 After he won re-election in 1950, fellow senators elected Boutwell as their president pro-tem.During his third four-year term, Boutwell served as Chairman of the Interim Legislative Committee on Segregation in the Public Schools, and in response to the U.S. Supreme Court desegregation decisions in Brown v. Board of Education, secured passage of a pupil placement act designed to maintain segregation.He won statewide office, as lieutenant governor, in 1958.