Accommodation Within the Broad Structure of Voluntary Society: Buchanan and Nutter on School Segregation

Public choice theory coalesced into a school of thought in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the late 1950s and early 1960s at a time when the commonwealth was embroiled in a fight over school segregation. Until very recently, the history of segregation has not informed our understanding of the lives of the key public choice theorists in Virginia. This paper contributes to the discussion of James Buchanan and Warren Nutter’s views on school segregation by exploring neglected archival evidence that suggests Buchanan and Nutter were “moderate segregationists” or “gradualists.” Moderate segregationists accepted the Brown v. Board of Education decision against statutory segregation but believed that integration should occur gradually and at the pace of local sentiment. Buchanan and Nutter inserted themselves into the policy debate on segregation by promoting a private school tuition grant program that channeled public funds to private segregated schools. Buchanan aligned himself with the moderate segregationist views of former governor Colgate Darden, Jr., and disputed President Eisenhower’s authority to force integration in Little Rock, Arkansas. A second contribution of this paper is to provide new evidence that Warren Nutter was personally active in the private school movement in Charlottesville. In 1958, Nutter hosted a basement classroom of twenty-one white seventh graders affected by the school closings in the confrontation between the commonwealth of Virginia and the federal courts.