The bombings occurred against a backdrop of increased antisemitic activity in the United States, both nonviolent and violent, after U.S. Supreme Court established that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional with Brown v. Board of Education in May 1954.
There was an increase in antisemitic activity in the United States, both nonviolent and violent, after U.S. Supreme Court established that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional with Brown v. Board of Education in May 1954.
[1] Despite the rise in violence against Jews in the late 1950s, authorities were slow to associate them with integration until the Confederate Underground started to take credit for the bombings, in part because the southern segregationists were not uniformly anti-Jewish.
Mayor of Atlanta William Hartsfield condemned the perpetrators of the bombing, calling it the "end result of demagogy".
[2] According to George Kellman, federal lawmakers considered legislative changes to curb the spread of antisemitic literature, but proposals were complicated by freedom of speech concerns.