What did the Southern Manifesto declare regarding the Brown v. Board of Education ruling?

The Southern Manifesto was a document issued by numerous Southern politicians in 1956 in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Therefore, the declaration of the Southern Manifesto directly opposed this ruling, asserting that the Supreme Court's decision was a misuse of judicial power.

The signers of the manifesto believed that the ruling would incite social upheaval and resisted the notion that federal judges could impose integration upon the states. By declaring the ruling unconstitutional, they aimed to justify their resistance to desegregation efforts and maintain the status quo of racial segregation in education and other public spheres. This assertion was rooted in the belief that educational institutions should remain segregated, reflecting persistent social attitudes of that time in the South.

In contrast, the other choices either do not align with the staunchly opposing nature of the manifesto towards the ruling or promote ideas which were not advocated by the signers. For instance, the expectation of federal oversight or immediate integration contradicts the manifesto's intent, while the principle of "separate but equal" was the very doctrine the Supreme Court aimed to dismantle with its ruling in Brown.