Niebuhr believed that laws that violated the mores and customs of the southern white majority would not be obeyed; if such laws were enforced, the result would be anarchy. On that basis, he was practical and cautious in his support of the integration of schools in the South and praised the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision, which made segregation legal, and perhaps that is why he was silent about the Till lynching at a time when his powerful theological voice was desperately needed.
