Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case against Brown v. Board of Education

304 Pages·2005·1.75 MB·English

by  Jr. John P. Jackson

Science for Segregation
c r i t i c a l a m e r i c a
General Editors: Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
White by Law: To Be an American: Cultural Pluralism
The Legal Construction of Race and the Rhetoric of Assimilation
Ian F. Haney López Bill Ong Hing
Cultivating Intelligence: Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism:
Power, Law, and the Politics of Teaching The Hidden Costs of Being
Louise Harmon and Deborah W. Post Black in America
Jody David Armour
Privilege Revealed:
How Invisible Preference Black and Brown in America:
Undermines America The Case for Cooperation
Stephanie M. Wildmand with Margalynne Bill Piatt
Armstrong, Adrienne D. Davis, and Trina
Black Rage Confronts the Law
Grillo
Paul Harris
Does the Law Morally Bind the Poor?
Selling Words:
or What Good’s the Constitution When
Free Speech in a Commercial Culture
You Can’t Afford a Loaf of Bread?
R. George Wright
R. George Wright
Hybrid: Bisexuals, Multiracials, and The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes,
Other Misfits under American Law White Fear, Black Protectionism,
Police Harassment, and
Ruth Colker
Other Macroaggressions
Critical Race Feminism: A Reader
Katheryn K. Russell
Edited by Adrien Katherine Wing
The Smart Culture:
Immigrants Out! Society, Intelligence, and Law
The New Nativism and the
Robert L. Hayman, Jr.
Anti-Immigrant Impulse
in the United States Was Blind, But Now I See:
Edited by Juan F. Perea White Race Consciousness and the Law
Barbara J. Flagg
Taxing America
Edited by Karen B. Brown and Mary The Gender Line:
Louise Fellows Men, Women, and the Law
Nancy Levit
Notes of a Racial Caste Baby:
Color Blindness and the Heretics in the Temple:
End of Affirmative Action Americans Who Reject
Bryan K. Fair the Nation’s Legal Faith
David Ray Papke
Please Don’t Wish Me a Merry
Christmas: A Critical History of the The Empire Strikes Back: Outsiders and
Separation of Church and State the Struggle over Legal Education
Stephen M. Feldman Arthur Austin
Interracial Justice: Conflict and Why Lawsuits Are Good for America:
Reconciliation in Disciplined Democracy, Big Business,
Post–Civil Rights America and the Common Law
Eric K. Yamamoto Carl T. Bogus
Black Men on Race, Gender, and How the Left Can Win Arguments and
Sexuality: A Critical Reader Influence People: A Tactical Manual for
Edited by Devon Carbado Pragmatic Progressives
John K. Wilson
When Sorry Isn’t Enough:
The Controversy over Apologies and Aftermath:
Reparations for Human Injustice The Clinton Impeachment and the Presi-
Edited by Roy L. Brooks dency in the Age of Political Spectacle
Edited by Leonard V. Kaplan
Disoriented: Asian Americans, Law,
and Beverly I. Moran
and the Nation State
Robert S. Chang Getting over Equality: A Critical Diag-
nosis of Religious Freedom in America
Rape and the Culture of the Courtroom
Steven D. Smith
Andrew E. Taslitz
Critical Race Narratives: A Study of
The Passions of Law
Race, Rhetoric, and Injury
Edited by Susan A. Bandes
Carl Gutiérrez-Jones
Global Critical Race Feminism:
An International Reader Social Scientists for Social Justice:
Making the Case against Segregation
Edited by Adrien Katherine Wing
John P. Jackson, Jr.
Law and Religion: Critical Essays
Victims in the War on Crime:
Edited by Stephen M. Feldman
The Use and Abuse of Victims’ Rights
Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, Markus Dirk Dubber
and the History of Ethnicity
Original Sin:
Clara E. Rodríguez
Clarence Thomas and the Failure
From the Ground Up: Environmental of the Constitutional Conservatives
Racism and the Rise of the Samuel A. Marcosson
Environmental Justice Movement
Policing Hatred: Law Enforcement,
Luke Cole and Sheila Foster
Civil Rights, and Hate Crime
Nothing but the Truth: Why Trial Jeannine Bell
Lawyers Don’t, Can’t, and Shouldn’t
