education as a case study, I argue that, despite losing the constitutional right to racially segregate public schools according to an explicit white supremacist doctrine, whites in Bolivar County, Mississippi, were successful in stemming the impending tide of social change associated with school desegregation through litigation. Litigious resistance not only provided southern whites with a racially moderate epistemology for undermining school desegregation regionally, but their legal challenges to school desegregation also laid the groundwork for non-southern white animus toward all federal education policies that promoted racial inclusion.

Notes

1 When using the term South, I am specifically referring to the 11 states that constituted the Confederacy (i.e., Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia).

2 The Nugent Center School was renamed Ray Brooks in 1998 in honor of Mr. Ray Brooks, the first principal of the school. Source: http://www.wbcsdk12.org/ray-brooks-school

3 Historically, the all-black high school.

4 Historically, the all-white high school.

5 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483 (1954); Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971); Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430 (1968); Flax v. Potts, 915 F.2d 155 (5th Circuit, 1990); Davis v. East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, 721 F.2d 1425 (5th Circuit, 1983); Ross v. Houston Independent School District, 699 F.2d 218 (5th Circuit, 1983); United States v. Pittman by Pittman, 808 F.2d 385 (5th Circuit, 1987).

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Notes on contributors

Jamel K. Donnor

Jamel K. Donnor, Ph.D., is the William and Martha Clairborne Stephens Distinguished Associate Professor of Education at The College of William & Mary. Dr. Donnor's research investigates the inextricable ties between the law, race, and inequality in America. Specifically examining the evolutionary links between ideology, interests, and politics in shaping opportunity, Dr. Donnor's scholarship expands our understanding of the intersections between race, education, and opportunity in a democratic society. He has co-edited a number of books, including: Scandals in College Sports: Legal, Ethical, and Policy Case Studies; Critical Race Theory in Education: All God's Children Got a Song (2nd ed.); and The Charter School Solution: Distinguishing Fact From Rhetoric.