In reaction, working-class whites were furious. Throughout the late 1950s they held bitter protests to prevent the “loss” of their buses, golf courses, parks, and pools. In the end, however, the combined power of the courts, the city’s upper-class whites and the civil rights community overwhelmed their “defensive” efforts. Within a few years, all of the city’s public spaces were thoroughly desegregated. Ultimately, the failed fight over these spaces showed working-class whites that there was a growing chasm between their own commitment to segregation and the commitment of wealthier whites. In
...more
