Race, Reason, and Massive Resistance: The Diary of David J. Mays, 1954-1959

Race, Reason, and Massive Resistance: The Diary of David J. Mays, 1954-1959

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Description

This book is an edited version of the diary of David J. Mays, a prominent Richmond, Virginia attorney, from the spring of 1954 through the spring of 1959. Mays served as counsel to a legislative commission appointed by Governor Thomas Stanley to devise a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Mays provides an insider's view of the so-called Gray Commission which devised a plan that tacitly permitted token integration. He also comments on the rejection of that approach by the governor and others loyal to the state's dominant political leader, U. S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, who favored a policy of massive resistance to school desegregation. Mays correctly assesses the legal deficiencies of the massive resistance program which resulted in the closing of schools in three communities before it was declared unconstitutional by both state and federal courts.

ISBN

9780820330259

Publication Date

2008

Publisher

University of Georgia Press

City

Athens, Georgia

Keywords

David John Mays, Diaries, Lawyers, Massive resistance movement (Virginia), School integration

Disciplines

Civil Rights and Discrimination | Political History | Social History | United States History

Race, Reason, and Massive Resistance: The Diary of David J. Mays, 1954-1959

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