Final answer:
The Southern Manifesto rejected mandatory school integration on the basis of racial segregation, defending states' rights against the perceived overreach of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Southern Manifesto rejected mandatory school integration on the basis of racial segregation. In 1956, leading politicians from the South, totaling ninety-six members of Congress, accused the U.S. Supreme Court of misusing its power and stated that the manifesto was an attempt to uphold the principle of states' rights. They claimed that states had rights equal to the federal government and viewed the Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which mandated public school desegregation, as a misuse of judicial authority. The Southern Manifesto was essentially a symbol of the commitment of many southerners to resist integration and maintain racial segregation, which they often tried to achieve through various means, including closing public schools and establishing private academies that were only open to white students.