Booker's Children: The Strange Segregationist Origins of Diversity?

The title of this post was inspired by a conversation I had with Anders Walker (SLU), who appeared in our enrichment series at FSU this past Thursday; in truth, I hope something like it will be the title of his next book project. Anders gave a legal history talk discussing the range of responses to Brown v. Board, emphasizing how some Southern politicians used the cultural politics of Brown to focus efforts on combating delinquency through an expansion of the welfare state. That paper was all well and interesting, but we got to talking about some of his ideas and research related to "moderate" segregationists like Lewis Powell and former Florida governor, Leroy Collins, and this is where things got cooking (at least in my mind; I herewith acknowledge that I don't know a lick of legal or cultural history associated with this era, so if the following seems wrong, blame me, not Anders, for the faulty re-telling).

According to Anders, a number of Southern white figures (like Collins/Powell) favored Jim Crow arrangements (and thus were concerned about Brown and its aftermath) because they valued the distinctive cultural pluralistic arrangements and achievements of the separate races.  In this respect, they were sympathetic to Booker T. Washington's earlier exhortations to give blacks economic and political rights but averse to full-scale assimilation and integration because of the concern that such developments would destroy the efflorescence of self-sufficient and integrity-bearing black communities and institutions. In a similar vein, Anders then shared some details about research related to black teachers and school principals in Mississippi who were concerned that integration would jeopardize their career prospects.  Interestingly, other black leaders had reservations about the civil rights movement's emphasis on integration--in part because of economic concerns (ie, how integration would imperil their job prospects) and in part because of cultural concerns similar to those espoused by Booker Washington and his followers. One example of this that Anders shared was Florida A & M football coach, Jake Gaither, who apparently opposed the integration of college football out of concern that he would lose his football team (and/or the best black athletes) if it were simply absorbed into the UF or FSU sports umbrella.

This dynamic of course creates a kind of (minoritarian) "interest convergence" between some white and black Southerners who shared concerns with the "we can't wait any longer" goals for desegregation. To my mind, there's a fascinating story to be told (by Anders) that connects this cultural reaction to the "perils" of Brown to the arguments Powell, who himself expressed appreciation for cultural/racial pluralism at the time of Brown, makes later on in his Bakke opinion regarding the desirability of respecting the benefits of cultural diversity in the university community. In this respect, it looks like there's not just the standard two ways of looking at Brown and the responses it triggered (massive resistance vs. civil rights integration) but also the possibility of a third narrative, one that is more complicated (though still ethically troublesome) and stresses a multicultural approach to education and educational politics.

For what it's worth, Sam Freedman in the NYT today has a piece about Coach Gaither and how he eventually turned around on integration and football. Here's the description that bolsters, at least in part, this possible narrative:

A man deeply knowledgeable and eloquent about black history, Coach Gaither nonetheless had maintained a public distance from the civil rights movement. Conversely, segregation benefited his university and team by shutting off all of Florida’s white schools to the best black students and athletes in the state. Yet by 1967, Coach Gaither had begun privately lobbying members of Florida’s Board of Regents, which oversaw state schools of both races, to allow him to play a white team. A year later, when Mr. Curci took over as head coach in Tampa, Mr. Gaither found a willing collaborator.

  As I mentioned before, I'm the "opposite" of a legal historian, and thus there are probably lots of nuances that are left out of this narrative, in particular some more that would connect Powell's view around Brown to the views he espoused in Bakke.  That said, I thought I'd mention the brief outlines of the whole thing to encourage Anders to pursue this quite provocative line of research and invite others to point him to other sources that might bolster or challenge this account. (If it turns out I'm wrong about various things herein, I'll revise the post as needed.)