ABSTRACT
This chapter presents actions taken by Jimmy Carter and his administration in the pursuit of the desegregation of public colleges in those states that were subject to the litigation involved in the Adams case. The first thing to acknowledge is that the relationships between these actions and liberal principles and their permutations were complex. The chapter looks at the genesis of the Adams case and its development up to the 1977 inauguration of Jimmy Carter. It reviews the events surrounding the prosecution of Adams in Carter's administration, focusing particularly on the actions of the Department of Health Education and Welfare (HEW) Secretary Joseph Califano, a northern liberal, and his interaction with the Carter White House. The chapter addresses specifically the intersection of Jimmy Carter and political liberalism in Adams; it deals with the case as it was handled by the Reagan administration.
