Editing John N. Mitchell (section)

===School desegregation===
Near the beginning of his administration, Nixon ordered Mitchell to go slow on desegregation of schools in the South, in fulfillment of Nixon's "[[Southern strategy|Southern Strategy]]" which accused him of focusing on gaining support from Southern white voters. After being instructed by the federal courts that segregation was unconstitutional and that the executive branch was required to enforce the rulings of the courts, Mitchell began to comply, threatening to withhold federal funds from those school systems that were still segregated and threatening legal action against them.

School segregation had been struck down as unconstitutional by a unanimous Supreme Court decision in 1954 (''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]''), but in 1955, the Court ruled that desegregation needed to be accomplished only with "[[all deliberate speed]]," <ref>Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294 (1955)</ref> which many Southern states interpreted as an invitation to delay. It was not until 1969 that the Supreme Court renounced the "all deliberate speed" rule and declared that further delay in accomplishing desegregation was no longer permissible.<ref>See, e.g., Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19 (1969)</ref>  As a result, some 70% of black children were still attending segregated schools in 1968 when Nixon became president.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121158799673718969|title=Reconsidering John Mitchell|first=Jonathan|last=Karl|date=May 24, 2008|access-date=July 22, 2017|work=[[Wall Street Journal]]}}</ref> By 1972, as a result of President Nixon's policy this percentage had decreased to 8%, a greater decrease than in any of the previous three presidents. Enrollment of black children in desegregated schools rose from 186,000 in 1969 to 3 million in 1970.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://humanevents.com/2008/05/09/reviewing-the-strong-man-john-mitchell-and-the-secrets-of-watergate/|title=Reviewing The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate|first=George|last=Marlin|date=May 9, 2008|work=[[Human Events]]|access-date=July 22, 2017|archive-date=August 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828094816/http://humanevents.com/2008/05/09/reviewing-the-strong-man-john-mitchell-and-the-secrets-of-watergate/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/05/a-surprise-but-not-a-success/302488/|title=A Surprise, but not a Success|first=Tamar|last=Jacoby|date=May 2002|work=[[Atlantic]]|access-date=May 2, 2023}}</ref>