Evening star., 1951-05-31
Public School Segregation

A three-judge Federal court In Charleston,
South Carolina has taken under advisement q
suit which seeks to do away with segregation
in the public school system at all levels. The
Supreme Court will have to say the last word
on the law OF this subject. Even II the segre-
gated school system survives the challenge how
ever, which is by no means certain, it is per-
fectly evident that there must be changes OF
radical nature in the public schools.
South Carolina, along with other Southern
states and the District operates its schools
under the so-called separate-but- t-equal doctrine
Under this doctrine, approved by the Supreme
Court in 1896, separate school systems for white
and colored may be maintained If the facilities
for both are substantially equal. In South Caro-
lima, as in most of the South, this has been q
legal fiction. The white and colored school sys-
TENS are grossly unequal. The Charleston suit
was begun by parents of colored children IN
Clarendon County. In that county 1873 per cent
of the public school children are colored and
26.7 per cent of the enrolment is white. But
the States own appraisal figures show that the
white school property in the county accounts for
866 per cent Of total value Of .0O0 In other
words. 1913 per cent of all the school children
the Negroes-have school facilities amounting
to only 1874 per cent Of the total in terms Of
dollar value.
: 4ueSG I6GtS arc IUt LII OASpuLC 4AC 1dWyCA
for the school authorities admitted that the
facilities were not equal, his plea being that the
Judges should grant time in which to provide
equal facilities. The State has appropriated $75
million for schools, and 1t is conceivable that,
In time, better Negro schools might be made
available ssEs
The lawyers for the complaining Negroes,
however. are not asking for better, or even for
equal, school facilities. They contend that seq
regation should go, and that the schools should
be opened to all children regardless of color.
What the courts, and in the last analysis,
the Supreme Court, win say about this is any
ones guess. The attorneys for the Negro parents
must have been encouraged, however, by the
Supreme Courts decision last June In the Uni
versity of Texas Law School case. Texas had
made sincere effort to provide substantially
; equal law school for Negroes. But unanimous
Supreme Court, in sweeping opinion by Chief
Justice Vinson, not only held the Negro school
to be unequal, but enumerated series OF tests
Of equality which, for practical purposes, indi-
cate that ID is impossible for any State to pro-
vide separate but equal law school.
Chief Justice Wilson'S decision referred only
to professional and graduate education" In
State-supported institutions which leaves room
for doubt as to what the courts attitude might
So far as the law is concerned, however it is
not easy to see how the court can make any
substantial distinction between professional and
graduate education and the lower public schools
The South Carolina authorities evidently
fear that the court will make no distinction.
For Governor Byrnes has said that the State
might reluctantly" abandon its public schools
If segregation Is eliminated, and the State Legis
lature already has taken preliminary steps to
that end.
This is possible consequence which does
not directly concern the courts, and which has
not received the attention 1t deserves. In this
day and age 1t is difficult to conceive OF State
or a group of States, without any public school
system. But If the legal fight to eliminate segre
cation should be successful 1t is almost certain
that some or all Of the Southern States will
endeavor to escape the consequences by doing
away with their State-supported public schools
And If that should happen the legal victory will
have been won at heavy price, for years to
come, in terms Of adequate educational facili-
ties for Negro children, and perhaps also for
white children.