Desegregation in the United States in the context of "States' rights"

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination, which most commonly affected African Americans.

A Black church leader, King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches during the 1965 Selma voting rights movement. There were dramatic standoffs with segregationist authorities, who often responded violently. The civil rights movement achieved pivotal legislative gains in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

In United States constitutional theory, compact theory is an interpretation of the Constitution which asserts the United States was formed through a compact agreed upon by all the states, and that the federal government is thus a creation of the states. Consequently, under the theory, states are the final arbiters over whether the federal government has overstepped the limits of its authority as set forth in the compact. Compact theory contrasts with contract theory, which holds that the United States was formed with the consent of the people—rather than the consent of the states—and thus the federal government has supreme jurisdiction over the states. Compact theory has never been upheld by the courts.

Compact theory featured heavily in arguments by southern political leaders in the run up to the American Civil War that states had a right to nullify federal law and to secede from the union. It also featured in southern arguments opposing desegregation after the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The theory also entered into the Mexico–United States border crisis of the early 2020s.

In the United States, school integration (also known as desegregation) is the process of ending race-based segregation within American public, and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and remains an issue in contemporary education. During the civil rights movement school integration became a priority, but since then de facto segregation has again become prevalent.

School segregation declined rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Segregation appears to have increased since 1990. The disparity in the average poverty rate in the schools whites attend and blacks attend is the single most important factor in the educational achievement gap between white and black students.

James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, Carter served from 1971 to 1975 as the 76th governor of Georgia and from 1963 to 1967 in the Georgia State Senate. He is the longest-lived president in U.S. history and the only one to reach the age of 100.

Born in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the submarine service before returning to his family's peanut farm. He was active in the civil rights movement, then served as a state senator and the 76th governor, one of the first of the "New South governors" committed to desegregation. After announcing his candidacy in 1976, Carter secured the Democratic nomination as a dark horse little known outside his home state before narrowly defeating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford in the general election.

The Albany Movement was a desegregation and voters' rights coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, in November 1961. This movement was founded by local black leaders and ministers, as well as members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The groups were assisted by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). It was meant to draw attention to the brutally enforced racial segregation practices in Southwest Georgia. However, many leaders in SNCC were fundamentally opposed to King and the SCLC's involvement. They felt that a more democratic approach aimed at long-term solutions was preferable for the area other than King's tendency towards short-term, authoritatively-run organizing.

Although the Albany Movement is deemed by some as a failure due to its unsuccessful attempt at desegregating public spaces in Southwest Georgia, those most directly involved in the movement tend to disagree. People involved in this movement labeled it as a beneficial lesson in strategy and tactics for the leaders of the civil rights movement and a key component to the movement's future successes in desegregation and policy changes in other areas of the Deep South.

George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the longest-serving governor from the Democratic Party. Wallace is remembered for his staunch segregationist and populist views, although in the late 1970s he moderated his views on race, renouncing his support for segregation. During Wallace's tenure as governor of Alabama, he promoted "industrial development, low taxes, and trade schools." Wallace unsuccessfully sought the United States presidency as a Democrat three times, and once with the American Independent Party, in which he carried five states in the 1968 presidential election. Wallace opposed desegregation and supported the policies of "Jim Crow" during the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever."

Born in Clio, Alabama, Wallace attended the University of Alabama School of Law, and served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II. After the war, he won election to the Alabama House of Representatives, and served as a state judge. Wallace first sought the Democratic nomination in the 1958 Alabama gubernatorial election. Initially a moderate on racial issues, Wallace adopted a hard-line segregationist stance after losing the 1958 nomination. Wallace ran for governor again in 1962, and won the race. Seeking to stop the racial integration of the University of Alabama, Wallace earned national notoriety by standing in front of the entrance of the University of Alabama, blocking the path of Black students. Wallace left office when his first term expired in 1967 due to term limits. His wife, Lurleen, won the next election and succeeded him, with him as the de facto governor. Wallace's period of influence ended when Lurleen died of cancer in May 1968; her doctor informed Wallace of the cancer's diagnosis in 1961, but he had not told her.