"Some people claim that the doctrine of states' rights..."

"Some people claim that the doctrine of states' rights, one of Thomas Jefferson's central principles, has been responsible for racism.  But racism, a disorder of the heart, can become trenched in any political environment, whether highly centralized like Hitler's Germany or highly decentralized like our own country.  In Mein Kampf, Hitler spoke with delight of the process by which governments around the world were becoming more centralized, with states and local governments having less and less power.  It was a trend  he wanted to see continue in Germany, in order to build "a powerful national Reich" in which the central government could impose its will without having to worry about recalcitrant states.  Hitler wrote:  "National Socialism as a matter of principle, must lay claim to the right to force its principles on the whole German nation without consideration of previous federated state boundaries, and to educate in its ideas and conceptions.  Just as the churches do not feel bound and limited by political boundaries, no more does the National Socialist idea feel limited by the individual state territories of our fatherland.  The National Socialist doctrine is not the servant of individual federated states, but shall some day become the master of the German nation."

No form of political organization, therefore is immune to cruel abuses like the Jim Crow laws, whereby government sets out to legislate on how groups of human beings are allowed to interact with one another.  Peaceful civil disobedience to unjust laws, which I support with every fiber of my being, can sometimes be necessary at any level of government.  It falls upon the people, in the last resort, to stand against injustice no matter where it occurs.

In the long run, the only way racism can be overcome is through the philosophy of individualism, which I have promoted throughout my life.  Our rights come to us not because we belong to some group, but our rights come to us as individuals.  And it is as individuals that we should judge one another.  Racism is a particularly odious form of collectivism whereby individuals are treated not on their merits but on the basis of group identity.  Nothing in my political philosophy, which is the exact opposite of the racial totalitarianism of the twentieth century, gives aid or comfort to such thinking.  To the contrary, my philosophy of individualism is the most radical intellectual challenge to racism ever posed." Pages 63 & 64 of The Revolution, A Manifesto