Destructive Messages:
Have to Tell the Whole Truth
How Hate Speech Paves the Way for
Steven Lubet
Harmful Social Movements
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction Alexander Tsesis
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
Moral Imperialism:
Playing It Safe: How the Supreme Court A Critical Anthology
Sidesteps Hard Cases Edited by Berta Esperanza
Lisa A. Kloppenberg Hernández-Truyol
iv | Verso Running Head
In the Silicon Valley of Dreams: Legal Education and the Reproduction
Environmental Injustice, of Hierarchy: A Polemic against the
Immigrant Workers, and the System, A Critical Edition
High-Tech Global Economy Duncan Kennedy,
David N. Pellow and with commentaries by Paul Carrington,
Lisa Sun-Hee Park Peter Gabel, Angela Harris and
Donna Maeda, and Janet Halley
Mixed Race America and the Law:
A Reader America’s Colony:The Political
Kevin R. Johnson and Cultural Conflict between the
Critical Race Feminism: United States and Puerto Rico
A Reader, Second Edition Pedro A. Malavet
Edited by Adrien Katherine Wing
Alienated: Immigrant Rights, the
Murder and the Reasonable Man: Constitution, and Equality in America
Passion and Fear in the Victor C. Romero
Criminal Courtroom
The Disability Pendulum:
Cynthia K. Lee
The First Decade of the Americans
Success without Victory: with Disabilities Act
Lost Legal Battles and the Ruth Colker
Long Road to Justice in America
Jules Lobel Lawyers’ Ethics and the Pursuit
of Social Justice:A Critical Reader
Greasers and Gringos: Latinos, Law,
Edited by Susan D. Carle
and the American Imagination
Steven W. Bender Rethinking Commodification:
Cases and Readings in Law and Culture
Saving Our Children
Edited by Martha M. Ertman
from the First Amendment
and Joan C. Williams
Kevin W. Saunders
Elusive Citizenship: The Derrick Bell Reader
Immigration, Asian Americans, Edited by Richard Delgado
and the Paradox of Civil Rights and Jean Stefancic
John S. W. Park
Science for Segregation:Race, Law,
Truth, Autonomy, and Speech: Feminist and the Case against Brown v. Board
Theory and the First Amendment of Education
Susan H. Williams John P. Jackson Jr.
Science for
Segregation
Race, Law, and the Case against
Brown v. Board of Education
John P. Jackson Jr.
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
new york university press
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2005 by John P. Jackson Jr.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jackson, John P., 1961–
Science for segregation : race, law, and the case against
Brown v. Board of Education / John P. Jackson Jr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN–13: 978–0–8147–4271–6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN–10: 0–8147–4271–8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. African Americans—Segregation—History—20th century.
2. African Americans—Legal status, laws, etc.—History—
20th century. 3. Racism—United States—History—20th century.
4. Science—Political aspects—United States—History—20th century.
5. Eugenics—United States—History—20th century.
6. Segregation in education—Law and legislation—United States.
7. Brown, Oliver, 1918—Trials, litigation, etc. 8. Topeka (Kan.).
Board of Education—Trials, litigation, etc. 9. United States—Race
relations—History—20th century. I. Title.
E185.61.J145 2005
305.8'00973'09045—dc22 2005007376
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my mother, the Rev. Margaret B. Jackson,
my sister Mary J. Fortune, and the memory
of my father, John P. Jackson Sr.

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
1 A Scientific Conspiracy 1
2 Racial Science and the Anti-Nordic Conspiracy 19
3 Radical Right Underground 43
4 The South and the Scientific Backlash to Brown 69
5 Organizing Massive Resistance and
Organizing Science 93
6 The Attack on Brown 118
7 The Scientists React 148
8 Back to the Underground? 179
Notes 205
Bibliography 253
Index 281
About the Author 291
ix