Politics of Southern Equality: Law and Social Change in a Mississippi County

by Wirt,Frederick M.

• ISBN13: 9780202361901
• ISBN10: 020236190X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-07-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This path-breaking text deals with the effects of federal civil rights legislation on the behavior and attitudes of the inhabitants of a single county in Mississippi-Panola County. These effects are examined in the three civil rights areas of voting, education, and economic opportunities. By using this smaller example, Frederick M. Wirts broader interest is to show how legislation can be used to effect social change on a large scale. The need to substitute empirical knowledge for abstract speculation motivates Wirts study. Wirt restricts his study to one county but with conclusions on comparative studies that illumine the emerging political sociology of the South. The author sketches the historical setting of Panola County, emphasizing on the demographic, economic, and political developments in recent decades. He then examines what has actually happened in race relations as an effect of civil rights laws affecting votes, schools, and jobs. Wirt utilizes documentary material from federal, state, and county sources; local newspapers; and records from business and other groups. But his closer understanding comes from personal interviews. Because federal law is the dynamic factor setting the social system in movement, the author explains the interactions between public opinion, the President, and the Congress, which in the end resulted in the laws on votes, schools, and jobs. He also deals with the differing machinery of sanctions and enforcement. Law has a huge effect on social change; and Wirt draws from his empirical study a systematic, inclusive statement of the factors affecting compliance with law, in conditions of conventional biases.

Author Biography

Frederick M. Wirt is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois, Urbana and is best known for his work in the fields of urban politics and the politics of education

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
The Background for Research	p. 1
Theories of Law and Social Change	p. 3
The Society of Panola County	p. 19
The Law and Voting Equality	p. 49
Congress and Voting Legislation	p. 51
Enforcement and Legal Content	p. 70
The Politics of Litigation	p. 87
COFO and Black Politics, 1964-1965	p. 113
The Growth of Political Power, 1965-1968	p. 142
Racial Political Strategies in the New South	p. 159
The Law and Educational Equality	p. 173
The Federal Mandate of Change	p. 175
Changing Schools in Panola County	p. 191
Limitations on the Laws Effect	p. 211
The Law and Economic Equality	p. 233
Federal Subsidy of Economic Rights	p. 235
Federal Regulations of Economics Rights	p. 251
The Effect of Law on Social Change	p. 273
Effect on Social Change: Regulation and Regulator	p. 275
Effect on Social Change: Regulated and Regulatee	p. 287
Epilog: The Corner is Turned in Panola	p. 311
Index	p. 321
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