The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. It expresses the principle of federalism, also known as states' rights, by stating that the federal government has only those powers delegated to it by the Constitution, and that all other powers not forbidden to the states by the Constitution are reserved to each state, or to the people.
John Bell Williams was an American Democratic politician who represented Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1968 and served as the 55th governor of Mississippi from 1968 to 1972.
From the first United States Congress in 1789 through the 116th Congress in 2020, 162 African Americans served in Congress. Meanwhile, the total number of all individuals who have served in Congress over that period is 12,348. Between 1789 and 2020, 152 have served in the House of Representatives, nine have served in the Senate, and one has served in both chambers. Voting members have totaled 156, while six others have served as delegates. Party membership has been 131 Democrats and 31 Republicans. While 13 members founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 during the 92nd Congress, in the 116th Congress (2019-2020), 56 served, with 54 Democrats and two Republicans.
Watkins "Wat" Moorman Abbitt was an American politician and lawyer. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia from February 17, 1948 to January 3, 1973. He was a top lieutenant within the Byrd Organization, the political machine named for its leader, U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd.
Southern Democrats are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States.
William Robert Poage was a Texas politician who won election to the United States House of Representatives 21 times, serving 41 years.
William Meyers Colmer was an American politician from Mississippi.
Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his son Harry Jr.'s brother-in-law, James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation, particularly after Brown v. Board of Education.
The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is a United States federal law that established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote. It dealt primarily with discriminatory laws and practices in the segregated South, by which African-Americans and Tejanos had been effectively disenfranchised since the late 19th and start of the 20th century. This was the fifth Civil Rights Act to be enacted in United States history. Over an 85-year period, it was preceded only by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, whose shortcomings largely influenced its creation. This law served to more effectively enforce what was set forth in the 1957 act through eliminating certain loopholes in it, and to establish additional provisions. Aside from addressing voting rights, the Civil Rights Act of 1960 also imposed criminal penalties for obstruction of court orders to limit resistance to the Supreme Court's school desegregation decisions, arranged for free education for military members' children, and banned the act of fleeing to avoid prosecution for property damage. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
William Jennings Bryan Dorn was a United States politician from South Carolina who represented the western part of the state in the United States House of Representatives from 1947 to 1949 and from 1951 to 1975 as a Democrat.
Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, and 1976, when the court ruled similarly about private schools.
Olin Earl "Tiger" Teague was an American politician and World War II veteran who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 6th congressional district as a Democrat for 32 years, from 1946 to 1978. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Robert "Bob" Emmett Jones Jr. was a member of the United States House of Representatives from the 8th district of Alabama. He was the last to represent that district before it was removed as a result of the 1970 United States Census. Presently there are seven U.S. House districts in Alabama.
Albert Sydney Herlong Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Florida who served ten terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1969. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Ezekiel Candler "Took" Gathings was a U.S. Representative from Arkansas, representing Arkansas' First Congressional District from 1939 to 1969. A Democrat and segregationist conservative, Gathings was an ally of Strom Thurmond, and stood against all civil rights legislation. Gathings also chaired the 1952 House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials, which advocated for censorship of obscene magazines, books, and comics.
Armistead Inge Selden Jr. was a segregationist U.S. Representative from Alabama. Originally a Democrat, he switched parties in 1979 to become a Republican.
George William Andrews was an American politician and a U.S. Representative from Alabama, and the husband of Elizabeth B. Andrews.
Robert Thomas Ashmore was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, cousin of John D. Ashmore.
Paul Caruthers Jones was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Missouri.
The Ministers' Manifesto refers to a series of manifestos written and endorsed by religious leaders in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, during the 1950s. The first manifesto was published in 1957 and was followed by another the following year. The manifestos were published during the civil rights movement amidst a national process of school integration that had begun several years earlier. Many white conservative politicians in the Southern United States embraced a policy of massive resistance to maintain school segregation. However, the 80 clergy members that signed the manifesto, which was published in Atlanta's newspapers on November 3, 1957, offered several key tenets that they said should guide any debate on school integration, including a commitment to keeping public schools open, communication between both white and African American leaders, and obedience to the law. In October 1958, following the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing in Atlanta, 311 clergy members signed another manifesto that reiterated the points made in the previous manifesto and called on the governor of Georgia to create a citizens' commission to help with the eventual school integration process in Atlanta. In August 1961, the city initiated the integration of its public schools.
