I recommend you look at pp. 80-82 of James Patterson, Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy (Oxford 2001), which offers a balanced evaluation of Pres. Eisenhower’s views on Brown.  When asked about his opinion on the newly decided case, Ike said:  “The Supreme Court has spoken, and I am sworn to uphold their---the constitutional processes in this country, and I am trying.  I will obey.”  He privately opined that the “Supreme Court decision set back progress in the South at least fifteen years.”  Patterson tries to put these statements into the cultural and historical perspective of the times, but Justice Breyer’s words are accurate.

 

 

 

From the Breyer interview linked below:

 

“He surveyed historical tensions between the court and presidents or the public. He picked up the topic of public resistance in the interview, saying, "In my mind the key moment is when (President) Eisenhower sent the troops into Little Rock" in 1957 to enforce court-ordered desegregation and protect nine black high school students.

 

"Since that time, people have come to expect of presidents that they will follow court decisions that they don't like, which may be unpopular and are even wrong," said Breyer, 72.”

 

I don’t’ really want to take this list off topic, but this bugged me a bit.  I’m not an Ike scholar, but my understanding is that while Ike never said a lot about civil rights, his administration aggressively pushed the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which was in its original form primarily drafted by his attorney general Herbert Brownell, but had to be watered down to survive Democratic filibusters in the Senate.  And it was Eisenhower who successfully executed Truman’s Executive Order integrating the military (which Truman, having issued the order, was largely unable to accomplish). Eisenhower appointed federal judges who were often very aggressive in following up on desegegration post-Brown (and of course he appointed Earl Warren), and Ike directed the Justice Department to argue for desegregation in Brown.  It’s true –as I understand it, anyway – that Eisenhower would have preferred a slower approach rather than “all deliberate speed,” but Breyer’s implication that Eisenhower was with some distaste following orders seems really unfair.

 

 

 

 

December 01, 2010

November 30, 2010

-- 

Rick Hasen

William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law

Loyola Law School

919 Albany Street

Los Angeles, CA  90015-1211

(213)736-1466

(213)380-3769 - fax

rick.hasen@lls.edu

http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html

http://electionlawblog.org