Fifty-Eight Lonely Men: Southern Federal Judges and School Desegregation

by Jack Walter Peltason, Numan V. Bartley (Contributor), Kenneth N. Vines (Epilogue)

Originally published in 1961, this still timely book illustrates the role of the judiciary in the solution of a social and political problem. It is unequaled in its description of the plight of federal judges who are charged with carrying out the decisions of the Supreme Court against segregation but who are under constant pressure--social, political, and personal--to speak for the white South. Some have been ostracized by their communities as traitors; others have joined their state legislatures and local school boards in developing elaborate delay strategy to circumvent the Supreme Court's decisions. In his introduction to the first edition former Senator Paul H. Douglas ". . . a clear and comprehensive account of the legal struggles in the federal courts over segregation and desegregation in the public schools of the nation. It gets behind the newspaper headlines and gives a play-by-play account. . . . This book is indeed full proof of the delays and difficulties of the law and the pressures of local public opinion."

Genres: Nonfiction, Law, History

296 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1971

Reviews

[Jim Gulley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A summary of the aftermath of the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954 up to 1960. Peltason provides analysis through the lens of federal court proceedings as the lower courts struggled with the Supreme Court’s ambiguous implementation ruling. The “fifty-eight lonely men” of the title were the forty-eight federal district judges in the South plus ten courts of appeals judges that heard the cases emanating from Brown.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a little time-encrusted, but it's a very unique perspective on school integration. The author's thesis is that the federal district judges were the fulcrum of the whole thing. Very few biographies or biographical sketches or historical sketches or regular workaday district judges. Just Learned Hand, right?

Most of the judges come off poorly,a s the epilogue indicates, but some of them seem much better by not being out-and-out racists. So I think the sharp criticism meant to be sent doesn't quite come through.

[Larissa Mendes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes it goes around a lot, but what I like the most about this book is that it was written right after The Brown v. Board of Education case. So you get the feeling you are there as things are happening. It tells the story of a battle between the law vs. discrimination.