Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Challenging the Legacies of Racial Resentment

Abstract

This article argues that the promise of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) has been largely undermined by a persistent pattern of legal, political, and social resistance that has effectively “nullified” its goals. Despite the formal abolition of legally sanctioned school segregation, contemporary patterns of racial and economic isolation in American public schools increasingly resemble the inequalities that Brown sought to eradicate. Drawing on historical and contemporary evidence, the study links the resegregation of public education to a series of Supreme Court decisions particularly from the 1970s through the 1990s that limited the scope of desegregation remedies, weakened enforcement mechanisms, and prioritized local control over substantive equality.

The article situates these developments within the broader ideological framework of nullification, tracing its roots to the nineteenth-century Nullification Crisis and demonstrating its enduring influence in American political and legal thought. Rather than viewing resistance to desegregation as episodic or confined to “Southern backlash,” the analysis contends that nullification represents a recurring and deeply embedded tradition in U.S. history, one that systematically constrains the extension of full citizenship rights to African Americans. Through an examination of demographic trends, judicial doctrine, and public policy, the article highlights how structural inequalities in education persist despite formal legal commitments to equality. Ultimately, it concludes that the erosion of Brown’s transformative potential reflects a broader contradiction at the heart of American democracy—between its stated ideals of equality and its ongoing protection of racial hierarchy.

First Page

67

Last Page

88

DOI

10.4324/9781315081595-5

Publication Date

2017

Download

Share

COinS