Blog #6: Courts or legislatures?

If you look back on the history of desegregation in the United States, it is clear that the Judicial Branch and the Supreme Court made the greatest impact of all the other branches of government. I think it is fair to say that the Supreme Court overused their powers in their ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education. This was such a HUGE decision because after the Court's ruling all the states had to allow all blacks to enter white facilities. This meant that the separate facilities made for African-Americans were basically a waste of money and it would also cost lots of money to help make this adjustment. Also, the Supreme Court's decision to assimilate blacks and whites into the same public facilities and schools would be a dangerous one. Whites were still VERY racist and were maddened even more by the blacks entering their society. Race relations would get worse after this decision. Many argued that this decision was bad for race relations and the Supreme Court made a mistake by letting it happen. At the time I can understand why people would believe this was a bad choice, but I believe that it was necessary to take action. Even though relations would be ugly at first, you have to take actions knowing that someday things will improve. Obviously over time problems have worked themselves off and we live in a generally equal society. The Supreme Court's decision, while incredibly unprecedented and controversial, was a necessary one and has turned out to be a very positive step in our history. Pursuing federal legislation would not be a good idea because they were very slow and reluctant to step up and make a decision. If we waited on legislation from Congress then we might even be segregated in TODAY'S society. It is a great thing that the judicial branch made this important step in the history of civil rights.