I’d start by asking which entity created and supported de jure segregation in the first place.
In other words, “Without Gov’t, We’d Never Have Had Segregation.”
…But that’s assuming of course I’d want to start such a debate in a classroom…particularly one in which I was a student. You really have to pick your battles, and this is not usually the situation in which you want to engage such a battle. And if you ultimately decide it is, you had better be not only well-prepared, but also well-polished.
You’re already at a disadvantage due to the authority differential. He’s at the front of the room. You’re in the audience. Everyone can plainly see this. You’re an ignoramus, he’s the master. You’re paying him to teach you…and you’re going to try to argue he’s wrong and you’re right? That’s an uphill battle…particularly when your main goal is to appeal to an audience of your peers. And ultimately, that would be only real benefit to engaging such an argument…to educate some of the other students.
What’s more, odds are your professor is not only much more knowledgeable than you, but much more smooth in conversing on these topics, and much more comfortable in front of an audience…and not just any audience, an audience of his chronological juniors and academic subordinates that he stands in front of every day, and has been for likely more than a decade. You on the other hand, are one of those junior subordinates.
These are all large handicaps on your end. Even if you are right and he is wrong, it is quite likely he will be able to converse in such a way that he appears to have won the debate…and you end up looking the fool. Noam Chomsky does this all the time. Especially with college kids who’s heads are in the right place, but they simply don’t know what they’re getting into. Here’s a great example. The poor kid is on the right track, be he’s just simply outgunned. Lee Doran attempts a critique of the exchange here, but even he falls short. I’m sure plenty in this forum could offer something much more substantial. But you get the idea.
Tom Woods has commented on this topic a number of times. I tend to agree with his sentiments:
Reader Asks: How to Challenge My Professor?
(and related: “I’m in a debate somewhere on the Internet and I need help”)
As for info on segregation and nullification, obviously Tom is a pretty good authority on that as well:
State Nullification: What Is It?
Nullification: Answering the Objections
The States’ Rights Tradition Nobody Knows
The Hysterics Meet Their Match
Videos: