The South prides itself in tradition: southern fried cooking, sweet tea, manners and most of all—stubbornness.
In June of 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace blocked the path of two African-American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from entering the University of Alabama after an Alabama federal court ruled the state must admit the qualified students.
President John F. Kennedy took control over the Alabama National Guard, and the students entered the university after Wallace moved aside.
Wallace’s ideology still echoes across the South today: “It is important that the people of this State and nation understand that this action is in violation of rights reserved to the State by the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Alabama.”
Alabama, along with its southern neighbors, defied the Supreme Court’s decision to end segregation in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Using this landmark decision, the Fifth Circuit Court slowly chipped away at the racist infrastructure of the South as whites kicked, screamed and defended their bigotry in the name of states’ rights.
With the help of Judge John Minor Wisdom, the Fifth Circuit force-fed the implication of Brown v. Board to southern states. Case by case the Fifth Circuit furthered the Civil Rights movement at the dissent of the southern majority.
The stubbornness of the South carries on.
On January 23, U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade ruled that Alabama’s bans on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional.
Alabama’s probate judges decided they will not to follow the federal ruling, and Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore pleaded with the state’s governor to “oppose such tyranny” displayed by the federal courts in opposition to Alabama laws.
George Wallace smiled in his grave. States’ perceived right to discriminate remains a lasting theme in the South.
In an interview with USA TODAY’s Susan Page, Mike Huckabee stated that states and governors should resist the Supreme Court’s decision if the justices decide that marriage is a constitutional right available to all Americans, not just between a man and woman.
Huckabee believes that resisting a Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage is comparable to Abraham Lincoln resisting the Dred Scott decision.
The two are anything but comparable. Lincoln resisted discrimination against human beings. Huckabee wants to resist in the name of discrimination.
Huckabee with the support of many conservatives believes that men and women in black robes should not be deciding the laws and practices of individual states. It should be up to the people.
George Wallace and his legislature would have agreed.