Thomas J. Wesley Jr., leader of the Metropolitan Association for Segregated Education (MASE). A prominent spokesman for middle-class segregationists in Atlanta, Wesley challenged the claims of the moderate coalition that their opponents were simply uncultured “rednecks” from the working class. In his opposition to desegregation, Wesley employed a language that avoided crude racism and instead stressed the supposed rights of the white middle class, especially the right to “freedom of association.”
