Instead of immediate compliance, Southern states employed a range of tactics to delay and obstruct desegregation, including:
* Massive Resistance: This strategy involved concerted efforts by state and local governments to defy the Court's ruling through legislative maneuvers, legal challenges, and the closure of public schools.
* Interposition and nullification: These doctrines asserted states' rights to override federal law, claiming the Supreme Court's decision was an overreach of federal power.
* Pupil placement laws: These laws were designed to allow school boards to assign students to schools based on subjective criteria, effectively maintaining segregation.
* Private school initiatives: White parents established numerous private academies and segregated schools to avoid integration.
* Violence and intimidation: Threats, harassment, and violence against Black students, their families, and civil rights activists were common. This included bombings, beatings, and other forms of terrorism.
While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other federal legislation gradually chipped away at this resistance, it wasn't a sudden collapse. De facto segregation (segregation not mandated by law but resulting from housing patterns, etc.) persists to this day in many areas, highlighting the long-lasting legacy of the resistance.
Therefore, to say Southern resistance collapsed after 1954 is inaccurate. It morphed, adapted, and persisted for many years, requiring significant federal intervention and social change to eventually overcome.