[aristeides]

State-imposed segregation was struck down by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education and a series of other decisions in the 1950's. Granted, it took years before these decisions were fully enforced, but in time they could -- and presumably would -- have been, as in the end they were in the 1970's.

State-imposed integration was started by the Civil Rights act of 1964. The two steps are quite different, and it was not necessary to proceed from the first step to the second. But that means raising the kinds of objections that Barry Goldwater is now so vilified for raising in 1964.

[Abundy]

State-imposed segregation was struck down by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education and a series of other decisions in the 1950's. Granted, it took years before these decisions were fully enforced, but in time they could -- and presumably would -- have been, as in the end they were in the 1970's.

State-imposed integration was started by the Civil Rights act of 1964. The two steps are quite different, and it was not necessary to proceed from the first step to the second. But that means raising the kinds of objections that Barry Goldwater is now so vilified for raising in 1964.

Good points, but the Civil Rights act came about partly as a response to the continued resistance in the South (and the North but rarely is this acknowledged) to the Brown decision as well as in part in recognition that individuals were still attempting to segregate their private lives as much as possible. The logic used by SCOTUS to rule against private individuals was tenuous at best.