“Declaration of Constitutional Principles” of March 1956. Better known as the “Southern Manifesto,” the declaration was a joint statement from 101 of the region’s 128 representatives in the Senate and House, including the entire Georgia delegation. Condemning the “unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court” and announcing support for southern resistance, the manifesto was, in the words of one legal scholar, nothing less than “a calculated decision of political war.” Taken together, these pronouncements assured that segregationists projected a united front of opposition to desegregation.
