Judge Bootle, Who Desegregated UGA, Dies at 102

My wife and I are both graduates of the University of Georgia, as are other family members (including a sister). It's remarkable to consider that when my first relative to attend UGA, a great-great uncle, graduated in 1900, the racial make-up of the student body was the same as when Judge William Augustus Bootle ordered it desegregated in 1961. His death on Tuesday in Macon provides an opportunity to reflect on his legacy.

I learned of Judge Bootle's death via Steve at Southern Appeal, where I turn frequently to catch up on the news from my home state. Unlike me, Steve knew Judge Bootle, and his posts (the other one is here) contain links to two of the Judge's speeches and newspaper articles.

The immorality of Jim Crowe is by now, I believe, clear for all to see. By issuing his order, Judge Bootle began a process that, in UGA's case, allowed desegregation to proceed with surprisingly little drama. But Judge Bootle didn't open the doors for blacks only, although that was the most important immediate consequence of his actions. Rather, his order, viewed after the passing of 42 years, was part of a series of judicial and legislative steps that freed an entire region from a poisonous past.

When we travel home, as we did for Christmas, we're always struck by the remarkable growth of the New South. That's nowhere more obvious than in one of our primary destinations, Atlanta. And I'm not speaking here merely of that city's famous (or, to some, infamous) suburban sprawl. Today, even the intown neighborhoods, blighted since WWII, are being rebuilt at breakneck pace.

Fly to Houston and you'll find the same type of growth; ditto for Charlotte, Orlando, Nashville, and many other Southern cities. This South, the one best known to people born since WWII, has been a magnet for jobs, investment, and all types of people for decades. And without men like Judge Bootle, none of it would have been possible.

As long as the region's populace was divided against itself, with social injustices directly linked to economic backwardness, an area that today boasts over 80 million souls would have remained an economic backwater. That's not to claim that desegregation's main benefits can be measured in mere economic terms -- far from it. But by freeing the region's black residents -- by making them full citizens -- desegregation accelerated the spread of a commodity that had been in short supply: opportunity. Freed from the shackles of our own apartheid, the inhabitants of the region could at last tap their own skills, ambitions, and abilities to build a much more equitable, and richer, society.

As residents of the Northeast, every trip home reminds us of how aged the infrastructure (and, for that matter, the populace) is in our adopted region when compared with the Southern cities with which we're familiar. That's not to complain about our current home region, which has its own charms, beauty, and strengths. But it is unmistakable to most observers.

One final note. Steve at Southern Appeal has posted some photos, one of which shows Judge Bootle standing with Steve and others in front of a banner of the Federalist Society of Georgia. This is the same organization that has been vilified by opponents of the President as a racist group bent on turning back the clock to the days of segregation. The charge was always absurd, of course, but Judge Bootle's presence at a conference sponsored by the FSG doesn't indicate that, in his latter years, he abandoned the courageous position he staked out decades earlier.

Instead, it reveals the consistency of his opinion that the courts should not allow state-sponsored racial preferences to stand. A life-long Republican, it's important to remember that Judge Bootle was appointed a U.S. Attorney by Calvin Coolidge in 1929, fired by FDR four years later, and appointed a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia in 1954. During those days, Republicans in Georgia were scarce in every region but the mountainous Northeast, and the Judge lived in Macon.

Thus, as a link to the Party of Lincoln's anti-segregation past, he lived long enough to see his principals become ascendant in his home state and region. There's still work to be done, to be sure, but he left behind a remarkable legacy.

Update: Steve at Southern Appeal has posted a new set of links with more information on Judge Bootle.