The Reluctant Desegregationists: Understanding LBJ, Nixon and the Integration of Southern Schools through a Rationalist Framework

• In Event: U.S. Presidential Elections: Strategies and Outcomes

Brief Overview

This paper uses a rationalist framework to examine the puzzle of why most desegregation in the American South occurred under Nixon rather than LBJ. By assuming presidents are single-minded pursuers of re-election, seeming paradoxes can be solved.

Author

• James Fahey, University of Florida