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Article: The 'fifth circuit four': how four federal judges brought the rule of reason to the South.
- Article from:
- The Nation
- Article date:
- May 3, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Nation Company L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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As we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, a major element in the American South's social revolution remains hidden in the shadows of history. I refer to the small band of federal judges in the South, mostly Republicans appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, who fleshed out the bare bones of Brown and transformed it into a broad mandate for racial justice.
In the decade and a half after Brown, the Supreme Court issued only a handful of civil rights decisions. Instead, it affirmed major Fifth Circuit opinions about civil rights or let them stand without hearing an appeal, sending clear ...